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"Charles Barkley",
"Olympics",
"When did he enter the Olympics?",
"Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games"
] |
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What did he train for?
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What did Barkley train for?
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Charles Barkley
|
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense. Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules which had previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The result was the "Dream Team", which went 6-0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8-0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single game scoring record with 30 points in a 127-83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. Barkley was also part of an ugly moment in the 1992 Olympics when he intentionally elbowed Angola player Herlander Coimbra in the chest during a 116-48 rout of that team. At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8-0 record and captured gold medal honors. CANNOTANSWER
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Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer
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Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player and current television analyst. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck" and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for three teams. Though shorter than the typical power forward, he used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, an 11-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). During the NBA's 50th anniversary, Barkley was named one of the league's 50 Greatest Players. He was again named to the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History for the league's 75th anniversary.
An All-American power forward at Auburn University, Barkley was drafted as a junior by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 5th pick of the 1984 NBA draft. In his rookie season, Barkley was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1985. In the 1986–87 season, Barkley led the league with the highest rebounding average and earned his first NBA rebounding title. He was named the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1991, and in 1993 with the Phoenix Suns, he was voted the league's MVP. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, winning two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. Since his retirement, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett have joined the 20K/10K/4K Club. Barkley is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2006 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team".
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he spat on a young girl while attempting to spit at a heckler, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Since retiring as a player, Barkley has had a successful career as an NBA analyst. He works for Turner Network Television (TNT) on Inside the NBA alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson as a studio pundit for its coverage of NBA games (for which he has won four Sports Emmy Awards). In addition, Barkley has written several books and has shown an interest in politics.
Early life
Barkley was born and raised in Leeds, Alabama, 10 miles outside Birmingham. He was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school. His parents divorced when he was young after his father abandoned the family, which included younger brother Darryl Barkley. His mother remarried and they had a son, John Glenn. Another brother, Rennie, died in infancy. His stepfather was killed in an accident when Charles was 11 years old.
He attended Leeds High School. As a junior, Barkley stood and weighed . He failed to make the varsity team and was named as a reserve. However, during the summer Barkley grew to and earned a starting position on the varsity as a senior. He averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game and led his team to a 26–3 record en route to the state semi-finals. Despite his improvement, Barkley garnered no attention from college scouts until the state high school semi-finals, where he scored 26 points against Alabama's most highly recruited player, Bobby Lee Hurt. An assistant to Auburn University's head coach, Sonny Smith, was at the game and reported seeing, "a fat guy...who can play like the wind". Barkley was soon recruited by Smith and majored in business management while attending Auburn University.
College
Barkley played collegiate basketball at Auburn for three seasons. Although he struggled to control his weight, he excelled as a player and led the SEC in rebounding each year. He became a popular crowd-pleaser, exciting the fans with dunks and blocked shots that belied his lack of height and overweight frame. It was not uncommon to see the hefty Barkley grab a defensive rebound and, instead of passing, dribble the entire length of the court and finish at the opposite end with a two-handed dunk. His physical size and skills ultimately earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound" and the "Crisco Kid".
During his college career, Barkley played the center position, despite being shorter than the average center. His height, officially listed as , is stated as in his book, I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It. He became a member of Auburn's All-Century team and still holds the Auburn record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. He received numerous awards, including Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year (1984), three All-SEC selections and one Second Team All-American selection. Later, Barkley was named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald.
In Barkley's three-year college career, he averaged 14.1 points on 62.6% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. In 1984, he led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament in school history and finished with 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Auburn retired Barkley's No. 34 jersey on March 3, 2001.
He was one of 74 college players invited to the spring tryouts for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, coached by Bob Knight. Barkley made the initial cut in April to the final twenty, but was one of four released in May (with John Stockton, Terry Porter, and Maurice Martin) in the penultimate cut to sixteen players.
In 2010, Barkley admitted that he asked for, and had been given, money from sports agents during his career at Auburn. Barkley called the sums he had requested from agents as being "chump change", and went on to say, "Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?" According to Barkley, he paid back all of the money he had borrowed after signing his first NBA contract.
NBA career
Philadelphia 76ers (1984–1992)
Barkley left before his final year at Auburn and made himself eligible for the 1984 NBA draft. He was selected with the fifth pick in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers, two slots after the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. He joined a veteran team that included Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks, players who took Philadelphia to the 1983 NBA championship. Under the tutelage of Malone, Barkley was able to manage his weight and learned to prepare and condition himself properly for a game; Barkley cited Malone as the most influential player of his career, and he often referred to him as "Dad". He averaged 14.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the regular season and earned a berth on the All-Rookie Team. In the postseason, the Sixers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals but were defeated in five games by the Boston Celtics. As a rookie in the postseason, Barkley averaged 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.
During his second year, Barkley improved his game under the leadership of Moses Malone during the off-season with his workouts, in the process he became the team's leading rebounder and number two scorer, averaging 20.0 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. He became the Sixers' starting power forward and helped lead his team into the playoffs, averaging 25.0 points on .578 shooting from the field and 15.8 rebounds per game. Despite his efforts, Philadelphia was defeated 4–3 by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team.
Before the 1986–87 season, Moses Malone was traded to the Washington Bullets and Barkley began to assume control as the team leader. On November 4, 1986, Barkley recorded 34 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 14 assists in a 121–125 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 20, 1987, Barkley recorded 26 points, 25 rebounds (career-high tying 16 offensive rebounds) and 9 assists in a 116–106 win over the Denver Nuggets. He earned his first and only rebounding title, averaging 14.6 rebounds per game and also led the league in offensive rebounds with 5.7 per game. He averaged 23.0 points on .594 shooting, earning his first trip to an NBA All-Star game and All-NBA Second Team honors for the second straight season. In the playoffs, Barkley averaged 24.6 points and 12.6 rebounds in a losing effort, for the second straight year, to the Bucks in a five-game first round playoff series.
The following season, Julius Erving announced his retirement and Barkley became the Sixers' franchise player. On November 30, 1988, Barkley recorded 41 points, 22 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals in a 114–106 win over the Blazers. Playing in 80 games and getting 300 more minutes than his nearest teammate, Barkley had his most productive season, averaging 28.3 points on .587 shooting and 11.9 rebounds per game. He appeared in his second All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. His celebrity status as the Sixers' franchise player led to his first appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated. For the first time since the 1974–75 season, however, the 76ers failed to make the playoffs. In the 1988–89 season, Barkley continued to play well, averaging 25.8 points on .579 shooting and 12.5 rebounds per game. He earned his third straight All-Star Game appearance and was named to the All-NBA First team for the second straight season. Despite Barkley contributing 27.0 points on .644 shooting, 11.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, the 76ers were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Knicks.
During the 1989–90 season, despite receiving more first-place votes, Barkley finished second in MVP voting behind the Los Angeles Lakers' Magic Johnson. He was named Player of the Year by The Sporting News and Basketball Weekly. He averaged 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and a career-high .600 shooting. He was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year and earned his fourth All-Star selection. He helped Philadelphia win 53 regular-season games, only to lose to the Chicago Bulls in a five-game Eastern Conference Semi-finals series. Barkley averaged 24.7 points and 15.5 rebounds in another postseason loss. His exceptional play continued into his seventh season, where he averaged 27.6 points on .570 shooting and 10.1 rebounds per game. His fifth straight All-Star Game appearance proved to be his best yet. He led the East to a 116–114 win over the West with 17 points and 22 rebounds, the most rebounds in an All-Star Game since Wilt Chamberlain recorded 22 in 1967. Barkley was presented with Most Valuable Player honors at the All-Star Game and, at the end of the season, named to the All-NBA First Team for the fourth straight year. That year, when the New York Times asked the San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson if he would choose Barkley or Jordan for his side in a hypothetical pickup game, Robinson said, "I would pick Barkley. When he is on his game, I think he has the biggest impact ever." In the playoffs, Philadelphia lost again to Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, with Barkley contributing 24.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
The 1991–92 season was Barkley's final year in Philadelphia. In his last season, he wore number 32 instead of his 34 to honor Magic Johnson, who had announced prior to the start of the season that he was HIV-positive. Although the 76ers had initially retired the number 32 in honor of Billy Cunningham, it was unretired, with Cunningham's approval, for Barkley to wear. Following Johnson's announcement, Barkley also apologized for having made light of his condition. Responding to concerns that players may contract HIV by contact with Johnson, Barkley stated, "We're just playing basketball. It's not like we're going out to have unprotected sex with Magic."
In his final season with the Sixers, averaging 23.1 points on .552 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, Barkley earned his sixth straight All-Star appearance and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, his seventh straight appearance on either the first or second team. He ended his 76ers career ranked fourth in team history in total points (14,184), third in scoring average (23.3 ppg), third in rebounds (7,079), eighth in assists (2,276) and second in field-goal percentage (.576). He led Philadelphia in rebounding and field-goal percentage for seven consecutive seasons and in scoring for six straight years. However, Barkley demanded a trade out of Philadelphia after the Sixers failed to make the postseason with a 35–47 record. Barkley was initially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before the end of the season, but the 76ers wound up retracting their deal a few hours later. On July 17, 1992, he was officially traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
During Barkley's eight seasons in Philadelphia, he became a household name and was one of the few NBA players to have an action figure produced by Kenner's Starting Lineup toy line. He also had his own signature shoe line with Nike. His outspoken and aggressive play, however, resulted in some on-court incidents, notoriously a fight with Detroit Pistons center Bill Laimbeer in 1990, which drew a record total $162,500 fine.
Spitting incident
On March 26, 1991, during a game versus the New Jersey Nets, Barkley attempted to spit on a fan who was allegedly heckling with racial slurs, but the result was his spit hitting a young girl. Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of operations at the time, suspended Barkley, without pay, for one game and fined him $10,000 for spitting and verbally abusing the fan. It became a national story and Barkley was vilified for it. Barkley, however, eventually developed a friendship with the girl and her family. He apologized and, among other things, provided them tickets to future games.
Upon retirement, Barkley was later quoted as stating, in regard to his career, "I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."
Phoenix Suns (1992–1996)
The trade to Phoenix in the 1992–93 season went well for both Barkley and the Suns. In his first game with the Suns, Barkley almost recorded a triple-double after racking up 37 points, 21 rebounds (12 of which were offensive rebounds) and 8 assists in a 111–105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 25.6 points on .520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a career high 5.1 assists per game, leading the Suns to an NBA best 62–20 record. For his efforts, Barkley won the league's Most Valuable Player Award, and was selected to play in his seventh straight All-Star Game. He became the third player ever to win league MVP honors in the season immediately after being traded, established multiple career highs and led Phoenix to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976. Despite Barkley's proclamation to Jordan, that it was "destiny" for the Suns to win the title, they were defeated in six games by the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 26.6 points and 13.6 rebounds per game during the whole postseason, including 27.3 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game throughout the championship series. In the fourth game of the Finals, Barkley recorded a triple-double after collecting 32 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
As a result of severe back pains, Barkley began to speculate that the 1993–94 season would be his last in Phoenix. Playing through the worst injury problems of his career, Barkley managed 21.6 points on .495 shooting and 11.2 rebounds per game. He was selected to his eighth consecutive All-Star Game, but did not play because of a torn right quadriceps tendon, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. With Barkley fighting injuries, the Suns still managed a 56–26 record and made it to the Western Conference Semi-finals. Despite holding a 2–0 lead in the series, the Suns lost in seven games to the eventual champions, the Houston Rockets, who were led by Hakeem Olajuwon. Despite his injuries, in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, Barkley hit 23 of 31 field-goal attempts and finished with 56 points, the then-third-highest total ever in a playoff game. After contemplating retirement in the off-season, Barkley returned for his eleventh season and continued to battle injuries. He struggled during the first half of the season, but managed to gradually improve, earning his ninth consecutive appearance in the All-Star Game. He averaged 23 points on .486 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, while leading the Suns to a 59–23 record. In the playoffs, despite having a 3–1 lead in the series, the Suns once again lost to the defending and eventual two-time champion Houston Rockets in seven games. Barkley averaged 25.7 points on .500 shooting and 13.4 rebounds per game in the postseason, but was limited in Game 7 of the semi-finals by a leg injury.
The 1995–96 season was Barkley's last with the Phoenix Suns. He led the team in scoring, rebounds and steals, averaging 23.3 points on .500 shooting, 11.6 rebounds and a career high .777 free throw shooting. He earned his tenth appearance in an All-Star Game as the top vote-getter among Western Conference players and posted his 18th career triple-double on November 22. He also became just the tenth player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in their career. In the postseason, Barkley averaged 25.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in a four-game first round playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs. After the Suns closed out the season with a 41–41 record and a first-round playoff loss, Barkley was traded to Houston in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown.
During his career with the Suns, Barkley excelled, earning All-NBA and All-Star honors in each of his four seasons.
Role model controversy
Throughout his career, Barkley argued that athletes should not be considered role models. He stated, "A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models?" In 1993, his argument prompted national news when he wrote the text for his "I am not a role model" Nike commercial. Dan Quayle, the former Vice President of the United States, called it a "family-values message" for Barkley's oft-ignored call for parents and teachers to quit looking to him to "raise your kids" and instead be role models themselves.
Barkley's message sparked a great public debate about the nature of role models. He argued: I think the media demands that athletes be role models because there's some jealousy involved. It's as if they say, this is a young black kid playing a game for a living and making all this money, so we're going to make it tough on him. And what they're really doing is telling kids to look up to someone they can't become, because not many people can be like we are. Kids can't be like Michael Jordan.
Houston Rockets (1996–2000)
The trade to the Houston Rockets in the 1996–97 season was Barkley's last chance at capturing an NBA championship title. He joined a veteran team that included two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. To begin the season, Barkley was suspended for the season opener and fined $5,000 for fighting Charles Oakley during an October 25, 1996 preseason game. After Oakley committed a flagrant foul on Barkley, Barkley responded by shoving Oakley. In his first game with the Houston Rockets, Charles Barkley had a career-high 33 rebounds. He continued to battle injuries throughout the season and played only 53 games, missing 14 because of a laceration and bruise on his left pelvis, 11 because of a sprained right ankle, and four due to suspensions. He became the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 19.2 points on .484 shooting; the first time since his rookie year that he averaged below 20 points per game. With Olajuwon taking most of the shots, Barkley focused primarily on rebounding, averaging 13.5 per game, the second-best in his career. The Rockets ended the regular season with a 57–25 record and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Utah Jazz. Barkley averaged 17.9 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in another postseason loss.
The 1997–98 season was another injury-plagued year for Barkley. He averaged 15.2 points on .485 shooting and 11.7 rebounds per game. The Rockets ended the season with a 41–41 record and were eliminated in five games by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Limited by injuries, Barkley played four games in the series and averaged career lows of 9.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. During the lockout-shortened season, Barkley played 42 regular-season games and managed 16.1 points on .478 shooting and 12.3 rebounds per game. He became the second player in NBA history, following Wilt Chamberlain, to accumulate 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in his career. The Rockets concluded the shortened season with a 31–19 record and advanced to the playoffs. In his last postseason appearance, Barkley averaged 23.5 points on .529 shooting and 13.8 rebounds per game in a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He concluded his postseason career averaging 23 points on .513 shooting, 12.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 123 games.
The 1999–2000 season was Barkley's final year in the NBA. Initially, Barkley averaged 14.5 points on .477 shooting and 10.5 rebounds per game. Along with Shaquille O'Neal, Barkley was ejected from a November 10, 1999 game against the Los Angeles Lakers. After O'Neal blocked a layup by Barkley, O'Neal shoved Barkley, who then threw the ball at O'Neal. Barkley's season and career seemingly ended prematurely at the age of 36 after rupturing his left quadriceps tendon on December 8, 1999, in Philadelphia, where his career began. Refusing to allow his injury to be the last image of his career, Barkley returned after four months for one final game. On April 19, 2000, in a home game against the Vancouver Grizzlies, Barkley scored a memorable basket on an offensive rebound and putback, a common trademark during his career. He accomplished what he set out to do after being activated from the injured list, and walked off the court to a standing ovation. He stated, "I can't explain what tonight meant. I did it for me. I've won and lost a lot of games, but the last memory I had was being carried off the court. I couldn't get over the mental block of being carried off the court. It was important psychologically to walk off the court on my own." After the basket, Barkley immediately retired and concluded his sixteen-year Hall of Fame career.
Olympics
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but was not selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.
Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules that previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The team was nicknamed the "Dream Team" and went 6–0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8–0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points, only surpassed by the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single-game scoring record with 30 points in a 127–83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. During the game Angola, Barkley elbowed Herlander Coimbra in the chest and was unapologetic after the game, claiming he was hit first. Barkley was called for an intentional foul on the play. Coimbra's resulting free throw was the only point scored by Angola during a 46–1 run by the U.S.
At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8–0 record and captured gold medal.
Player profile
Barkley played the power forward position, but occasionally played small forward and center. He was known for his unusual build as a basketball player, stockier than most small forwards, yet shorter than most power forwards he faced. However, Barkley was still capable of outplaying both taller and quicker opponents because of his unusual combination of strength and agility.
Barkley was a prolific scorer who averaged 22.1 points per game during the regular season for his career and 23.0 points per game in the playoffs for his career. Barkley was an incredibly efficient offensive force, leading the NBA in 2-point field goal percentage every season from the 1986–87 season to the 1990–91 season. He led the league in effective field goal percentage in both the 1986–87 and 1987–88 seasons as well, and also led the league in offensive rating in both the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was one of the NBA's most versatile players and accurate scorers capable of scoring from anywhere on the court and established himself as one of the NBA's premier clutch players. During his NBA career, Barkley was a constant mismatch because he possessed a set of very uncommon skills and could play in a variety of positions. He would use all facets of his game in a single play; as a scorer, he had the ability to score from the perimeter and the post, using an array of spin moves and fadeaways, or finishing a fast break with a powerful dunk. He was one of the most efficient scorers of all-time, scoring at 54.13% total field goal percentage for his season career and 51.34% total field goal shooting for his playoff career (including a career-high season average of 60% during the 1989–90 NBA season).
Barkley is the shortest player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding when he averaged a career-high 14.6 rebounds per game during the 1986–87 season. His tenacious and aggressive form of play built into an undersized frame that fluctuated between and helped cement his legacy as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history, averaging 11.7 rebounds per game in the regular season for his career and 12.9 rebounds per game in his playoff career and totaling 12,546 rebounds for his season career. Barkley topped the NBA in offensive rebounding for three straight years and was most famous among very few power forwards who could control a defensive rebound, dribble the length of the court and finish at the rim with a powerful dunk.
Barkley also possessed considerable defensive talents led by an aggressive demeanor, foot speed and his capacity to read the floor to anticipate for steals, a reason why he established his career as the second All-Time leader in steals for the power forward position and leader of the highest all-time steal per game average for the power forward position. Despite being undersized for both the small forward and power forward positions, he also finished among the all-time leaders in blocked shots. His speed and leaping ability made him one of the few power forwards capable of running down court to block a faster player with a chase-down block.
In a SLAM magazine issue ranking NBA greats, Barkley was ranked among the top 20 players of All-Time. In the magazine, NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton commented on Barkley's ability. Walton stated, "Barkley is like Magic [Johnson] and Larry [Bird] in that they don't really play a position. He plays everything; he plays basketball. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. He's a dominant rebounder, a dominant defensive player, a three-point shooter, a dribbler, a playmaker."
Legacy
During his 16-year NBA career, Barkley was regarded as one of the most controversial, outspoken and dominating players in the history of basketball. His impact on the sport went beyond his rebounding titles, assists, scoring and physical play. His confrontational mannerisms often led to technical fouls and fines on the court, and his larger than life persona sometimes gave rise to national controversy off of it, such as when he was featured in ads that rejected pro athletes as role models and declared, "I am not a role model." Although his words often led to controversy, according to Barkley his mouth was never the cause because it always spoke the truth. He stated, "I don't create controversies. They're there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention."
Besides his on-court fights with other players, he has exhibited confrontational behavior off-court. He was arrested for breaking a man's nose during a fight after a game with the Milwaukee Bucks and also for throwing a man through a plate-glass window in Orlando, after being struck with a glass of ice. Barkley continues to be popular with the fans and media.
As a player, Barkley was a perennial All-Star who earned league MVP honors in 1993. He employed a physical style of play that earned him the nicknames "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound". He was named to the All-NBA team eleven times and earned two gold medals as a member of the United States Olympic Basketball team. He led both teams in scoring and was instrumental in helping the 1992 "Dream Team" and 1996 Men's Basketball team compile a perfect 16–0 record. He retired as one of only four players in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in their career. In 1996, Barkley, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary, was honored as one of the 50 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary Team.
In recognition of his collegiate and NBA achievements, Barkley's number 34 jersey was officially retired by Auburn University on March 3, 2001. In the same month, the Philadelphia 76ers also officially retired Barkley's number 34 jersey. On March 20, 2004, the Phoenix Suns honored Barkley as well by including him in the "Suns Ring of Honor". In recognition of his achievements as a player, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. In October 2021, as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary, Barkley was honored as one of the 75 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1984–85
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 82 || 60 || 28.6 || .545 || .167 || .733 || 8.6 || 1.9 || 1.2 || 1.0 || 14.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985–86
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 36.9 || .572 || .227 || .685 || 12.8 || 3.9 || 2.2 || 1.6 || 20.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986–87
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 68 || 62 || 40.3 || .594 || .202 || .761 || style="background:#cfecec;"|14.6* || 4.9 || 1.8 || 1.5 ||23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987–88
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 39.6 || .587 || .280 || .751 || 11.9 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.3 || 28.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1988–89
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .579 || .216 || .753 || 12.5 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .9 || 25.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989–90
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .600 || .217 || .749 || 11.5 || 3.9 || 1.9 || .6 || 25.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990–91
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 67 || 67 || 37.3 || .570 || .284 || .722 || 10.1 || 4.2 || 1.6 || .5 || 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991–92
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 75 || 75 || 38.4 || .552 || .234 || .695 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.8 || .6 || 23.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1992–93
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 76 || 76 || 37.6 || .520 || .305 || .765 || 12.2 || 5.1 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 25.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993–94
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 65 || 65 || 35.4 || .495 || .270 || .704 || 11.2 || 4.6 || 1.6 || .6 || 21.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994–95
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 68 || 68 || 35.0 || .486 || .338 || .748 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .7 || 23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995–96
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 71 || 71 || 37.1 || .500 || .280 || .777 || 11.6 || 3.7 || 1.6 || .8 || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 53 || 53 || 37.9 || .484 || .283 || .694 || 13.5 || 4.7 || 1.3 || .5 || 19.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997–98
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 68 || 41 || 33.0 || .485 || .214 || .746 || 11.7 || 3.2 || 1.0 || .4 || 15.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998–99
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 42 || 40 || 36.3 || .478 || .160 || .719 || 12.3 || 4.6 || 1.0 || .3 || 16.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999–00
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 20 || 18 || 31.0 || .477 || .231 || .645 || 10.5 || 3.2 || .7 || .2 || 14.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 1,073 || 1,012 || 36.7 || .541 || .266 || .735 || 11.7 || 3.9 || 1.5 || .8 || 22.1
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|All-Star
| 11 || 7 || 23.2 || .495 || .250 || .625 || 6.7 || 1.8 || 1.3 || .4 || 12.6
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 13 || 2 || 31.4 || .540 || .667 || .733 || 11.1 || 2.0 || 1.8 || 1.2 || 14.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 12 || 12 || 41.4 || .578 || .067 || .695 || 15.8|| 5.6 || 2.3 || 1.3 || 25.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 5 || 5 || 42.0 || .573 || .125 || .800|| 12.6 || 2.4 || .8 || 1.6 || 24.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 3 || 3|| 45.0 || .644 || .200 || .710 || 11.7 || 5.3 || 1.7 || .7 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 10 || 10 || 41.9 || .543 || .333 || .602 || 15.5 || 4.3 || .8 || .7 || 24.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 8 || 8 || 40.8 || .592 || .100 || .653 || 10.5 || 6.0|| 1.9|| .4 || 24.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 24 || 24|| 42.8 || .477 || .222 || .771 || 13.6 || 4.3 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 26.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 42.5 || .509 || .350 || .764 || 13.0 || 4.8 || 2.5 || .9|| 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 39.0 || .500 || .257 || .733 || 13.4 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.1 || 25.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 4 || 4 || 41.0 || .443 || .250 || .787 || 13.5 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 1.0 || 25.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 16 || 16 || 37.8 || .434 || .289 || .769 || 12.0 || 3.4 || 1.2 || .4 || 17.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 0 || 21.8 || .522 || .000 || .571 || 5.3 || 1.0 || 1.3 || .0 || 9.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 4 || 39.3 || .529 || .286 || .667 || 13.8 || 3.8 || 1.5 || .5 || 23.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 123 || 108 || 39.4 || .513 || .255 || .717 || 12.9 || 3.9 || 1.6 || .9 || 23.0
NBA records
Regular season
Most offensive rebounds in a half: 13, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, March 4, 1987
Most offensive rebounds in a quarter: 11, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks,
Tied with Larry Smith (Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets, )
Smallest Player to lead the league in rebounds: at 6’6
Playoffs
Most free throws made in a half: 19, Phoenix Suns vs. Seattle SuperSonics,
Most free throw attempts in a 7-game series: 100, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
Most turnovers in a 7-game series: 37, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
As of 2021, he has the 12th highest PER in NBA history.
Post-basketball life
Television analyst
Since 2000, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). He appears on the network's NBA coverage during pre-game and halftime shows, in addition to special NBA events. He also occasionally works as an onsite game analyst. He is part of the crew on Inside the NBA, a post-game show during which Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal recap and comment on NBA games that have occurred during the day and also on general NBA affairs. Barkley has won four Sports Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" for his work on TNT.
During the broadcast of a game, in which Barkley was courtside with Marv Albert, Barkley poked fun at NBA official Dick Bavetta's age. Albert replied to Barkley, "I believe Dick would beat you in a footrace." In response to that remark, Barkley went on to challenge Bavetta to a race at the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend for $5,000. The winner was to choose a charity to which the money would be donated. The NBA agreed to pitch in an additional $50,000, and TNT threw in $25,000. The pair raced for three and a half lengths of the basketball court until Barkley ultimately won. After the event, the two kissed in a show of good sportsmanship.
Barkley was also known for being the first-ever celebrity guest picker for College GameDay, in 2004.
Additionally, since 2011, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for the joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament between Turner Sports and CBS. Barkley has broadcast every Final Four since 2011.
He also served as a guest commentator for NBC's coverage of the NFL Wild Card playoffs on January 7, 2012; the same night he hosted Saturday Night Live, which is taped next door to the Football Night in America studio in Manhattan's GE Building.
Barkley announced in November 2012 that he was contemplating retirement from broadcasting. "[N]ow I'm like, 'Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract, it will be 17 years.' Seventeen years is a long time. It's a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me", he said. After repeating that he planned to retire in 2016, he signed another contract with Turner Sports. He later said that he wants to retire when he is 60 in 2023.
In July 2016, it was announced that Barkley will host a six-episode unscripted show called The Race Card. The show was renamed to American Race, and premiered on TNT on May 11, 2017.
Gambling
Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In a 2007 interview with ESPN's Trey Wingo, Barkley revealed that he had lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million "in a six-hour period" while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, "It's not a problem. If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."
Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, "No matter how much I win, it ain't a lot. It's only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it's fun, I think it's exciting. I'm gonna continue to do it, but I have to get to a point where I don't try to break the casino 'cause you never can."
In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promptly paid the casino. After repaying his debt, Barkley stated during a pregame show on TNT, "I've got to stop gambling...I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble... Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it."
Golf
Barkley began playing golf during his NBA career, later staying with the sport as it was a way to remain in competition after his basketball career ended. He is a regular competitor at the American Century Championship pro-am tournament, regularly finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard. He is widely regarded as a poor golfer with a particularly bad swing; he later underwent training to improve his swing, which led to an improved performance in the 2021 American Century Championship.
Barkley participated in Champions for Change, the third iteration of The Match. As part of a team with Phil Mickelson, Barkley pulled off a major upset defeating Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry by a score of 4–3.
Politics
Barkley spoke for many years of his Republican Party affiliation. In 1995, he considered running as a Republican candidate for Alabama's governorship in the 1998 election. However, in 2006, he altered his political stance, stating "I was a Republican until they lost their minds." At a July 2006 meeting of the Southern Regional Conference of the National School Boards Association in Destin, Florida, Barkley lent credence to the idea of running for Governor of Alabama, stating: I'm serious. I've got to get people to realize that the government is full of it. Republicans and Democrats want to argue over stuff that's not important, like gay marriage or the war in Iraq or illegal immigration... When I run—if I run—we're going to talk about real issues like improving our schools, cleaning up our neighborhoods of drugs and crime and making Alabama a better place for all people.
In September 2006, Barkley once again reiterated his desire to run for governor. He noted, "I can't run until 2014 ... I have to live there for seven years, so I'm looking for a house there as we speak." In July 2007, he made a video declaring his support for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. In September 2007, during a broadcast on Monday Night Football, Barkley announced that he bought a house in Alabama to satisfy residency requirements for a 2014 campaign for governor. In addition, Barkley declared himself an Independent and not a Democrat as previously reported. "The Republicans are full of it", Barkley said, "The Democrats are a little less full of it."
In February 2008, Barkley announced that he would be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014 as an Independent. On October 27, 2008, he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in an interview with CNN, stating that he planned to run in the 2014 election cycle, but he began to back off the idea in a November 24, 2009 interview on The Jay Leno Show. In 2010, he confirmed that he was not running in 2014. In August 2015, Barkley announced his support for Republican John Kasich in the 2016 presidential election. On Lance Armstrong's podcast in 2019, he confirmed that he would not be running for office.
Barkley is an outspoken supporter of gay rights. In 2006, he told Fox Sports: "I'm a big advocate of gay marriage. If they want to get married, God bless them." Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN two years later, he said: "Every time I hear the word 'conservative,' it makes me sick to my stomach, because they're really just fake Christians, as I call them. That's all they are. ... I think they want to be judge and jury. Like, I'm for gay marriage. It's none of my business if gay people want to get married. I'm pro-choice. And I think these Christians, first of all, they're not supposed to judge other people. But they're the most hypocritical judge of people we have in the country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they're Christians. They're not forgiving at all." During a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day double-header on TNT, Barkley responded to a statement made by Dr. King's daughter Bernice, by saying, "People try to make it about black and white. [But] he talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now, people discriminating against homosexuality in this country. I love the homosexuality people. God bless the gay people. They are great people."
Commenting on the Ferguson unrest, Barkley called the Ferguson looters "scumbags", praised the police officers who work in black neighborhoods, and said that he supports the decision made by the grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting. Previously, in 2013, Barkley expressed his agreement with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting.
In 2014, when Barkley was asked about the rumor that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was being accused for not being "black enough" on the radio show Afternoons with Anthony and Rob Ellis, he said:
Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out. One of the reasons we're never going to be successful as a whole, because of other black people. And for some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person. And it's a dirty, dark secret. There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success. It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful... We're the only ethnic group who say, 'Hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' It's just typical BS that goes on when you're black, man.
Barkley has also been known as a critic of President Donald Trump from as early as his Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Before Trump won the Republican primaries that year, Barkley stated his disgust towards the words and messages that Trump was promoting throughout the presidential race. In September 2017, when President Trump called out former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for his kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem during the 2016 NFL season, Barkley expressed his complete disappointment in President Trump (however, Barkley has stated that he does not support athletes kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest). In December 2017, Barkley mocked President Trump's tax bill, stating "Thank you Republicans, I knew I could always count on y’all to take care of us rich people, us one percenters. Sorry, poor people. I’m hoping for y’all, but y’all ain’t got no chance."
In his response to the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments as highlighted by the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barkley stated:
Barkley supported Democrat Doug Jones in the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama. During Alabama's Senate election, Barkley noted that Jones' competitor, Roy Moore, was a complete embarrassment to the state.
In an interview with Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast, Barkley said if he ruled the world for one day, he would get rid of both Republicans and Democrats because "They're both awful", adding: “They fight all of the time like little kids."
Books
In 1991, Barkley and sportswriter Roy S. Johnson collaborated on the autobiographical work Outrageous. Editorial choices made by Johnson in the book led to Barkley famously quipping that he had been misquoted in his own autobiography. In 2000, Barkley wrote the foreword for Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly's book The Life of Reilly. In it, Barkley quipped, "Of all the people in sports I'd like to throw through a plate glass window, Reilly's not one of them. It's a shame though, skinny white boys look real aerodynamic." In 2002, Barkley released the book I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It, which included editing and commentary by close friend Michael Wilbon. Three years later, Barkley released Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?, which is a collection of interviews with leading figures in entertainment, business, sports, and government. Michael Wilbon also contributed to this book and was present at many of the interviews.
Acting
He played himself in the 1996 film Space Jam. He made a brief appearance in the TV series Suits, in episode 3 of the fifth season. He also appeared in the eighth season of Modern Family. He also voices animated versions of himself in Clerks: The Animated Series and We Bare Bears. In 2019, he appeared in "The Piña Colada Song" episode of The Goldbergs as a gym teacher and alien conspiracy theorist briefly trained as a prospective replacement for the departing Coach Mellor. Barkley hosted Saturday Night Live on four separate occasions between 1993 and 2018.
DUI conviction
On December 31, 2008, Barkley was pulled over in Scottsdale, Arizona for running a stop sign. The officer smelled alcohol on Barkley's breath and proceeded to administer field sobriety tests, which he failed. He was arrested on drunk driving charges and had his vehicle impounded. Barkley refused to submit a breath test and was given a blood test. He was then cited and released. Gilbert police noted Barkley was cooperative and respectful during the entire incident, adding that he was treated no differently than anyone arrested on DUI charges. The police report of the incident stated that Barkley told the police he was in a hurry to receive oral sex from his female passenger when he ran through a stop sign early Wednesday. Test results released by the police showed that Barkley had a blood-alcohol level at .149, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in Arizona. Two months after his arrest, Barkley pleaded guilty to two DUI-related counts and one count of running a red light. He was sentenced to ten days in jail and fined $2,000. The sentence was later reduced to three days after Barkley entered an alcohol treatment program.
As part of the fallout of his arrest, Barkley took a two-month hiatus from his commentating duties for TNT. During his absence, T-Mobile elected not to air previously scheduled ads that featured Barkley, stating, "Given the recent developments, for the time being, we've replaced TV ads featuring Mr. Barkley with more general-market advertising." On February 19, 2009, Barkley returned to TNT and spent the first segment of the NBA pregame show discussing the incident and his experiences. Shortly after his return, T-Mobile once again began airing ads featuring Barkley.
WeightWatchers
In 2011, Barkley became a spokesman for WeightWatchers, promoting their "Lose Like a Man" program and appearing in both television and online ads.
Video games
Barkley has been featured in several video games. Barkley Shut Up and Jam! is a basketball video game which was developed by Accolade. It was released for the Super NES and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994, and was followed up by a sequel for only the Genesis in 1995. An unofficial sequel to the initial game called Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden was developed and published in 2008. The game was developed by Tales of Game's Studios and was a departure from the first game in that the game was a traditional style JRPG.
Barkley features in EA Sports starting with Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs in 1991, but by the late 1990s did not appear due to licensing reasons. Barkley was added to the Houston Rockets team in the game Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside.
Barkley was featured in NBA 2K13 as part of the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team". Barkley also had the same role in NBA 2K17.
The NBA2K series includes the TNT team of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith providing each match with pre-match analysis; however, Barkley opts not to join his fellow team members in protest at the 2K series not paying the NBPA any residuals. This boycott also means Barkley is not included in the game as a legendary player as part of any All-Time team.
Personal life
Barkley married Maureen Blumhardt in 1989, and in the same year, the couple had a daughter named Christiana.
Barkley's daughter was named after the Christiana Mall in Delaware. In a 2021 podcast, he explained, "...I just liked the mall." A DNA test read by George Lopez on Lopez Tonight revealed Barkley to be of 14% Native American, 11% European, and 75% African descent.
See also
List of members of the Basketball Hall of Fame
List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career turnovers leaders
List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career minutes played leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual rebounding leaders
Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley
Space Jam
Gnarls Barkley
References
Bibliography
External links
Charles Barkley: NBA.com Historical Biography
Charles Barkley article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
1963 births
Living people
Activists from Alabama
African-American activists
African-American basketball players
African-American sports journalists
African-American television personalities
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
American sports journalists
American sportspeople convicted of crimes
Auburn Tigers men's basketball players
Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball players from Birmingham, Alabama
College basketball announcers in the United States
Houston Rockets players
Journalists from Alabama
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball
People from Leeds, Alabama
Philadelphia 76ers draft picks
Philadelphia 76ers players
Phoenix Suns players
Power forwards (basketball)
Small forwards
United States men's national basketball team players
| true |
[
"What I Did for Love may refer to:\n\n \"What I Did for Love\" (A Chorus Line), a song from the musical A Chorus Line\n \"What I Did for Love\" (David Guetta song), 2015\n \"What I Did for Love\", a song and single by Kenny Rogers from Love Is Strange 1990",
"701 Franklin Ave. is the third solo studio album by James D-Train Williams, known also as part of the American urban/post-disco group D-Train. \nThe record was released in 2009 through Jungshin Inc. It is D-Train's first studio album in more than 20 years.\n\nBackground\nJames D-Train Williams first had an idea for a third solo studio album back in 2001; when he founded his own music label Jungshin Inc. He had originally intended for it to be released sometime between 2005 and 2006. While performing at Paris in 2003, D-Train did a special live version of his 1982 hit \"Keep On\", which would later be a bonus track on the album.\n\nIn 2006 he release the first single from album titled \"Ride With Me\". 701 Franklin Ave. was released in 2009. The album was completely produced and arranged by himself. The album contains 14 tracks, one of them being a third version of the \"D-Train Theme\" which he originally recorded while working with Hubert Eaves in 1982.\n\nD-Train's fourth studio album was stated for release in 2015, supposedly it was going to contain some of the recent collaborations with music mixer Lenny Fontana.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nDiscogs\n[ Allmusic]\n\n2009 albums\nD Train (entertainer) albums"
] |
[
"Charles Barkley",
"Olympics",
"When did he enter the Olympics?",
"Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games",
"What did he train for?",
"Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer"
] |
C_29d9d527735c4372af7e4800b812f4d4_0
|
How was the tryout?
| 3 |
How was the tryout for the US Men's Basketball team?
|
Charles Barkley
|
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense. Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules which had previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The result was the "Dream Team", which went 6-0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8-0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single game scoring record with 30 points in a 127-83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. Barkley was also part of an ugly moment in the 1992 Olympics when he intentionally elbowed Angola player Herlander Coimbra in the chest during a 116-48 rout of that team. At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8-0 record and captured gold medal honors. CANNOTANSWER
|
He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team,
|
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player and current television analyst. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck" and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for three teams. Though shorter than the typical power forward, he used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, an 11-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). During the NBA's 50th anniversary, Barkley was named one of the league's 50 Greatest Players. He was again named to the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History for the league's 75th anniversary.
An All-American power forward at Auburn University, Barkley was drafted as a junior by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 5th pick of the 1984 NBA draft. In his rookie season, Barkley was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1985. In the 1986–87 season, Barkley led the league with the highest rebounding average and earned his first NBA rebounding title. He was named the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1991, and in 1993 with the Phoenix Suns, he was voted the league's MVP. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, winning two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. Since his retirement, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett have joined the 20K/10K/4K Club. Barkley is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2006 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team".
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he spat on a young girl while attempting to spit at a heckler, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Since retiring as a player, Barkley has had a successful career as an NBA analyst. He works for Turner Network Television (TNT) on Inside the NBA alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson as a studio pundit for its coverage of NBA games (for which he has won four Sports Emmy Awards). In addition, Barkley has written several books and has shown an interest in politics.
Early life
Barkley was born and raised in Leeds, Alabama, 10 miles outside Birmingham. He was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school. His parents divorced when he was young after his father abandoned the family, which included younger brother Darryl Barkley. His mother remarried and they had a son, John Glenn. Another brother, Rennie, died in infancy. His stepfather was killed in an accident when Charles was 11 years old.
He attended Leeds High School. As a junior, Barkley stood and weighed . He failed to make the varsity team and was named as a reserve. However, during the summer Barkley grew to and earned a starting position on the varsity as a senior. He averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game and led his team to a 26–3 record en route to the state semi-finals. Despite his improvement, Barkley garnered no attention from college scouts until the state high school semi-finals, where he scored 26 points against Alabama's most highly recruited player, Bobby Lee Hurt. An assistant to Auburn University's head coach, Sonny Smith, was at the game and reported seeing, "a fat guy...who can play like the wind". Barkley was soon recruited by Smith and majored in business management while attending Auburn University.
College
Barkley played collegiate basketball at Auburn for three seasons. Although he struggled to control his weight, he excelled as a player and led the SEC in rebounding each year. He became a popular crowd-pleaser, exciting the fans with dunks and blocked shots that belied his lack of height and overweight frame. It was not uncommon to see the hefty Barkley grab a defensive rebound and, instead of passing, dribble the entire length of the court and finish at the opposite end with a two-handed dunk. His physical size and skills ultimately earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound" and the "Crisco Kid".
During his college career, Barkley played the center position, despite being shorter than the average center. His height, officially listed as , is stated as in his book, I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It. He became a member of Auburn's All-Century team and still holds the Auburn record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. He received numerous awards, including Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year (1984), three All-SEC selections and one Second Team All-American selection. Later, Barkley was named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald.
In Barkley's three-year college career, he averaged 14.1 points on 62.6% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. In 1984, he led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament in school history and finished with 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Auburn retired Barkley's No. 34 jersey on March 3, 2001.
He was one of 74 college players invited to the spring tryouts for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, coached by Bob Knight. Barkley made the initial cut in April to the final twenty, but was one of four released in May (with John Stockton, Terry Porter, and Maurice Martin) in the penultimate cut to sixteen players.
In 2010, Barkley admitted that he asked for, and had been given, money from sports agents during his career at Auburn. Barkley called the sums he had requested from agents as being "chump change", and went on to say, "Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?" According to Barkley, he paid back all of the money he had borrowed after signing his first NBA contract.
NBA career
Philadelphia 76ers (1984–1992)
Barkley left before his final year at Auburn and made himself eligible for the 1984 NBA draft. He was selected with the fifth pick in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers, two slots after the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. He joined a veteran team that included Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks, players who took Philadelphia to the 1983 NBA championship. Under the tutelage of Malone, Barkley was able to manage his weight and learned to prepare and condition himself properly for a game; Barkley cited Malone as the most influential player of his career, and he often referred to him as "Dad". He averaged 14.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the regular season and earned a berth on the All-Rookie Team. In the postseason, the Sixers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals but were defeated in five games by the Boston Celtics. As a rookie in the postseason, Barkley averaged 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.
During his second year, Barkley improved his game under the leadership of Moses Malone during the off-season with his workouts, in the process he became the team's leading rebounder and number two scorer, averaging 20.0 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. He became the Sixers' starting power forward and helped lead his team into the playoffs, averaging 25.0 points on .578 shooting from the field and 15.8 rebounds per game. Despite his efforts, Philadelphia was defeated 4–3 by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team.
Before the 1986–87 season, Moses Malone was traded to the Washington Bullets and Barkley began to assume control as the team leader. On November 4, 1986, Barkley recorded 34 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 14 assists in a 121–125 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 20, 1987, Barkley recorded 26 points, 25 rebounds (career-high tying 16 offensive rebounds) and 9 assists in a 116–106 win over the Denver Nuggets. He earned his first and only rebounding title, averaging 14.6 rebounds per game and also led the league in offensive rebounds with 5.7 per game. He averaged 23.0 points on .594 shooting, earning his first trip to an NBA All-Star game and All-NBA Second Team honors for the second straight season. In the playoffs, Barkley averaged 24.6 points and 12.6 rebounds in a losing effort, for the second straight year, to the Bucks in a five-game first round playoff series.
The following season, Julius Erving announced his retirement and Barkley became the Sixers' franchise player. On November 30, 1988, Barkley recorded 41 points, 22 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals in a 114–106 win over the Blazers. Playing in 80 games and getting 300 more minutes than his nearest teammate, Barkley had his most productive season, averaging 28.3 points on .587 shooting and 11.9 rebounds per game. He appeared in his second All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. His celebrity status as the Sixers' franchise player led to his first appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated. For the first time since the 1974–75 season, however, the 76ers failed to make the playoffs. In the 1988–89 season, Barkley continued to play well, averaging 25.8 points on .579 shooting and 12.5 rebounds per game. He earned his third straight All-Star Game appearance and was named to the All-NBA First team for the second straight season. Despite Barkley contributing 27.0 points on .644 shooting, 11.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, the 76ers were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Knicks.
During the 1989–90 season, despite receiving more first-place votes, Barkley finished second in MVP voting behind the Los Angeles Lakers' Magic Johnson. He was named Player of the Year by The Sporting News and Basketball Weekly. He averaged 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and a career-high .600 shooting. He was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year and earned his fourth All-Star selection. He helped Philadelphia win 53 regular-season games, only to lose to the Chicago Bulls in a five-game Eastern Conference Semi-finals series. Barkley averaged 24.7 points and 15.5 rebounds in another postseason loss. His exceptional play continued into his seventh season, where he averaged 27.6 points on .570 shooting and 10.1 rebounds per game. His fifth straight All-Star Game appearance proved to be his best yet. He led the East to a 116–114 win over the West with 17 points and 22 rebounds, the most rebounds in an All-Star Game since Wilt Chamberlain recorded 22 in 1967. Barkley was presented with Most Valuable Player honors at the All-Star Game and, at the end of the season, named to the All-NBA First Team for the fourth straight year. That year, when the New York Times asked the San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson if he would choose Barkley or Jordan for his side in a hypothetical pickup game, Robinson said, "I would pick Barkley. When he is on his game, I think he has the biggest impact ever." In the playoffs, Philadelphia lost again to Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, with Barkley contributing 24.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
The 1991–92 season was Barkley's final year in Philadelphia. In his last season, he wore number 32 instead of his 34 to honor Magic Johnson, who had announced prior to the start of the season that he was HIV-positive. Although the 76ers had initially retired the number 32 in honor of Billy Cunningham, it was unretired, with Cunningham's approval, for Barkley to wear. Following Johnson's announcement, Barkley also apologized for having made light of his condition. Responding to concerns that players may contract HIV by contact with Johnson, Barkley stated, "We're just playing basketball. It's not like we're going out to have unprotected sex with Magic."
In his final season with the Sixers, averaging 23.1 points on .552 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, Barkley earned his sixth straight All-Star appearance and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, his seventh straight appearance on either the first or second team. He ended his 76ers career ranked fourth in team history in total points (14,184), third in scoring average (23.3 ppg), third in rebounds (7,079), eighth in assists (2,276) and second in field-goal percentage (.576). He led Philadelphia in rebounding and field-goal percentage for seven consecutive seasons and in scoring for six straight years. However, Barkley demanded a trade out of Philadelphia after the Sixers failed to make the postseason with a 35–47 record. Barkley was initially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before the end of the season, but the 76ers wound up retracting their deal a few hours later. On July 17, 1992, he was officially traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
During Barkley's eight seasons in Philadelphia, he became a household name and was one of the few NBA players to have an action figure produced by Kenner's Starting Lineup toy line. He also had his own signature shoe line with Nike. His outspoken and aggressive play, however, resulted in some on-court incidents, notoriously a fight with Detroit Pistons center Bill Laimbeer in 1990, which drew a record total $162,500 fine.
Spitting incident
On March 26, 1991, during a game versus the New Jersey Nets, Barkley attempted to spit on a fan who was allegedly heckling with racial slurs, but the result was his spit hitting a young girl. Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of operations at the time, suspended Barkley, without pay, for one game and fined him $10,000 for spitting and verbally abusing the fan. It became a national story and Barkley was vilified for it. Barkley, however, eventually developed a friendship with the girl and her family. He apologized and, among other things, provided them tickets to future games.
Upon retirement, Barkley was later quoted as stating, in regard to his career, "I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."
Phoenix Suns (1992–1996)
The trade to Phoenix in the 1992–93 season went well for both Barkley and the Suns. In his first game with the Suns, Barkley almost recorded a triple-double after racking up 37 points, 21 rebounds (12 of which were offensive rebounds) and 8 assists in a 111–105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 25.6 points on .520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a career high 5.1 assists per game, leading the Suns to an NBA best 62–20 record. For his efforts, Barkley won the league's Most Valuable Player Award, and was selected to play in his seventh straight All-Star Game. He became the third player ever to win league MVP honors in the season immediately after being traded, established multiple career highs and led Phoenix to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976. Despite Barkley's proclamation to Jordan, that it was "destiny" for the Suns to win the title, they were defeated in six games by the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 26.6 points and 13.6 rebounds per game during the whole postseason, including 27.3 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game throughout the championship series. In the fourth game of the Finals, Barkley recorded a triple-double after collecting 32 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
As a result of severe back pains, Barkley began to speculate that the 1993–94 season would be his last in Phoenix. Playing through the worst injury problems of his career, Barkley managed 21.6 points on .495 shooting and 11.2 rebounds per game. He was selected to his eighth consecutive All-Star Game, but did not play because of a torn right quadriceps tendon, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. With Barkley fighting injuries, the Suns still managed a 56–26 record and made it to the Western Conference Semi-finals. Despite holding a 2–0 lead in the series, the Suns lost in seven games to the eventual champions, the Houston Rockets, who were led by Hakeem Olajuwon. Despite his injuries, in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, Barkley hit 23 of 31 field-goal attempts and finished with 56 points, the then-third-highest total ever in a playoff game. After contemplating retirement in the off-season, Barkley returned for his eleventh season and continued to battle injuries. He struggled during the first half of the season, but managed to gradually improve, earning his ninth consecutive appearance in the All-Star Game. He averaged 23 points on .486 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, while leading the Suns to a 59–23 record. In the playoffs, despite having a 3–1 lead in the series, the Suns once again lost to the defending and eventual two-time champion Houston Rockets in seven games. Barkley averaged 25.7 points on .500 shooting and 13.4 rebounds per game in the postseason, but was limited in Game 7 of the semi-finals by a leg injury.
The 1995–96 season was Barkley's last with the Phoenix Suns. He led the team in scoring, rebounds and steals, averaging 23.3 points on .500 shooting, 11.6 rebounds and a career high .777 free throw shooting. He earned his tenth appearance in an All-Star Game as the top vote-getter among Western Conference players and posted his 18th career triple-double on November 22. He also became just the tenth player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in their career. In the postseason, Barkley averaged 25.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in a four-game first round playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs. After the Suns closed out the season with a 41–41 record and a first-round playoff loss, Barkley was traded to Houston in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown.
During his career with the Suns, Barkley excelled, earning All-NBA and All-Star honors in each of his four seasons.
Role model controversy
Throughout his career, Barkley argued that athletes should not be considered role models. He stated, "A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models?" In 1993, his argument prompted national news when he wrote the text for his "I am not a role model" Nike commercial. Dan Quayle, the former Vice President of the United States, called it a "family-values message" for Barkley's oft-ignored call for parents and teachers to quit looking to him to "raise your kids" and instead be role models themselves.
Barkley's message sparked a great public debate about the nature of role models. He argued: I think the media demands that athletes be role models because there's some jealousy involved. It's as if they say, this is a young black kid playing a game for a living and making all this money, so we're going to make it tough on him. And what they're really doing is telling kids to look up to someone they can't become, because not many people can be like we are. Kids can't be like Michael Jordan.
Houston Rockets (1996–2000)
The trade to the Houston Rockets in the 1996–97 season was Barkley's last chance at capturing an NBA championship title. He joined a veteran team that included two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. To begin the season, Barkley was suspended for the season opener and fined $5,000 for fighting Charles Oakley during an October 25, 1996 preseason game. After Oakley committed a flagrant foul on Barkley, Barkley responded by shoving Oakley. In his first game with the Houston Rockets, Charles Barkley had a career-high 33 rebounds. He continued to battle injuries throughout the season and played only 53 games, missing 14 because of a laceration and bruise on his left pelvis, 11 because of a sprained right ankle, and four due to suspensions. He became the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 19.2 points on .484 shooting; the first time since his rookie year that he averaged below 20 points per game. With Olajuwon taking most of the shots, Barkley focused primarily on rebounding, averaging 13.5 per game, the second-best in his career. The Rockets ended the regular season with a 57–25 record and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Utah Jazz. Barkley averaged 17.9 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in another postseason loss.
The 1997–98 season was another injury-plagued year for Barkley. He averaged 15.2 points on .485 shooting and 11.7 rebounds per game. The Rockets ended the season with a 41–41 record and were eliminated in five games by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Limited by injuries, Barkley played four games in the series and averaged career lows of 9.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. During the lockout-shortened season, Barkley played 42 regular-season games and managed 16.1 points on .478 shooting and 12.3 rebounds per game. He became the second player in NBA history, following Wilt Chamberlain, to accumulate 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in his career. The Rockets concluded the shortened season with a 31–19 record and advanced to the playoffs. In his last postseason appearance, Barkley averaged 23.5 points on .529 shooting and 13.8 rebounds per game in a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He concluded his postseason career averaging 23 points on .513 shooting, 12.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 123 games.
The 1999–2000 season was Barkley's final year in the NBA. Initially, Barkley averaged 14.5 points on .477 shooting and 10.5 rebounds per game. Along with Shaquille O'Neal, Barkley was ejected from a November 10, 1999 game against the Los Angeles Lakers. After O'Neal blocked a layup by Barkley, O'Neal shoved Barkley, who then threw the ball at O'Neal. Barkley's season and career seemingly ended prematurely at the age of 36 after rupturing his left quadriceps tendon on December 8, 1999, in Philadelphia, where his career began. Refusing to allow his injury to be the last image of his career, Barkley returned after four months for one final game. On April 19, 2000, in a home game against the Vancouver Grizzlies, Barkley scored a memorable basket on an offensive rebound and putback, a common trademark during his career. He accomplished what he set out to do after being activated from the injured list, and walked off the court to a standing ovation. He stated, "I can't explain what tonight meant. I did it for me. I've won and lost a lot of games, but the last memory I had was being carried off the court. I couldn't get over the mental block of being carried off the court. It was important psychologically to walk off the court on my own." After the basket, Barkley immediately retired and concluded his sixteen-year Hall of Fame career.
Olympics
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but was not selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.
Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules that previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The team was nicknamed the "Dream Team" and went 6–0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8–0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points, only surpassed by the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single-game scoring record with 30 points in a 127–83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. During the game Angola, Barkley elbowed Herlander Coimbra in the chest and was unapologetic after the game, claiming he was hit first. Barkley was called for an intentional foul on the play. Coimbra's resulting free throw was the only point scored by Angola during a 46–1 run by the U.S.
At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8–0 record and captured gold medal.
Player profile
Barkley played the power forward position, but occasionally played small forward and center. He was known for his unusual build as a basketball player, stockier than most small forwards, yet shorter than most power forwards he faced. However, Barkley was still capable of outplaying both taller and quicker opponents because of his unusual combination of strength and agility.
Barkley was a prolific scorer who averaged 22.1 points per game during the regular season for his career and 23.0 points per game in the playoffs for his career. Barkley was an incredibly efficient offensive force, leading the NBA in 2-point field goal percentage every season from the 1986–87 season to the 1990–91 season. He led the league in effective field goal percentage in both the 1986–87 and 1987–88 seasons as well, and also led the league in offensive rating in both the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was one of the NBA's most versatile players and accurate scorers capable of scoring from anywhere on the court and established himself as one of the NBA's premier clutch players. During his NBA career, Barkley was a constant mismatch because he possessed a set of very uncommon skills and could play in a variety of positions. He would use all facets of his game in a single play; as a scorer, he had the ability to score from the perimeter and the post, using an array of spin moves and fadeaways, or finishing a fast break with a powerful dunk. He was one of the most efficient scorers of all-time, scoring at 54.13% total field goal percentage for his season career and 51.34% total field goal shooting for his playoff career (including a career-high season average of 60% during the 1989–90 NBA season).
Barkley is the shortest player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding when he averaged a career-high 14.6 rebounds per game during the 1986–87 season. His tenacious and aggressive form of play built into an undersized frame that fluctuated between and helped cement his legacy as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history, averaging 11.7 rebounds per game in the regular season for his career and 12.9 rebounds per game in his playoff career and totaling 12,546 rebounds for his season career. Barkley topped the NBA in offensive rebounding for three straight years and was most famous among very few power forwards who could control a defensive rebound, dribble the length of the court and finish at the rim with a powerful dunk.
Barkley also possessed considerable defensive talents led by an aggressive demeanor, foot speed and his capacity to read the floor to anticipate for steals, a reason why he established his career as the second All-Time leader in steals for the power forward position and leader of the highest all-time steal per game average for the power forward position. Despite being undersized for both the small forward and power forward positions, he also finished among the all-time leaders in blocked shots. His speed and leaping ability made him one of the few power forwards capable of running down court to block a faster player with a chase-down block.
In a SLAM magazine issue ranking NBA greats, Barkley was ranked among the top 20 players of All-Time. In the magazine, NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton commented on Barkley's ability. Walton stated, "Barkley is like Magic [Johnson] and Larry [Bird] in that they don't really play a position. He plays everything; he plays basketball. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. He's a dominant rebounder, a dominant defensive player, a three-point shooter, a dribbler, a playmaker."
Legacy
During his 16-year NBA career, Barkley was regarded as one of the most controversial, outspoken and dominating players in the history of basketball. His impact on the sport went beyond his rebounding titles, assists, scoring and physical play. His confrontational mannerisms often led to technical fouls and fines on the court, and his larger than life persona sometimes gave rise to national controversy off of it, such as when he was featured in ads that rejected pro athletes as role models and declared, "I am not a role model." Although his words often led to controversy, according to Barkley his mouth was never the cause because it always spoke the truth. He stated, "I don't create controversies. They're there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention."
Besides his on-court fights with other players, he has exhibited confrontational behavior off-court. He was arrested for breaking a man's nose during a fight after a game with the Milwaukee Bucks and also for throwing a man through a plate-glass window in Orlando, after being struck with a glass of ice. Barkley continues to be popular with the fans and media.
As a player, Barkley was a perennial All-Star who earned league MVP honors in 1993. He employed a physical style of play that earned him the nicknames "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound". He was named to the All-NBA team eleven times and earned two gold medals as a member of the United States Olympic Basketball team. He led both teams in scoring and was instrumental in helping the 1992 "Dream Team" and 1996 Men's Basketball team compile a perfect 16–0 record. He retired as one of only four players in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in their career. In 1996, Barkley, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary, was honored as one of the 50 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary Team.
In recognition of his collegiate and NBA achievements, Barkley's number 34 jersey was officially retired by Auburn University on March 3, 2001. In the same month, the Philadelphia 76ers also officially retired Barkley's number 34 jersey. On March 20, 2004, the Phoenix Suns honored Barkley as well by including him in the "Suns Ring of Honor". In recognition of his achievements as a player, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. In October 2021, as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary, Barkley was honored as one of the 75 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1984–85
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 82 || 60 || 28.6 || .545 || .167 || .733 || 8.6 || 1.9 || 1.2 || 1.0 || 14.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985–86
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 36.9 || .572 || .227 || .685 || 12.8 || 3.9 || 2.2 || 1.6 || 20.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986–87
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 68 || 62 || 40.3 || .594 || .202 || .761 || style="background:#cfecec;"|14.6* || 4.9 || 1.8 || 1.5 ||23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987–88
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 39.6 || .587 || .280 || .751 || 11.9 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.3 || 28.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1988–89
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .579 || .216 || .753 || 12.5 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .9 || 25.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989–90
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .600 || .217 || .749 || 11.5 || 3.9 || 1.9 || .6 || 25.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990–91
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 67 || 67 || 37.3 || .570 || .284 || .722 || 10.1 || 4.2 || 1.6 || .5 || 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991–92
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 75 || 75 || 38.4 || .552 || .234 || .695 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.8 || .6 || 23.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1992–93
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 76 || 76 || 37.6 || .520 || .305 || .765 || 12.2 || 5.1 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 25.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993–94
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 65 || 65 || 35.4 || .495 || .270 || .704 || 11.2 || 4.6 || 1.6 || .6 || 21.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994–95
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 68 || 68 || 35.0 || .486 || .338 || .748 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .7 || 23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995–96
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 71 || 71 || 37.1 || .500 || .280 || .777 || 11.6 || 3.7 || 1.6 || .8 || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 53 || 53 || 37.9 || .484 || .283 || .694 || 13.5 || 4.7 || 1.3 || .5 || 19.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997–98
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 68 || 41 || 33.0 || .485 || .214 || .746 || 11.7 || 3.2 || 1.0 || .4 || 15.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998–99
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 42 || 40 || 36.3 || .478 || .160 || .719 || 12.3 || 4.6 || 1.0 || .3 || 16.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999–00
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 20 || 18 || 31.0 || .477 || .231 || .645 || 10.5 || 3.2 || .7 || .2 || 14.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 1,073 || 1,012 || 36.7 || .541 || .266 || .735 || 11.7 || 3.9 || 1.5 || .8 || 22.1
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|All-Star
| 11 || 7 || 23.2 || .495 || .250 || .625 || 6.7 || 1.8 || 1.3 || .4 || 12.6
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 13 || 2 || 31.4 || .540 || .667 || .733 || 11.1 || 2.0 || 1.8 || 1.2 || 14.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 12 || 12 || 41.4 || .578 || .067 || .695 || 15.8|| 5.6 || 2.3 || 1.3 || 25.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 5 || 5 || 42.0 || .573 || .125 || .800|| 12.6 || 2.4 || .8 || 1.6 || 24.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 3 || 3|| 45.0 || .644 || .200 || .710 || 11.7 || 5.3 || 1.7 || .7 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 10 || 10 || 41.9 || .543 || .333 || .602 || 15.5 || 4.3 || .8 || .7 || 24.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 8 || 8 || 40.8 || .592 || .100 || .653 || 10.5 || 6.0|| 1.9|| .4 || 24.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 24 || 24|| 42.8 || .477 || .222 || .771 || 13.6 || 4.3 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 26.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 42.5 || .509 || .350 || .764 || 13.0 || 4.8 || 2.5 || .9|| 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 39.0 || .500 || .257 || .733 || 13.4 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.1 || 25.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 4 || 4 || 41.0 || .443 || .250 || .787 || 13.5 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 1.0 || 25.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 16 || 16 || 37.8 || .434 || .289 || .769 || 12.0 || 3.4 || 1.2 || .4 || 17.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 0 || 21.8 || .522 || .000 || .571 || 5.3 || 1.0 || 1.3 || .0 || 9.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 4 || 39.3 || .529 || .286 || .667 || 13.8 || 3.8 || 1.5 || .5 || 23.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 123 || 108 || 39.4 || .513 || .255 || .717 || 12.9 || 3.9 || 1.6 || .9 || 23.0
NBA records
Regular season
Most offensive rebounds in a half: 13, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, March 4, 1987
Most offensive rebounds in a quarter: 11, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks,
Tied with Larry Smith (Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets, )
Smallest Player to lead the league in rebounds: at 6’6
Playoffs
Most free throws made in a half: 19, Phoenix Suns vs. Seattle SuperSonics,
Most free throw attempts in a 7-game series: 100, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
Most turnovers in a 7-game series: 37, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
As of 2021, he has the 12th highest PER in NBA history.
Post-basketball life
Television analyst
Since 2000, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). He appears on the network's NBA coverage during pre-game and halftime shows, in addition to special NBA events. He also occasionally works as an onsite game analyst. He is part of the crew on Inside the NBA, a post-game show during which Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal recap and comment on NBA games that have occurred during the day and also on general NBA affairs. Barkley has won four Sports Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" for his work on TNT.
During the broadcast of a game, in which Barkley was courtside with Marv Albert, Barkley poked fun at NBA official Dick Bavetta's age. Albert replied to Barkley, "I believe Dick would beat you in a footrace." In response to that remark, Barkley went on to challenge Bavetta to a race at the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend for $5,000. The winner was to choose a charity to which the money would be donated. The NBA agreed to pitch in an additional $50,000, and TNT threw in $25,000. The pair raced for three and a half lengths of the basketball court until Barkley ultimately won. After the event, the two kissed in a show of good sportsmanship.
Barkley was also known for being the first-ever celebrity guest picker for College GameDay, in 2004.
Additionally, since 2011, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for the joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament between Turner Sports and CBS. Barkley has broadcast every Final Four since 2011.
He also served as a guest commentator for NBC's coverage of the NFL Wild Card playoffs on January 7, 2012; the same night he hosted Saturday Night Live, which is taped next door to the Football Night in America studio in Manhattan's GE Building.
Barkley announced in November 2012 that he was contemplating retirement from broadcasting. "[N]ow I'm like, 'Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract, it will be 17 years.' Seventeen years is a long time. It's a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me", he said. After repeating that he planned to retire in 2016, he signed another contract with Turner Sports. He later said that he wants to retire when he is 60 in 2023.
In July 2016, it was announced that Barkley will host a six-episode unscripted show called The Race Card. The show was renamed to American Race, and premiered on TNT on May 11, 2017.
Gambling
Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In a 2007 interview with ESPN's Trey Wingo, Barkley revealed that he had lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million "in a six-hour period" while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, "It's not a problem. If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."
Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, "No matter how much I win, it ain't a lot. It's only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it's fun, I think it's exciting. I'm gonna continue to do it, but I have to get to a point where I don't try to break the casino 'cause you never can."
In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promptly paid the casino. After repaying his debt, Barkley stated during a pregame show on TNT, "I've got to stop gambling...I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble... Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it."
Golf
Barkley began playing golf during his NBA career, later staying with the sport as it was a way to remain in competition after his basketball career ended. He is a regular competitor at the American Century Championship pro-am tournament, regularly finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard. He is widely regarded as a poor golfer with a particularly bad swing; he later underwent training to improve his swing, which led to an improved performance in the 2021 American Century Championship.
Barkley participated in Champions for Change, the third iteration of The Match. As part of a team with Phil Mickelson, Barkley pulled off a major upset defeating Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry by a score of 4–3.
Politics
Barkley spoke for many years of his Republican Party affiliation. In 1995, he considered running as a Republican candidate for Alabama's governorship in the 1998 election. However, in 2006, he altered his political stance, stating "I was a Republican until they lost their minds." At a July 2006 meeting of the Southern Regional Conference of the National School Boards Association in Destin, Florida, Barkley lent credence to the idea of running for Governor of Alabama, stating: I'm serious. I've got to get people to realize that the government is full of it. Republicans and Democrats want to argue over stuff that's not important, like gay marriage or the war in Iraq or illegal immigration... When I run—if I run—we're going to talk about real issues like improving our schools, cleaning up our neighborhoods of drugs and crime and making Alabama a better place for all people.
In September 2006, Barkley once again reiterated his desire to run for governor. He noted, "I can't run until 2014 ... I have to live there for seven years, so I'm looking for a house there as we speak." In July 2007, he made a video declaring his support for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. In September 2007, during a broadcast on Monday Night Football, Barkley announced that he bought a house in Alabama to satisfy residency requirements for a 2014 campaign for governor. In addition, Barkley declared himself an Independent and not a Democrat as previously reported. "The Republicans are full of it", Barkley said, "The Democrats are a little less full of it."
In February 2008, Barkley announced that he would be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014 as an Independent. On October 27, 2008, he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in an interview with CNN, stating that he planned to run in the 2014 election cycle, but he began to back off the idea in a November 24, 2009 interview on The Jay Leno Show. In 2010, he confirmed that he was not running in 2014. In August 2015, Barkley announced his support for Republican John Kasich in the 2016 presidential election. On Lance Armstrong's podcast in 2019, he confirmed that he would not be running for office.
Barkley is an outspoken supporter of gay rights. In 2006, he told Fox Sports: "I'm a big advocate of gay marriage. If they want to get married, God bless them." Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN two years later, he said: "Every time I hear the word 'conservative,' it makes me sick to my stomach, because they're really just fake Christians, as I call them. That's all they are. ... I think they want to be judge and jury. Like, I'm for gay marriage. It's none of my business if gay people want to get married. I'm pro-choice. And I think these Christians, first of all, they're not supposed to judge other people. But they're the most hypocritical judge of people we have in the country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they're Christians. They're not forgiving at all." During a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day double-header on TNT, Barkley responded to a statement made by Dr. King's daughter Bernice, by saying, "People try to make it about black and white. [But] he talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now, people discriminating against homosexuality in this country. I love the homosexuality people. God bless the gay people. They are great people."
Commenting on the Ferguson unrest, Barkley called the Ferguson looters "scumbags", praised the police officers who work in black neighborhoods, and said that he supports the decision made by the grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting. Previously, in 2013, Barkley expressed his agreement with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting.
In 2014, when Barkley was asked about the rumor that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was being accused for not being "black enough" on the radio show Afternoons with Anthony and Rob Ellis, he said:
Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out. One of the reasons we're never going to be successful as a whole, because of other black people. And for some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person. And it's a dirty, dark secret. There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success. It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful... We're the only ethnic group who say, 'Hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' It's just typical BS that goes on when you're black, man.
Barkley has also been known as a critic of President Donald Trump from as early as his Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Before Trump won the Republican primaries that year, Barkley stated his disgust towards the words and messages that Trump was promoting throughout the presidential race. In September 2017, when President Trump called out former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for his kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem during the 2016 NFL season, Barkley expressed his complete disappointment in President Trump (however, Barkley has stated that he does not support athletes kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest). In December 2017, Barkley mocked President Trump's tax bill, stating "Thank you Republicans, I knew I could always count on y’all to take care of us rich people, us one percenters. Sorry, poor people. I’m hoping for y’all, but y’all ain’t got no chance."
In his response to the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments as highlighted by the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barkley stated:
Barkley supported Democrat Doug Jones in the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama. During Alabama's Senate election, Barkley noted that Jones' competitor, Roy Moore, was a complete embarrassment to the state.
In an interview with Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast, Barkley said if he ruled the world for one day, he would get rid of both Republicans and Democrats because "They're both awful", adding: “They fight all of the time like little kids."
Books
In 1991, Barkley and sportswriter Roy S. Johnson collaborated on the autobiographical work Outrageous. Editorial choices made by Johnson in the book led to Barkley famously quipping that he had been misquoted in his own autobiography. In 2000, Barkley wrote the foreword for Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly's book The Life of Reilly. In it, Barkley quipped, "Of all the people in sports I'd like to throw through a plate glass window, Reilly's not one of them. It's a shame though, skinny white boys look real aerodynamic." In 2002, Barkley released the book I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It, which included editing and commentary by close friend Michael Wilbon. Three years later, Barkley released Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?, which is a collection of interviews with leading figures in entertainment, business, sports, and government. Michael Wilbon also contributed to this book and was present at many of the interviews.
Acting
He played himself in the 1996 film Space Jam. He made a brief appearance in the TV series Suits, in episode 3 of the fifth season. He also appeared in the eighth season of Modern Family. He also voices animated versions of himself in Clerks: The Animated Series and We Bare Bears. In 2019, he appeared in "The Piña Colada Song" episode of The Goldbergs as a gym teacher and alien conspiracy theorist briefly trained as a prospective replacement for the departing Coach Mellor. Barkley hosted Saturday Night Live on four separate occasions between 1993 and 2018.
DUI conviction
On December 31, 2008, Barkley was pulled over in Scottsdale, Arizona for running a stop sign. The officer smelled alcohol on Barkley's breath and proceeded to administer field sobriety tests, which he failed. He was arrested on drunk driving charges and had his vehicle impounded. Barkley refused to submit a breath test and was given a blood test. He was then cited and released. Gilbert police noted Barkley was cooperative and respectful during the entire incident, adding that he was treated no differently than anyone arrested on DUI charges. The police report of the incident stated that Barkley told the police he was in a hurry to receive oral sex from his female passenger when he ran through a stop sign early Wednesday. Test results released by the police showed that Barkley had a blood-alcohol level at .149, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in Arizona. Two months after his arrest, Barkley pleaded guilty to two DUI-related counts and one count of running a red light. He was sentenced to ten days in jail and fined $2,000. The sentence was later reduced to three days after Barkley entered an alcohol treatment program.
As part of the fallout of his arrest, Barkley took a two-month hiatus from his commentating duties for TNT. During his absence, T-Mobile elected not to air previously scheduled ads that featured Barkley, stating, "Given the recent developments, for the time being, we've replaced TV ads featuring Mr. Barkley with more general-market advertising." On February 19, 2009, Barkley returned to TNT and spent the first segment of the NBA pregame show discussing the incident and his experiences. Shortly after his return, T-Mobile once again began airing ads featuring Barkley.
WeightWatchers
In 2011, Barkley became a spokesman for WeightWatchers, promoting their "Lose Like a Man" program and appearing in both television and online ads.
Video games
Barkley has been featured in several video games. Barkley Shut Up and Jam! is a basketball video game which was developed by Accolade. It was released for the Super NES and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994, and was followed up by a sequel for only the Genesis in 1995. An unofficial sequel to the initial game called Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden was developed and published in 2008. The game was developed by Tales of Game's Studios and was a departure from the first game in that the game was a traditional style JRPG.
Barkley features in EA Sports starting with Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs in 1991, but by the late 1990s did not appear due to licensing reasons. Barkley was added to the Houston Rockets team in the game Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside.
Barkley was featured in NBA 2K13 as part of the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team". Barkley also had the same role in NBA 2K17.
The NBA2K series includes the TNT team of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith providing each match with pre-match analysis; however, Barkley opts not to join his fellow team members in protest at the 2K series not paying the NBPA any residuals. This boycott also means Barkley is not included in the game as a legendary player as part of any All-Time team.
Personal life
Barkley married Maureen Blumhardt in 1989, and in the same year, the couple had a daughter named Christiana.
Barkley's daughter was named after the Christiana Mall in Delaware. In a 2021 podcast, he explained, "...I just liked the mall." A DNA test read by George Lopez on Lopez Tonight revealed Barkley to be of 14% Native American, 11% European, and 75% African descent.
See also
List of members of the Basketball Hall of Fame
List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career turnovers leaders
List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career minutes played leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual rebounding leaders
Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley
Space Jam
Gnarls Barkley
References
Bibliography
External links
Charles Barkley: NBA.com Historical Biography
Charles Barkley article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
1963 births
Living people
Activists from Alabama
African-American activists
African-American basketball players
African-American sports journalists
African-American television personalities
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
American sports journalists
American sportspeople convicted of crimes
Auburn Tigers men's basketball players
Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball players from Birmingham, Alabama
College basketball announcers in the United States
Houston Rockets players
Journalists from Alabama
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball
People from Leeds, Alabama
Philadelphia 76ers draft picks
Philadelphia 76ers players
Phoenix Suns players
Power forwards (basketball)
Small forwards
United States men's national basketball team players
| false |
[
"Tryout was an amateur press journal published from 1914 to 1946 by Charles W. Smith of Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was connected to the National Amateur Press Association.\n\nSmith (1852-1948) was a friend and correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft; Tryout was the first outlet for the H. P. Lovecraft short stories \"The Cats of Ulthar\" (November 1920), \"The Terrible Old Man\" (July 1921), \"The Tree\" (October 1921), and \"In the Vault\" (November 1925). Smith provided the plot idea for \"In the Vault\". Several later stories include details used from his visits to Haverhill to meet with Smith. Most notable of these is \"The Shadow Out of Time\", in which the protagonist is from Golden Hill in Haverhill (Smith's neighborhood) and is named Nathaniel Peaslee, a name on a headstone that Lovecraft noted in nearby Pentucket Cemetery. \n\nTryout also published non-fiction articles and numerous poems by Lovecraft. The publication was noted for its typographical errors, which Lovecraft referred to as \"tryoutisms\".\n\nReferences\nS. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia\nDavid Goudsward, H.P. Lovecraft in the Merrimack Valley\n\nH. P. Lovecraft\nMagazines established in 1914\nMagazines disestablished in 1946\nDefunct literary magazines published in the United States\nMagazines published in Massachusetts",
"England Roller Derby represents England in women's international roller derby, at events such as the Roller Derby World Cup. The team was first formed to compete at the 2011 Roller Derby World Cup in Toronto, Canada, and competed in the 2014 Roller Derby World Cup in Dallas, USA and the 2018 Roller Derby World Cup in Manchester, UK.\n\nResults\n\n2011\nFinished the tournament in third place, losing by 161 points to 90 to Team Canada in the semifinal, but beating Team Australia by 203 points to 85 in the third-place playoff. Before the event, The Guardian noted that the team was one of the three favourites, with Canada and Team USA, to reach the final.\n\n2014 \nFinished the tournament in second place, losing by 291 points to 105 to Team USA in the final.\n\n2018 \nFinished the tournament in fourth place, losing by 173 points to 147 points to Team Canada in the semifinal.\n\nLineups\n\n2011 team roster\nSix tryout sessions were organised for prospective skaters, and this enabled the coaches to draw up a shortlist of forty. They were invited to attend a final tryout, from which the final roster of twenty was selected. The final line-up was announced in August 2011; more than half the skaters selected for the team were from the London Rollergirls.\n(league affiliations listed as of at the time of the announcement)\n\n2011 coaching staff\nBallistic Whistle, London Rollergirls\nBarry Fight, Central City Rollergirls\nRollin' Stoner, Royal Windsor Rollergirls\n\n2014 team roster\n\nInitial tryout sessions for the Team England training squad 2014 were held in both Manchester and London. Prospective skaters were also invited to submit video tryouts if unable to attend the initial sessions. Shortlisted individuals were then invited to a second tryout session in Birmingham from which the final training squad would be selected. The final training squad line-up was announced in January 2014.\n\n2014 coaching staff\nBallistic Whistle, London Rollergirls\nStefanie Mainey, London Rollergirls\nRollin' Stoner, Royal Windsor Rollergirls\n\n2018 team roster \nInitial tryout sessions for the England Roller Derby training squad 2018 were held in both Oldham and Haywards Heath in August 2016. Prospective skaters were also invited to submit video tryouts if unable to attend the initial sessions. Shortlisted individuals were then invited to a second tryout session in Birmingham in October 2016 from which the final training squad would be selected. The final training squad line-up was announced in October 2016. The final roster for the tournament was announced in December 2017 (indicated below with *).\n\n2018 coaching staff\n\nTomi \"Illbilly\" Lang, Southern Discomfort\nShane Aisbett, Southern Discomfort\n\nReferences\n\nEngland\nRoller derby\nRoller derby in England\n2011 establishments in England\nSports clubs established in 2011"
] |
[
"Charles Barkley",
"Olympics",
"When did he enter the Olympics?",
"Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games",
"What did he train for?",
"Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer",
"How was the tryout?",
"He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team,"
] |
C_29d9d527735c4372af7e4800b812f4d4_0
|
Why wasn't he selected?
| 4 |
Why wasn't Barkley selected for the US Men's Basketball team?
|
Charles Barkley
|
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense. Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules which had previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The result was the "Dream Team", which went 6-0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8-0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single game scoring record with 30 points in a 127-83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. Barkley was also part of an ugly moment in the 1992 Olympics when he intentionally elbowed Angola player Herlander Coimbra in the chest during a 116-48 rout of that team. At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8-0 record and captured gold medal honors. CANNOTANSWER
|
According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.
|
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player and current television analyst. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck" and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for three teams. Though shorter than the typical power forward, he used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, an 11-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). During the NBA's 50th anniversary, Barkley was named one of the league's 50 Greatest Players. He was again named to the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History for the league's 75th anniversary.
An All-American power forward at Auburn University, Barkley was drafted as a junior by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 5th pick of the 1984 NBA draft. In his rookie season, Barkley was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1985. In the 1986–87 season, Barkley led the league with the highest rebounding average and earned his first NBA rebounding title. He was named the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1991, and in 1993 with the Phoenix Suns, he was voted the league's MVP. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, winning two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. Since his retirement, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett have joined the 20K/10K/4K Club. Barkley is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2006 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team".
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he spat on a young girl while attempting to spit at a heckler, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Since retiring as a player, Barkley has had a successful career as an NBA analyst. He works for Turner Network Television (TNT) on Inside the NBA alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson as a studio pundit for its coverage of NBA games (for which he has won four Sports Emmy Awards). In addition, Barkley has written several books and has shown an interest in politics.
Early life
Barkley was born and raised in Leeds, Alabama, 10 miles outside Birmingham. He was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school. His parents divorced when he was young after his father abandoned the family, which included younger brother Darryl Barkley. His mother remarried and they had a son, John Glenn. Another brother, Rennie, died in infancy. His stepfather was killed in an accident when Charles was 11 years old.
He attended Leeds High School. As a junior, Barkley stood and weighed . He failed to make the varsity team and was named as a reserve. However, during the summer Barkley grew to and earned a starting position on the varsity as a senior. He averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game and led his team to a 26–3 record en route to the state semi-finals. Despite his improvement, Barkley garnered no attention from college scouts until the state high school semi-finals, where he scored 26 points against Alabama's most highly recruited player, Bobby Lee Hurt. An assistant to Auburn University's head coach, Sonny Smith, was at the game and reported seeing, "a fat guy...who can play like the wind". Barkley was soon recruited by Smith and majored in business management while attending Auburn University.
College
Barkley played collegiate basketball at Auburn for three seasons. Although he struggled to control his weight, he excelled as a player and led the SEC in rebounding each year. He became a popular crowd-pleaser, exciting the fans with dunks and blocked shots that belied his lack of height and overweight frame. It was not uncommon to see the hefty Barkley grab a defensive rebound and, instead of passing, dribble the entire length of the court and finish at the opposite end with a two-handed dunk. His physical size and skills ultimately earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound" and the "Crisco Kid".
During his college career, Barkley played the center position, despite being shorter than the average center. His height, officially listed as , is stated as in his book, I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It. He became a member of Auburn's All-Century team and still holds the Auburn record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. He received numerous awards, including Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year (1984), three All-SEC selections and one Second Team All-American selection. Later, Barkley was named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald.
In Barkley's three-year college career, he averaged 14.1 points on 62.6% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. In 1984, he led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament in school history and finished with 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Auburn retired Barkley's No. 34 jersey on March 3, 2001.
He was one of 74 college players invited to the spring tryouts for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, coached by Bob Knight. Barkley made the initial cut in April to the final twenty, but was one of four released in May (with John Stockton, Terry Porter, and Maurice Martin) in the penultimate cut to sixteen players.
In 2010, Barkley admitted that he asked for, and had been given, money from sports agents during his career at Auburn. Barkley called the sums he had requested from agents as being "chump change", and went on to say, "Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?" According to Barkley, he paid back all of the money he had borrowed after signing his first NBA contract.
NBA career
Philadelphia 76ers (1984–1992)
Barkley left before his final year at Auburn and made himself eligible for the 1984 NBA draft. He was selected with the fifth pick in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers, two slots after the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. He joined a veteran team that included Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks, players who took Philadelphia to the 1983 NBA championship. Under the tutelage of Malone, Barkley was able to manage his weight and learned to prepare and condition himself properly for a game; Barkley cited Malone as the most influential player of his career, and he often referred to him as "Dad". He averaged 14.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the regular season and earned a berth on the All-Rookie Team. In the postseason, the Sixers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals but were defeated in five games by the Boston Celtics. As a rookie in the postseason, Barkley averaged 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.
During his second year, Barkley improved his game under the leadership of Moses Malone during the off-season with his workouts, in the process he became the team's leading rebounder and number two scorer, averaging 20.0 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. He became the Sixers' starting power forward and helped lead his team into the playoffs, averaging 25.0 points on .578 shooting from the field and 15.8 rebounds per game. Despite his efforts, Philadelphia was defeated 4–3 by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team.
Before the 1986–87 season, Moses Malone was traded to the Washington Bullets and Barkley began to assume control as the team leader. On November 4, 1986, Barkley recorded 34 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 14 assists in a 121–125 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 20, 1987, Barkley recorded 26 points, 25 rebounds (career-high tying 16 offensive rebounds) and 9 assists in a 116–106 win over the Denver Nuggets. He earned his first and only rebounding title, averaging 14.6 rebounds per game and also led the league in offensive rebounds with 5.7 per game. He averaged 23.0 points on .594 shooting, earning his first trip to an NBA All-Star game and All-NBA Second Team honors for the second straight season. In the playoffs, Barkley averaged 24.6 points and 12.6 rebounds in a losing effort, for the second straight year, to the Bucks in a five-game first round playoff series.
The following season, Julius Erving announced his retirement and Barkley became the Sixers' franchise player. On November 30, 1988, Barkley recorded 41 points, 22 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals in a 114–106 win over the Blazers. Playing in 80 games and getting 300 more minutes than his nearest teammate, Barkley had his most productive season, averaging 28.3 points on .587 shooting and 11.9 rebounds per game. He appeared in his second All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. His celebrity status as the Sixers' franchise player led to his first appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated. For the first time since the 1974–75 season, however, the 76ers failed to make the playoffs. In the 1988–89 season, Barkley continued to play well, averaging 25.8 points on .579 shooting and 12.5 rebounds per game. He earned his third straight All-Star Game appearance and was named to the All-NBA First team for the second straight season. Despite Barkley contributing 27.0 points on .644 shooting, 11.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, the 76ers were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Knicks.
During the 1989–90 season, despite receiving more first-place votes, Barkley finished second in MVP voting behind the Los Angeles Lakers' Magic Johnson. He was named Player of the Year by The Sporting News and Basketball Weekly. He averaged 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and a career-high .600 shooting. He was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year and earned his fourth All-Star selection. He helped Philadelphia win 53 regular-season games, only to lose to the Chicago Bulls in a five-game Eastern Conference Semi-finals series. Barkley averaged 24.7 points and 15.5 rebounds in another postseason loss. His exceptional play continued into his seventh season, where he averaged 27.6 points on .570 shooting and 10.1 rebounds per game. His fifth straight All-Star Game appearance proved to be his best yet. He led the East to a 116–114 win over the West with 17 points and 22 rebounds, the most rebounds in an All-Star Game since Wilt Chamberlain recorded 22 in 1967. Barkley was presented with Most Valuable Player honors at the All-Star Game and, at the end of the season, named to the All-NBA First Team for the fourth straight year. That year, when the New York Times asked the San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson if he would choose Barkley or Jordan for his side in a hypothetical pickup game, Robinson said, "I would pick Barkley. When he is on his game, I think he has the biggest impact ever." In the playoffs, Philadelphia lost again to Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, with Barkley contributing 24.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
The 1991–92 season was Barkley's final year in Philadelphia. In his last season, he wore number 32 instead of his 34 to honor Magic Johnson, who had announced prior to the start of the season that he was HIV-positive. Although the 76ers had initially retired the number 32 in honor of Billy Cunningham, it was unretired, with Cunningham's approval, for Barkley to wear. Following Johnson's announcement, Barkley also apologized for having made light of his condition. Responding to concerns that players may contract HIV by contact with Johnson, Barkley stated, "We're just playing basketball. It's not like we're going out to have unprotected sex with Magic."
In his final season with the Sixers, averaging 23.1 points on .552 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, Barkley earned his sixth straight All-Star appearance and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, his seventh straight appearance on either the first or second team. He ended his 76ers career ranked fourth in team history in total points (14,184), third in scoring average (23.3 ppg), third in rebounds (7,079), eighth in assists (2,276) and second in field-goal percentage (.576). He led Philadelphia in rebounding and field-goal percentage for seven consecutive seasons and in scoring for six straight years. However, Barkley demanded a trade out of Philadelphia after the Sixers failed to make the postseason with a 35–47 record. Barkley was initially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before the end of the season, but the 76ers wound up retracting their deal a few hours later. On July 17, 1992, he was officially traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
During Barkley's eight seasons in Philadelphia, he became a household name and was one of the few NBA players to have an action figure produced by Kenner's Starting Lineup toy line. He also had his own signature shoe line with Nike. His outspoken and aggressive play, however, resulted in some on-court incidents, notoriously a fight with Detroit Pistons center Bill Laimbeer in 1990, which drew a record total $162,500 fine.
Spitting incident
On March 26, 1991, during a game versus the New Jersey Nets, Barkley attempted to spit on a fan who was allegedly heckling with racial slurs, but the result was his spit hitting a young girl. Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of operations at the time, suspended Barkley, without pay, for one game and fined him $10,000 for spitting and verbally abusing the fan. It became a national story and Barkley was vilified for it. Barkley, however, eventually developed a friendship with the girl and her family. He apologized and, among other things, provided them tickets to future games.
Upon retirement, Barkley was later quoted as stating, in regard to his career, "I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."
Phoenix Suns (1992–1996)
The trade to Phoenix in the 1992–93 season went well for both Barkley and the Suns. In his first game with the Suns, Barkley almost recorded a triple-double after racking up 37 points, 21 rebounds (12 of which were offensive rebounds) and 8 assists in a 111–105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 25.6 points on .520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a career high 5.1 assists per game, leading the Suns to an NBA best 62–20 record. For his efforts, Barkley won the league's Most Valuable Player Award, and was selected to play in his seventh straight All-Star Game. He became the third player ever to win league MVP honors in the season immediately after being traded, established multiple career highs and led Phoenix to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976. Despite Barkley's proclamation to Jordan, that it was "destiny" for the Suns to win the title, they were defeated in six games by the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 26.6 points and 13.6 rebounds per game during the whole postseason, including 27.3 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game throughout the championship series. In the fourth game of the Finals, Barkley recorded a triple-double after collecting 32 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
As a result of severe back pains, Barkley began to speculate that the 1993–94 season would be his last in Phoenix. Playing through the worst injury problems of his career, Barkley managed 21.6 points on .495 shooting and 11.2 rebounds per game. He was selected to his eighth consecutive All-Star Game, but did not play because of a torn right quadriceps tendon, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. With Barkley fighting injuries, the Suns still managed a 56–26 record and made it to the Western Conference Semi-finals. Despite holding a 2–0 lead in the series, the Suns lost in seven games to the eventual champions, the Houston Rockets, who were led by Hakeem Olajuwon. Despite his injuries, in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, Barkley hit 23 of 31 field-goal attempts and finished with 56 points, the then-third-highest total ever in a playoff game. After contemplating retirement in the off-season, Barkley returned for his eleventh season and continued to battle injuries. He struggled during the first half of the season, but managed to gradually improve, earning his ninth consecutive appearance in the All-Star Game. He averaged 23 points on .486 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, while leading the Suns to a 59–23 record. In the playoffs, despite having a 3–1 lead in the series, the Suns once again lost to the defending and eventual two-time champion Houston Rockets in seven games. Barkley averaged 25.7 points on .500 shooting and 13.4 rebounds per game in the postseason, but was limited in Game 7 of the semi-finals by a leg injury.
The 1995–96 season was Barkley's last with the Phoenix Suns. He led the team in scoring, rebounds and steals, averaging 23.3 points on .500 shooting, 11.6 rebounds and a career high .777 free throw shooting. He earned his tenth appearance in an All-Star Game as the top vote-getter among Western Conference players and posted his 18th career triple-double on November 22. He also became just the tenth player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in their career. In the postseason, Barkley averaged 25.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in a four-game first round playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs. After the Suns closed out the season with a 41–41 record and a first-round playoff loss, Barkley was traded to Houston in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown.
During his career with the Suns, Barkley excelled, earning All-NBA and All-Star honors in each of his four seasons.
Role model controversy
Throughout his career, Barkley argued that athletes should not be considered role models. He stated, "A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models?" In 1993, his argument prompted national news when he wrote the text for his "I am not a role model" Nike commercial. Dan Quayle, the former Vice President of the United States, called it a "family-values message" for Barkley's oft-ignored call for parents and teachers to quit looking to him to "raise your kids" and instead be role models themselves.
Barkley's message sparked a great public debate about the nature of role models. He argued: I think the media demands that athletes be role models because there's some jealousy involved. It's as if they say, this is a young black kid playing a game for a living and making all this money, so we're going to make it tough on him. And what they're really doing is telling kids to look up to someone they can't become, because not many people can be like we are. Kids can't be like Michael Jordan.
Houston Rockets (1996–2000)
The trade to the Houston Rockets in the 1996–97 season was Barkley's last chance at capturing an NBA championship title. He joined a veteran team that included two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. To begin the season, Barkley was suspended for the season opener and fined $5,000 for fighting Charles Oakley during an October 25, 1996 preseason game. After Oakley committed a flagrant foul on Barkley, Barkley responded by shoving Oakley. In his first game with the Houston Rockets, Charles Barkley had a career-high 33 rebounds. He continued to battle injuries throughout the season and played only 53 games, missing 14 because of a laceration and bruise on his left pelvis, 11 because of a sprained right ankle, and four due to suspensions. He became the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 19.2 points on .484 shooting; the first time since his rookie year that he averaged below 20 points per game. With Olajuwon taking most of the shots, Barkley focused primarily on rebounding, averaging 13.5 per game, the second-best in his career. The Rockets ended the regular season with a 57–25 record and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Utah Jazz. Barkley averaged 17.9 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in another postseason loss.
The 1997–98 season was another injury-plagued year for Barkley. He averaged 15.2 points on .485 shooting and 11.7 rebounds per game. The Rockets ended the season with a 41–41 record and were eliminated in five games by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Limited by injuries, Barkley played four games in the series and averaged career lows of 9.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. During the lockout-shortened season, Barkley played 42 regular-season games and managed 16.1 points on .478 shooting and 12.3 rebounds per game. He became the second player in NBA history, following Wilt Chamberlain, to accumulate 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in his career. The Rockets concluded the shortened season with a 31–19 record and advanced to the playoffs. In his last postseason appearance, Barkley averaged 23.5 points on .529 shooting and 13.8 rebounds per game in a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He concluded his postseason career averaging 23 points on .513 shooting, 12.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 123 games.
The 1999–2000 season was Barkley's final year in the NBA. Initially, Barkley averaged 14.5 points on .477 shooting and 10.5 rebounds per game. Along with Shaquille O'Neal, Barkley was ejected from a November 10, 1999 game against the Los Angeles Lakers. After O'Neal blocked a layup by Barkley, O'Neal shoved Barkley, who then threw the ball at O'Neal. Barkley's season and career seemingly ended prematurely at the age of 36 after rupturing his left quadriceps tendon on December 8, 1999, in Philadelphia, where his career began. Refusing to allow his injury to be the last image of his career, Barkley returned after four months for one final game. On April 19, 2000, in a home game against the Vancouver Grizzlies, Barkley scored a memorable basket on an offensive rebound and putback, a common trademark during his career. He accomplished what he set out to do after being activated from the injured list, and walked off the court to a standing ovation. He stated, "I can't explain what tonight meant. I did it for me. I've won and lost a lot of games, but the last memory I had was being carried off the court. I couldn't get over the mental block of being carried off the court. It was important psychologically to walk off the court on my own." After the basket, Barkley immediately retired and concluded his sixteen-year Hall of Fame career.
Olympics
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but was not selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.
Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules that previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The team was nicknamed the "Dream Team" and went 6–0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8–0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points, only surpassed by the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single-game scoring record with 30 points in a 127–83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. During the game Angola, Barkley elbowed Herlander Coimbra in the chest and was unapologetic after the game, claiming he was hit first. Barkley was called for an intentional foul on the play. Coimbra's resulting free throw was the only point scored by Angola during a 46–1 run by the U.S.
At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8–0 record and captured gold medal.
Player profile
Barkley played the power forward position, but occasionally played small forward and center. He was known for his unusual build as a basketball player, stockier than most small forwards, yet shorter than most power forwards he faced. However, Barkley was still capable of outplaying both taller and quicker opponents because of his unusual combination of strength and agility.
Barkley was a prolific scorer who averaged 22.1 points per game during the regular season for his career and 23.0 points per game in the playoffs for his career. Barkley was an incredibly efficient offensive force, leading the NBA in 2-point field goal percentage every season from the 1986–87 season to the 1990–91 season. He led the league in effective field goal percentage in both the 1986–87 and 1987–88 seasons as well, and also led the league in offensive rating in both the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was one of the NBA's most versatile players and accurate scorers capable of scoring from anywhere on the court and established himself as one of the NBA's premier clutch players. During his NBA career, Barkley was a constant mismatch because he possessed a set of very uncommon skills and could play in a variety of positions. He would use all facets of his game in a single play; as a scorer, he had the ability to score from the perimeter and the post, using an array of spin moves and fadeaways, or finishing a fast break with a powerful dunk. He was one of the most efficient scorers of all-time, scoring at 54.13% total field goal percentage for his season career and 51.34% total field goal shooting for his playoff career (including a career-high season average of 60% during the 1989–90 NBA season).
Barkley is the shortest player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding when he averaged a career-high 14.6 rebounds per game during the 1986–87 season. His tenacious and aggressive form of play built into an undersized frame that fluctuated between and helped cement his legacy as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history, averaging 11.7 rebounds per game in the regular season for his career and 12.9 rebounds per game in his playoff career and totaling 12,546 rebounds for his season career. Barkley topped the NBA in offensive rebounding for three straight years and was most famous among very few power forwards who could control a defensive rebound, dribble the length of the court and finish at the rim with a powerful dunk.
Barkley also possessed considerable defensive talents led by an aggressive demeanor, foot speed and his capacity to read the floor to anticipate for steals, a reason why he established his career as the second All-Time leader in steals for the power forward position and leader of the highest all-time steal per game average for the power forward position. Despite being undersized for both the small forward and power forward positions, he also finished among the all-time leaders in blocked shots. His speed and leaping ability made him one of the few power forwards capable of running down court to block a faster player with a chase-down block.
In a SLAM magazine issue ranking NBA greats, Barkley was ranked among the top 20 players of All-Time. In the magazine, NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton commented on Barkley's ability. Walton stated, "Barkley is like Magic [Johnson] and Larry [Bird] in that they don't really play a position. He plays everything; he plays basketball. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. He's a dominant rebounder, a dominant defensive player, a three-point shooter, a dribbler, a playmaker."
Legacy
During his 16-year NBA career, Barkley was regarded as one of the most controversial, outspoken and dominating players in the history of basketball. His impact on the sport went beyond his rebounding titles, assists, scoring and physical play. His confrontational mannerisms often led to technical fouls and fines on the court, and his larger than life persona sometimes gave rise to national controversy off of it, such as when he was featured in ads that rejected pro athletes as role models and declared, "I am not a role model." Although his words often led to controversy, according to Barkley his mouth was never the cause because it always spoke the truth. He stated, "I don't create controversies. They're there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention."
Besides his on-court fights with other players, he has exhibited confrontational behavior off-court. He was arrested for breaking a man's nose during a fight after a game with the Milwaukee Bucks and also for throwing a man through a plate-glass window in Orlando, after being struck with a glass of ice. Barkley continues to be popular with the fans and media.
As a player, Barkley was a perennial All-Star who earned league MVP honors in 1993. He employed a physical style of play that earned him the nicknames "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound". He was named to the All-NBA team eleven times and earned two gold medals as a member of the United States Olympic Basketball team. He led both teams in scoring and was instrumental in helping the 1992 "Dream Team" and 1996 Men's Basketball team compile a perfect 16–0 record. He retired as one of only four players in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in their career. In 1996, Barkley, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary, was honored as one of the 50 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary Team.
In recognition of his collegiate and NBA achievements, Barkley's number 34 jersey was officially retired by Auburn University on March 3, 2001. In the same month, the Philadelphia 76ers also officially retired Barkley's number 34 jersey. On March 20, 2004, the Phoenix Suns honored Barkley as well by including him in the "Suns Ring of Honor". In recognition of his achievements as a player, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. In October 2021, as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary, Barkley was honored as one of the 75 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1984–85
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 82 || 60 || 28.6 || .545 || .167 || .733 || 8.6 || 1.9 || 1.2 || 1.0 || 14.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985–86
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 36.9 || .572 || .227 || .685 || 12.8 || 3.9 || 2.2 || 1.6 || 20.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986–87
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 68 || 62 || 40.3 || .594 || .202 || .761 || style="background:#cfecec;"|14.6* || 4.9 || 1.8 || 1.5 ||23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987–88
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 39.6 || .587 || .280 || .751 || 11.9 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.3 || 28.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1988–89
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .579 || .216 || .753 || 12.5 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .9 || 25.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989–90
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .600 || .217 || .749 || 11.5 || 3.9 || 1.9 || .6 || 25.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990–91
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 67 || 67 || 37.3 || .570 || .284 || .722 || 10.1 || 4.2 || 1.6 || .5 || 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991–92
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 75 || 75 || 38.4 || .552 || .234 || .695 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.8 || .6 || 23.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1992–93
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 76 || 76 || 37.6 || .520 || .305 || .765 || 12.2 || 5.1 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 25.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993–94
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 65 || 65 || 35.4 || .495 || .270 || .704 || 11.2 || 4.6 || 1.6 || .6 || 21.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994–95
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 68 || 68 || 35.0 || .486 || .338 || .748 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .7 || 23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995–96
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 71 || 71 || 37.1 || .500 || .280 || .777 || 11.6 || 3.7 || 1.6 || .8 || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 53 || 53 || 37.9 || .484 || .283 || .694 || 13.5 || 4.7 || 1.3 || .5 || 19.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997–98
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 68 || 41 || 33.0 || .485 || .214 || .746 || 11.7 || 3.2 || 1.0 || .4 || 15.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998–99
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 42 || 40 || 36.3 || .478 || .160 || .719 || 12.3 || 4.6 || 1.0 || .3 || 16.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999–00
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 20 || 18 || 31.0 || .477 || .231 || .645 || 10.5 || 3.2 || .7 || .2 || 14.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 1,073 || 1,012 || 36.7 || .541 || .266 || .735 || 11.7 || 3.9 || 1.5 || .8 || 22.1
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|All-Star
| 11 || 7 || 23.2 || .495 || .250 || .625 || 6.7 || 1.8 || 1.3 || .4 || 12.6
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 13 || 2 || 31.4 || .540 || .667 || .733 || 11.1 || 2.0 || 1.8 || 1.2 || 14.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 12 || 12 || 41.4 || .578 || .067 || .695 || 15.8|| 5.6 || 2.3 || 1.3 || 25.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 5 || 5 || 42.0 || .573 || .125 || .800|| 12.6 || 2.4 || .8 || 1.6 || 24.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 3 || 3|| 45.0 || .644 || .200 || .710 || 11.7 || 5.3 || 1.7 || .7 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 10 || 10 || 41.9 || .543 || .333 || .602 || 15.5 || 4.3 || .8 || .7 || 24.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 8 || 8 || 40.8 || .592 || .100 || .653 || 10.5 || 6.0|| 1.9|| .4 || 24.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 24 || 24|| 42.8 || .477 || .222 || .771 || 13.6 || 4.3 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 26.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 42.5 || .509 || .350 || .764 || 13.0 || 4.8 || 2.5 || .9|| 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 39.0 || .500 || .257 || .733 || 13.4 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.1 || 25.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 4 || 4 || 41.0 || .443 || .250 || .787 || 13.5 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 1.0 || 25.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 16 || 16 || 37.8 || .434 || .289 || .769 || 12.0 || 3.4 || 1.2 || .4 || 17.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 0 || 21.8 || .522 || .000 || .571 || 5.3 || 1.0 || 1.3 || .0 || 9.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 4 || 39.3 || .529 || .286 || .667 || 13.8 || 3.8 || 1.5 || .5 || 23.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 123 || 108 || 39.4 || .513 || .255 || .717 || 12.9 || 3.9 || 1.6 || .9 || 23.0
NBA records
Regular season
Most offensive rebounds in a half: 13, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, March 4, 1987
Most offensive rebounds in a quarter: 11, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks,
Tied with Larry Smith (Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets, )
Smallest Player to lead the league in rebounds: at 6’6
Playoffs
Most free throws made in a half: 19, Phoenix Suns vs. Seattle SuperSonics,
Most free throw attempts in a 7-game series: 100, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
Most turnovers in a 7-game series: 37, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
As of 2021, he has the 12th highest PER in NBA history.
Post-basketball life
Television analyst
Since 2000, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). He appears on the network's NBA coverage during pre-game and halftime shows, in addition to special NBA events. He also occasionally works as an onsite game analyst. He is part of the crew on Inside the NBA, a post-game show during which Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal recap and comment on NBA games that have occurred during the day and also on general NBA affairs. Barkley has won four Sports Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" for his work on TNT.
During the broadcast of a game, in which Barkley was courtside with Marv Albert, Barkley poked fun at NBA official Dick Bavetta's age. Albert replied to Barkley, "I believe Dick would beat you in a footrace." In response to that remark, Barkley went on to challenge Bavetta to a race at the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend for $5,000. The winner was to choose a charity to which the money would be donated. The NBA agreed to pitch in an additional $50,000, and TNT threw in $25,000. The pair raced for three and a half lengths of the basketball court until Barkley ultimately won. After the event, the two kissed in a show of good sportsmanship.
Barkley was also known for being the first-ever celebrity guest picker for College GameDay, in 2004.
Additionally, since 2011, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for the joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament between Turner Sports and CBS. Barkley has broadcast every Final Four since 2011.
He also served as a guest commentator for NBC's coverage of the NFL Wild Card playoffs on January 7, 2012; the same night he hosted Saturday Night Live, which is taped next door to the Football Night in America studio in Manhattan's GE Building.
Barkley announced in November 2012 that he was contemplating retirement from broadcasting. "[N]ow I'm like, 'Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract, it will be 17 years.' Seventeen years is a long time. It's a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me", he said. After repeating that he planned to retire in 2016, he signed another contract with Turner Sports. He later said that he wants to retire when he is 60 in 2023.
In July 2016, it was announced that Barkley will host a six-episode unscripted show called The Race Card. The show was renamed to American Race, and premiered on TNT on May 11, 2017.
Gambling
Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In a 2007 interview with ESPN's Trey Wingo, Barkley revealed that he had lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million "in a six-hour period" while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, "It's not a problem. If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."
Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, "No matter how much I win, it ain't a lot. It's only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it's fun, I think it's exciting. I'm gonna continue to do it, but I have to get to a point where I don't try to break the casino 'cause you never can."
In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promptly paid the casino. After repaying his debt, Barkley stated during a pregame show on TNT, "I've got to stop gambling...I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble... Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it."
Golf
Barkley began playing golf during his NBA career, later staying with the sport as it was a way to remain in competition after his basketball career ended. He is a regular competitor at the American Century Championship pro-am tournament, regularly finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard. He is widely regarded as a poor golfer with a particularly bad swing; he later underwent training to improve his swing, which led to an improved performance in the 2021 American Century Championship.
Barkley participated in Champions for Change, the third iteration of The Match. As part of a team with Phil Mickelson, Barkley pulled off a major upset defeating Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry by a score of 4–3.
Politics
Barkley spoke for many years of his Republican Party affiliation. In 1995, he considered running as a Republican candidate for Alabama's governorship in the 1998 election. However, in 2006, he altered his political stance, stating "I was a Republican until they lost their minds." At a July 2006 meeting of the Southern Regional Conference of the National School Boards Association in Destin, Florida, Barkley lent credence to the idea of running for Governor of Alabama, stating: I'm serious. I've got to get people to realize that the government is full of it. Republicans and Democrats want to argue over stuff that's not important, like gay marriage or the war in Iraq or illegal immigration... When I run—if I run—we're going to talk about real issues like improving our schools, cleaning up our neighborhoods of drugs and crime and making Alabama a better place for all people.
In September 2006, Barkley once again reiterated his desire to run for governor. He noted, "I can't run until 2014 ... I have to live there for seven years, so I'm looking for a house there as we speak." In July 2007, he made a video declaring his support for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. In September 2007, during a broadcast on Monday Night Football, Barkley announced that he bought a house in Alabama to satisfy residency requirements for a 2014 campaign for governor. In addition, Barkley declared himself an Independent and not a Democrat as previously reported. "The Republicans are full of it", Barkley said, "The Democrats are a little less full of it."
In February 2008, Barkley announced that he would be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014 as an Independent. On October 27, 2008, he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in an interview with CNN, stating that he planned to run in the 2014 election cycle, but he began to back off the idea in a November 24, 2009 interview on The Jay Leno Show. In 2010, he confirmed that he was not running in 2014. In August 2015, Barkley announced his support for Republican John Kasich in the 2016 presidential election. On Lance Armstrong's podcast in 2019, he confirmed that he would not be running for office.
Barkley is an outspoken supporter of gay rights. In 2006, he told Fox Sports: "I'm a big advocate of gay marriage. If they want to get married, God bless them." Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN two years later, he said: "Every time I hear the word 'conservative,' it makes me sick to my stomach, because they're really just fake Christians, as I call them. That's all they are. ... I think they want to be judge and jury. Like, I'm for gay marriage. It's none of my business if gay people want to get married. I'm pro-choice. And I think these Christians, first of all, they're not supposed to judge other people. But they're the most hypocritical judge of people we have in the country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they're Christians. They're not forgiving at all." During a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day double-header on TNT, Barkley responded to a statement made by Dr. King's daughter Bernice, by saying, "People try to make it about black and white. [But] he talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now, people discriminating against homosexuality in this country. I love the homosexuality people. God bless the gay people. They are great people."
Commenting on the Ferguson unrest, Barkley called the Ferguson looters "scumbags", praised the police officers who work in black neighborhoods, and said that he supports the decision made by the grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting. Previously, in 2013, Barkley expressed his agreement with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting.
In 2014, when Barkley was asked about the rumor that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was being accused for not being "black enough" on the radio show Afternoons with Anthony and Rob Ellis, he said:
Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out. One of the reasons we're never going to be successful as a whole, because of other black people. And for some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person. And it's a dirty, dark secret. There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success. It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful... We're the only ethnic group who say, 'Hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' It's just typical BS that goes on when you're black, man.
Barkley has also been known as a critic of President Donald Trump from as early as his Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Before Trump won the Republican primaries that year, Barkley stated his disgust towards the words and messages that Trump was promoting throughout the presidential race. In September 2017, when President Trump called out former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for his kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem during the 2016 NFL season, Barkley expressed his complete disappointment in President Trump (however, Barkley has stated that he does not support athletes kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest). In December 2017, Barkley mocked President Trump's tax bill, stating "Thank you Republicans, I knew I could always count on y’all to take care of us rich people, us one percenters. Sorry, poor people. I’m hoping for y’all, but y’all ain’t got no chance."
In his response to the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments as highlighted by the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barkley stated:
Barkley supported Democrat Doug Jones in the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama. During Alabama's Senate election, Barkley noted that Jones' competitor, Roy Moore, was a complete embarrassment to the state.
In an interview with Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast, Barkley said if he ruled the world for one day, he would get rid of both Republicans and Democrats because "They're both awful", adding: “They fight all of the time like little kids."
Books
In 1991, Barkley and sportswriter Roy S. Johnson collaborated on the autobiographical work Outrageous. Editorial choices made by Johnson in the book led to Barkley famously quipping that he had been misquoted in his own autobiography. In 2000, Barkley wrote the foreword for Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly's book The Life of Reilly. In it, Barkley quipped, "Of all the people in sports I'd like to throw through a plate glass window, Reilly's not one of them. It's a shame though, skinny white boys look real aerodynamic." In 2002, Barkley released the book I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It, which included editing and commentary by close friend Michael Wilbon. Three years later, Barkley released Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?, which is a collection of interviews with leading figures in entertainment, business, sports, and government. Michael Wilbon also contributed to this book and was present at many of the interviews.
Acting
He played himself in the 1996 film Space Jam. He made a brief appearance in the TV series Suits, in episode 3 of the fifth season. He also appeared in the eighth season of Modern Family. He also voices animated versions of himself in Clerks: The Animated Series and We Bare Bears. In 2019, he appeared in "The Piña Colada Song" episode of The Goldbergs as a gym teacher and alien conspiracy theorist briefly trained as a prospective replacement for the departing Coach Mellor. Barkley hosted Saturday Night Live on four separate occasions between 1993 and 2018.
DUI conviction
On December 31, 2008, Barkley was pulled over in Scottsdale, Arizona for running a stop sign. The officer smelled alcohol on Barkley's breath and proceeded to administer field sobriety tests, which he failed. He was arrested on drunk driving charges and had his vehicle impounded. Barkley refused to submit a breath test and was given a blood test. He was then cited and released. Gilbert police noted Barkley was cooperative and respectful during the entire incident, adding that he was treated no differently than anyone arrested on DUI charges. The police report of the incident stated that Barkley told the police he was in a hurry to receive oral sex from his female passenger when he ran through a stop sign early Wednesday. Test results released by the police showed that Barkley had a blood-alcohol level at .149, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in Arizona. Two months after his arrest, Barkley pleaded guilty to two DUI-related counts and one count of running a red light. He was sentenced to ten days in jail and fined $2,000. The sentence was later reduced to three days after Barkley entered an alcohol treatment program.
As part of the fallout of his arrest, Barkley took a two-month hiatus from his commentating duties for TNT. During his absence, T-Mobile elected not to air previously scheduled ads that featured Barkley, stating, "Given the recent developments, for the time being, we've replaced TV ads featuring Mr. Barkley with more general-market advertising." On February 19, 2009, Barkley returned to TNT and spent the first segment of the NBA pregame show discussing the incident and his experiences. Shortly after his return, T-Mobile once again began airing ads featuring Barkley.
WeightWatchers
In 2011, Barkley became a spokesman for WeightWatchers, promoting their "Lose Like a Man" program and appearing in both television and online ads.
Video games
Barkley has been featured in several video games. Barkley Shut Up and Jam! is a basketball video game which was developed by Accolade. It was released for the Super NES and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994, and was followed up by a sequel for only the Genesis in 1995. An unofficial sequel to the initial game called Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden was developed and published in 2008. The game was developed by Tales of Game's Studios and was a departure from the first game in that the game was a traditional style JRPG.
Barkley features in EA Sports starting with Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs in 1991, but by the late 1990s did not appear due to licensing reasons. Barkley was added to the Houston Rockets team in the game Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside.
Barkley was featured in NBA 2K13 as part of the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team". Barkley also had the same role in NBA 2K17.
The NBA2K series includes the TNT team of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith providing each match with pre-match analysis; however, Barkley opts not to join his fellow team members in protest at the 2K series not paying the NBPA any residuals. This boycott also means Barkley is not included in the game as a legendary player as part of any All-Time team.
Personal life
Barkley married Maureen Blumhardt in 1989, and in the same year, the couple had a daughter named Christiana.
Barkley's daughter was named after the Christiana Mall in Delaware. In a 2021 podcast, he explained, "...I just liked the mall." A DNA test read by George Lopez on Lopez Tonight revealed Barkley to be of 14% Native American, 11% European, and 75% African descent.
See also
List of members of the Basketball Hall of Fame
List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career turnovers leaders
List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career minutes played leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual rebounding leaders
Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley
Space Jam
Gnarls Barkley
References
Bibliography
External links
Charles Barkley: NBA.com Historical Biography
Charles Barkley article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
1963 births
Living people
Activists from Alabama
African-American activists
African-American basketball players
African-American sports journalists
African-American television personalities
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
American sports journalists
American sportspeople convicted of crimes
Auburn Tigers men's basketball players
Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball players from Birmingham, Alabama
College basketball announcers in the United States
Houston Rockets players
Journalists from Alabama
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball
People from Leeds, Alabama
Philadelphia 76ers draft picks
Philadelphia 76ers players
Phoenix Suns players
Power forwards (basketball)
Small forwards
United States men's national basketball team players
| true |
[
"Hot Shot is the fifth studio album released by Jamaican-American singer Shaggy. The album was first released on August 8, 2000, in the United States, before being issued in the United Kingdom on 5 February 2001, with a revised track listing. The revised UK edition was also released in Europe, but without the song \"Why You Mad at Me?\". Hot Shot went on to be certified six times platinum in the United States according to the RIAA. The album has sold over 9 million copies worldwide. A remix album, entitled Hot Shot Ultramix, was released in June 2002. Four singles were released from the album: \"It Wasn't Me\", \"Angel\", \"Luv Me, Luv Me\" and the double A-side single \"Dance & Shout / Hope\".\n\nHot Shot was the second highest-charting studio album of 2001 on the Billboard Year-End charts. It was also the best-selling album of 2001 in Canada.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Hot Shot\" – 3:47\n \"Lonely Lover\" – 3:46\n \"Dance & Shout\" – 3:47\n \"Leave It to Me\" – 3:37\n \"Angel\" – 3:55\n \"Hope\" – 3:47\n \"Keep'n It Real\" – 3:55\n \"Luv Me, Luv Me\" – 3:36\n \"Freaky Girl\" – 3:44\n \"It Wasn't Me\" – 3:47\n \"Not Fair\" – 3:47\n \"Hey Love\" – 4:01\n \"Why Me Lord?\" – 3:34\n \"Chica Bonita\" – 4:01\n \"Dance & Shout\" (video)\n\nSpecial UK edition\n \"Hot Shot\" – 3:49\n \"Lonely Lover\" – 3:46\n \"It Wasn't Me\" – 3:47\n \"Freaky Girl\" – 3:44\n \"Leave It to Me\" – 3:37\n \"Angel\" – 3:55\n \"Hope\" – 3:47\n \"Keep'n It Real\" – 3:55\n \"Luv Me, Luv Me\" – 3:36\n \"Not Fair\" – 3:47\n \"Hey Love\" – 4:01\n \"Why Me Lord?\" – 3:34\n \"Joy You Bring\" – 3:28\n \"Chica Bonita\" – 4:01\n \"Dance & Shout\" (Dancehall Version) – 4:27\n \"Why You Mad at Me?\" – 3:12\n \"Dance & Shout\" \n \"It Wasn't Me\" \n\nHot Shot Ultramix\n \"It Wasn't Me\" (Punch Mix) – 3:55\n \"Special Request\" – 3:33\n \"Freaky Girl\" (Strip Mix) – 3:48\n \"Too Hot to Handle\" – 4:57\n \"Why You Mad at Me?\" – 3:12\n \"Keep'n It Real\" (Swingers Mix) – 3:32\n \"Leave It to Me\" (Early Mix) – 4:01\n \"Chica Bonita\" (Player's Mix) – 4:09\n \"It Wasn't Me\" (The Cartel Mix) – 3:45\n \"Dance & Shout\" (Dancehall Version) – 4:27\n \"Hope\" (Dukes Mix) – 4:03\n \"Angel\" (live version) – 5:31\n \"Dance & Shout\" (Klub Kings Radio Edit) – 3:34\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications and sales\n\nReferences\n\n2000 albums\nShaggy (musician) albums\nMCA Records albums\nReggae fusion albums\nJuno Award for International Album of the Year albums",
"Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times is a 1995 biographical musical film directed by Don Was, centered on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Through interviews with Brian and the Wilson family, the documentary examines the ups and downs of Wilson's life, including the early years of the Beach Boys, his years of substance abuse, and his long road to recovery. A soundtrack, I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, accompanied its release.\n\nIts name derives from the Beach Boys' song \"I Just Wasn't Made for These Times\", released on Pet Sounds (1966). According to Was, he created the documentary to enlighten \"non-musicians\" of the significance of Wilson's work and to explain why the phrase \"Brian Wilson is a genius\" had become \"holy gospel\" among musicians.\n\nFor the 2014 biopic Love and Mercy, director Bill Pohlad cast John Cusack as Wilson based on the real Wilson's mannerisms and appearance in I Just Wasn't Made for These Times. Cusack later recommended the documentary as a \"companion piece\" to the biopic.\n\nCast\n\nExternal links\n\nReferences\n\n1995 films\nEnglish-language films\n1995 documentary films\nAmerican music history\nAmerican documentary films\nAmerican films\nBrian Wilson\nFilms about the Beach Boys\nLionsgate films\nRockumentaries\nDocumentary films about singers"
] |
[
"Charles Barkley",
"Olympics",
"When did he enter the Olympics?",
"Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games",
"What did he train for?",
"Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer",
"How was the tryout?",
"He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team,",
"Why wasn't he selected?",
"According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense."
] |
C_29d9d527735c4372af7e4800b812f4d4_0
|
Did he win any type of recognition for being in the Olympics at all?
| 5 |
Did Barkley win any type of recognition for being in the Olympics at all?
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Charles Barkley
|
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense. Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules which had previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The result was the "Dream Team", which went 6-0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8-0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single game scoring record with 30 points in a 127-83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. Barkley was also part of an ugly moment in the 1992 Olympics when he intentionally elbowed Angola player Herlander Coimbra in the chest during a 116-48 rout of that team. At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8-0 record and captured gold medal honors. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player and current television analyst. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck" and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for three teams. Though shorter than the typical power forward, he used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, an 11-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). During the NBA's 50th anniversary, Barkley was named one of the league's 50 Greatest Players. He was again named to the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History for the league's 75th anniversary.
An All-American power forward at Auburn University, Barkley was drafted as a junior by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 5th pick of the 1984 NBA draft. In his rookie season, Barkley was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1985. In the 1986–87 season, Barkley led the league with the highest rebounding average and earned his first NBA rebounding title. He was named the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1991, and in 1993 with the Phoenix Suns, he was voted the league's MVP. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, winning two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. Since his retirement, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett have joined the 20K/10K/4K Club. Barkley is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2006 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team".
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he spat on a young girl while attempting to spit at a heckler, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Since retiring as a player, Barkley has had a successful career as an NBA analyst. He works for Turner Network Television (TNT) on Inside the NBA alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson as a studio pundit for its coverage of NBA games (for which he has won four Sports Emmy Awards). In addition, Barkley has written several books and has shown an interest in politics.
Early life
Barkley was born and raised in Leeds, Alabama, 10 miles outside Birmingham. He was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school. His parents divorced when he was young after his father abandoned the family, which included younger brother Darryl Barkley. His mother remarried and they had a son, John Glenn. Another brother, Rennie, died in infancy. His stepfather was killed in an accident when Charles was 11 years old.
He attended Leeds High School. As a junior, Barkley stood and weighed . He failed to make the varsity team and was named as a reserve. However, during the summer Barkley grew to and earned a starting position on the varsity as a senior. He averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game and led his team to a 26–3 record en route to the state semi-finals. Despite his improvement, Barkley garnered no attention from college scouts until the state high school semi-finals, where he scored 26 points against Alabama's most highly recruited player, Bobby Lee Hurt. An assistant to Auburn University's head coach, Sonny Smith, was at the game and reported seeing, "a fat guy...who can play like the wind". Barkley was soon recruited by Smith and majored in business management while attending Auburn University.
College
Barkley played collegiate basketball at Auburn for three seasons. Although he struggled to control his weight, he excelled as a player and led the SEC in rebounding each year. He became a popular crowd-pleaser, exciting the fans with dunks and blocked shots that belied his lack of height and overweight frame. It was not uncommon to see the hefty Barkley grab a defensive rebound and, instead of passing, dribble the entire length of the court and finish at the opposite end with a two-handed dunk. His physical size and skills ultimately earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound" and the "Crisco Kid".
During his college career, Barkley played the center position, despite being shorter than the average center. His height, officially listed as , is stated as in his book, I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It. He became a member of Auburn's All-Century team and still holds the Auburn record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. He received numerous awards, including Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year (1984), three All-SEC selections and one Second Team All-American selection. Later, Barkley was named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald.
In Barkley's three-year college career, he averaged 14.1 points on 62.6% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. In 1984, he led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament in school history and finished with 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Auburn retired Barkley's No. 34 jersey on March 3, 2001.
He was one of 74 college players invited to the spring tryouts for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, coached by Bob Knight. Barkley made the initial cut in April to the final twenty, but was one of four released in May (with John Stockton, Terry Porter, and Maurice Martin) in the penultimate cut to sixteen players.
In 2010, Barkley admitted that he asked for, and had been given, money from sports agents during his career at Auburn. Barkley called the sums he had requested from agents as being "chump change", and went on to say, "Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?" According to Barkley, he paid back all of the money he had borrowed after signing his first NBA contract.
NBA career
Philadelphia 76ers (1984–1992)
Barkley left before his final year at Auburn and made himself eligible for the 1984 NBA draft. He was selected with the fifth pick in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers, two slots after the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. He joined a veteran team that included Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks, players who took Philadelphia to the 1983 NBA championship. Under the tutelage of Malone, Barkley was able to manage his weight and learned to prepare and condition himself properly for a game; Barkley cited Malone as the most influential player of his career, and he often referred to him as "Dad". He averaged 14.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the regular season and earned a berth on the All-Rookie Team. In the postseason, the Sixers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals but were defeated in five games by the Boston Celtics. As a rookie in the postseason, Barkley averaged 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.
During his second year, Barkley improved his game under the leadership of Moses Malone during the off-season with his workouts, in the process he became the team's leading rebounder and number two scorer, averaging 20.0 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. He became the Sixers' starting power forward and helped lead his team into the playoffs, averaging 25.0 points on .578 shooting from the field and 15.8 rebounds per game. Despite his efforts, Philadelphia was defeated 4–3 by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team.
Before the 1986–87 season, Moses Malone was traded to the Washington Bullets and Barkley began to assume control as the team leader. On November 4, 1986, Barkley recorded 34 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 14 assists in a 121–125 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 20, 1987, Barkley recorded 26 points, 25 rebounds (career-high tying 16 offensive rebounds) and 9 assists in a 116–106 win over the Denver Nuggets. He earned his first and only rebounding title, averaging 14.6 rebounds per game and also led the league in offensive rebounds with 5.7 per game. He averaged 23.0 points on .594 shooting, earning his first trip to an NBA All-Star game and All-NBA Second Team honors for the second straight season. In the playoffs, Barkley averaged 24.6 points and 12.6 rebounds in a losing effort, for the second straight year, to the Bucks in a five-game first round playoff series.
The following season, Julius Erving announced his retirement and Barkley became the Sixers' franchise player. On November 30, 1988, Barkley recorded 41 points, 22 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals in a 114–106 win over the Blazers. Playing in 80 games and getting 300 more minutes than his nearest teammate, Barkley had his most productive season, averaging 28.3 points on .587 shooting and 11.9 rebounds per game. He appeared in his second All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. His celebrity status as the Sixers' franchise player led to his first appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated. For the first time since the 1974–75 season, however, the 76ers failed to make the playoffs. In the 1988–89 season, Barkley continued to play well, averaging 25.8 points on .579 shooting and 12.5 rebounds per game. He earned his third straight All-Star Game appearance and was named to the All-NBA First team for the second straight season. Despite Barkley contributing 27.0 points on .644 shooting, 11.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, the 76ers were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Knicks.
During the 1989–90 season, despite receiving more first-place votes, Barkley finished second in MVP voting behind the Los Angeles Lakers' Magic Johnson. He was named Player of the Year by The Sporting News and Basketball Weekly. He averaged 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and a career-high .600 shooting. He was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year and earned his fourth All-Star selection. He helped Philadelphia win 53 regular-season games, only to lose to the Chicago Bulls in a five-game Eastern Conference Semi-finals series. Barkley averaged 24.7 points and 15.5 rebounds in another postseason loss. His exceptional play continued into his seventh season, where he averaged 27.6 points on .570 shooting and 10.1 rebounds per game. His fifth straight All-Star Game appearance proved to be his best yet. He led the East to a 116–114 win over the West with 17 points and 22 rebounds, the most rebounds in an All-Star Game since Wilt Chamberlain recorded 22 in 1967. Barkley was presented with Most Valuable Player honors at the All-Star Game and, at the end of the season, named to the All-NBA First Team for the fourth straight year. That year, when the New York Times asked the San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson if he would choose Barkley or Jordan for his side in a hypothetical pickup game, Robinson said, "I would pick Barkley. When he is on his game, I think he has the biggest impact ever." In the playoffs, Philadelphia lost again to Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, with Barkley contributing 24.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
The 1991–92 season was Barkley's final year in Philadelphia. In his last season, he wore number 32 instead of his 34 to honor Magic Johnson, who had announced prior to the start of the season that he was HIV-positive. Although the 76ers had initially retired the number 32 in honor of Billy Cunningham, it was unretired, with Cunningham's approval, for Barkley to wear. Following Johnson's announcement, Barkley also apologized for having made light of his condition. Responding to concerns that players may contract HIV by contact with Johnson, Barkley stated, "We're just playing basketball. It's not like we're going out to have unprotected sex with Magic."
In his final season with the Sixers, averaging 23.1 points on .552 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, Barkley earned his sixth straight All-Star appearance and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, his seventh straight appearance on either the first or second team. He ended his 76ers career ranked fourth in team history in total points (14,184), third in scoring average (23.3 ppg), third in rebounds (7,079), eighth in assists (2,276) and second in field-goal percentage (.576). He led Philadelphia in rebounding and field-goal percentage for seven consecutive seasons and in scoring for six straight years. However, Barkley demanded a trade out of Philadelphia after the Sixers failed to make the postseason with a 35–47 record. Barkley was initially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before the end of the season, but the 76ers wound up retracting their deal a few hours later. On July 17, 1992, he was officially traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
During Barkley's eight seasons in Philadelphia, he became a household name and was one of the few NBA players to have an action figure produced by Kenner's Starting Lineup toy line. He also had his own signature shoe line with Nike. His outspoken and aggressive play, however, resulted in some on-court incidents, notoriously a fight with Detroit Pistons center Bill Laimbeer in 1990, which drew a record total $162,500 fine.
Spitting incident
On March 26, 1991, during a game versus the New Jersey Nets, Barkley attempted to spit on a fan who was allegedly heckling with racial slurs, but the result was his spit hitting a young girl. Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of operations at the time, suspended Barkley, without pay, for one game and fined him $10,000 for spitting and verbally abusing the fan. It became a national story and Barkley was vilified for it. Barkley, however, eventually developed a friendship with the girl and her family. He apologized and, among other things, provided them tickets to future games.
Upon retirement, Barkley was later quoted as stating, in regard to his career, "I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."
Phoenix Suns (1992–1996)
The trade to Phoenix in the 1992–93 season went well for both Barkley and the Suns. In his first game with the Suns, Barkley almost recorded a triple-double after racking up 37 points, 21 rebounds (12 of which were offensive rebounds) and 8 assists in a 111–105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 25.6 points on .520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a career high 5.1 assists per game, leading the Suns to an NBA best 62–20 record. For his efforts, Barkley won the league's Most Valuable Player Award, and was selected to play in his seventh straight All-Star Game. He became the third player ever to win league MVP honors in the season immediately after being traded, established multiple career highs and led Phoenix to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976. Despite Barkley's proclamation to Jordan, that it was "destiny" for the Suns to win the title, they were defeated in six games by the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 26.6 points and 13.6 rebounds per game during the whole postseason, including 27.3 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game throughout the championship series. In the fourth game of the Finals, Barkley recorded a triple-double after collecting 32 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
As a result of severe back pains, Barkley began to speculate that the 1993–94 season would be his last in Phoenix. Playing through the worst injury problems of his career, Barkley managed 21.6 points on .495 shooting and 11.2 rebounds per game. He was selected to his eighth consecutive All-Star Game, but did not play because of a torn right quadriceps tendon, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. With Barkley fighting injuries, the Suns still managed a 56–26 record and made it to the Western Conference Semi-finals. Despite holding a 2–0 lead in the series, the Suns lost in seven games to the eventual champions, the Houston Rockets, who were led by Hakeem Olajuwon. Despite his injuries, in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, Barkley hit 23 of 31 field-goal attempts and finished with 56 points, the then-third-highest total ever in a playoff game. After contemplating retirement in the off-season, Barkley returned for his eleventh season and continued to battle injuries. He struggled during the first half of the season, but managed to gradually improve, earning his ninth consecutive appearance in the All-Star Game. He averaged 23 points on .486 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, while leading the Suns to a 59–23 record. In the playoffs, despite having a 3–1 lead in the series, the Suns once again lost to the defending and eventual two-time champion Houston Rockets in seven games. Barkley averaged 25.7 points on .500 shooting and 13.4 rebounds per game in the postseason, but was limited in Game 7 of the semi-finals by a leg injury.
The 1995–96 season was Barkley's last with the Phoenix Suns. He led the team in scoring, rebounds and steals, averaging 23.3 points on .500 shooting, 11.6 rebounds and a career high .777 free throw shooting. He earned his tenth appearance in an All-Star Game as the top vote-getter among Western Conference players and posted his 18th career triple-double on November 22. He also became just the tenth player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in their career. In the postseason, Barkley averaged 25.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in a four-game first round playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs. After the Suns closed out the season with a 41–41 record and a first-round playoff loss, Barkley was traded to Houston in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown.
During his career with the Suns, Barkley excelled, earning All-NBA and All-Star honors in each of his four seasons.
Role model controversy
Throughout his career, Barkley argued that athletes should not be considered role models. He stated, "A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models?" In 1993, his argument prompted national news when he wrote the text for his "I am not a role model" Nike commercial. Dan Quayle, the former Vice President of the United States, called it a "family-values message" for Barkley's oft-ignored call for parents and teachers to quit looking to him to "raise your kids" and instead be role models themselves.
Barkley's message sparked a great public debate about the nature of role models. He argued: I think the media demands that athletes be role models because there's some jealousy involved. It's as if they say, this is a young black kid playing a game for a living and making all this money, so we're going to make it tough on him. And what they're really doing is telling kids to look up to someone they can't become, because not many people can be like we are. Kids can't be like Michael Jordan.
Houston Rockets (1996–2000)
The trade to the Houston Rockets in the 1996–97 season was Barkley's last chance at capturing an NBA championship title. He joined a veteran team that included two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. To begin the season, Barkley was suspended for the season opener and fined $5,000 for fighting Charles Oakley during an October 25, 1996 preseason game. After Oakley committed a flagrant foul on Barkley, Barkley responded by shoving Oakley. In his first game with the Houston Rockets, Charles Barkley had a career-high 33 rebounds. He continued to battle injuries throughout the season and played only 53 games, missing 14 because of a laceration and bruise on his left pelvis, 11 because of a sprained right ankle, and four due to suspensions. He became the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 19.2 points on .484 shooting; the first time since his rookie year that he averaged below 20 points per game. With Olajuwon taking most of the shots, Barkley focused primarily on rebounding, averaging 13.5 per game, the second-best in his career. The Rockets ended the regular season with a 57–25 record and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Utah Jazz. Barkley averaged 17.9 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in another postseason loss.
The 1997–98 season was another injury-plagued year for Barkley. He averaged 15.2 points on .485 shooting and 11.7 rebounds per game. The Rockets ended the season with a 41–41 record and were eliminated in five games by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Limited by injuries, Barkley played four games in the series and averaged career lows of 9.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. During the lockout-shortened season, Barkley played 42 regular-season games and managed 16.1 points on .478 shooting and 12.3 rebounds per game. He became the second player in NBA history, following Wilt Chamberlain, to accumulate 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in his career. The Rockets concluded the shortened season with a 31–19 record and advanced to the playoffs. In his last postseason appearance, Barkley averaged 23.5 points on .529 shooting and 13.8 rebounds per game in a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He concluded his postseason career averaging 23 points on .513 shooting, 12.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 123 games.
The 1999–2000 season was Barkley's final year in the NBA. Initially, Barkley averaged 14.5 points on .477 shooting and 10.5 rebounds per game. Along with Shaquille O'Neal, Barkley was ejected from a November 10, 1999 game against the Los Angeles Lakers. After O'Neal blocked a layup by Barkley, O'Neal shoved Barkley, who then threw the ball at O'Neal. Barkley's season and career seemingly ended prematurely at the age of 36 after rupturing his left quadriceps tendon on December 8, 1999, in Philadelphia, where his career began. Refusing to allow his injury to be the last image of his career, Barkley returned after four months for one final game. On April 19, 2000, in a home game against the Vancouver Grizzlies, Barkley scored a memorable basket on an offensive rebound and putback, a common trademark during his career. He accomplished what he set out to do after being activated from the injured list, and walked off the court to a standing ovation. He stated, "I can't explain what tonight meant. I did it for me. I've won and lost a lot of games, but the last memory I had was being carried off the court. I couldn't get over the mental block of being carried off the court. It was important psychologically to walk off the court on my own." After the basket, Barkley immediately retired and concluded his sixteen-year Hall of Fame career.
Olympics
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but was not selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.
Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules that previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The team was nicknamed the "Dream Team" and went 6–0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8–0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points, only surpassed by the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single-game scoring record with 30 points in a 127–83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. During the game Angola, Barkley elbowed Herlander Coimbra in the chest and was unapologetic after the game, claiming he was hit first. Barkley was called for an intentional foul on the play. Coimbra's resulting free throw was the only point scored by Angola during a 46–1 run by the U.S.
At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8–0 record and captured gold medal.
Player profile
Barkley played the power forward position, but occasionally played small forward and center. He was known for his unusual build as a basketball player, stockier than most small forwards, yet shorter than most power forwards he faced. However, Barkley was still capable of outplaying both taller and quicker opponents because of his unusual combination of strength and agility.
Barkley was a prolific scorer who averaged 22.1 points per game during the regular season for his career and 23.0 points per game in the playoffs for his career. Barkley was an incredibly efficient offensive force, leading the NBA in 2-point field goal percentage every season from the 1986–87 season to the 1990–91 season. He led the league in effective field goal percentage in both the 1986–87 and 1987–88 seasons as well, and also led the league in offensive rating in both the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was one of the NBA's most versatile players and accurate scorers capable of scoring from anywhere on the court and established himself as one of the NBA's premier clutch players. During his NBA career, Barkley was a constant mismatch because he possessed a set of very uncommon skills and could play in a variety of positions. He would use all facets of his game in a single play; as a scorer, he had the ability to score from the perimeter and the post, using an array of spin moves and fadeaways, or finishing a fast break with a powerful dunk. He was one of the most efficient scorers of all-time, scoring at 54.13% total field goal percentage for his season career and 51.34% total field goal shooting for his playoff career (including a career-high season average of 60% during the 1989–90 NBA season).
Barkley is the shortest player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding when he averaged a career-high 14.6 rebounds per game during the 1986–87 season. His tenacious and aggressive form of play built into an undersized frame that fluctuated between and helped cement his legacy as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history, averaging 11.7 rebounds per game in the regular season for his career and 12.9 rebounds per game in his playoff career and totaling 12,546 rebounds for his season career. Barkley topped the NBA in offensive rebounding for three straight years and was most famous among very few power forwards who could control a defensive rebound, dribble the length of the court and finish at the rim with a powerful dunk.
Barkley also possessed considerable defensive talents led by an aggressive demeanor, foot speed and his capacity to read the floor to anticipate for steals, a reason why he established his career as the second All-Time leader in steals for the power forward position and leader of the highest all-time steal per game average for the power forward position. Despite being undersized for both the small forward and power forward positions, he also finished among the all-time leaders in blocked shots. His speed and leaping ability made him one of the few power forwards capable of running down court to block a faster player with a chase-down block.
In a SLAM magazine issue ranking NBA greats, Barkley was ranked among the top 20 players of All-Time. In the magazine, NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton commented on Barkley's ability. Walton stated, "Barkley is like Magic [Johnson] and Larry [Bird] in that they don't really play a position. He plays everything; he plays basketball. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. He's a dominant rebounder, a dominant defensive player, a three-point shooter, a dribbler, a playmaker."
Legacy
During his 16-year NBA career, Barkley was regarded as one of the most controversial, outspoken and dominating players in the history of basketball. His impact on the sport went beyond his rebounding titles, assists, scoring and physical play. His confrontational mannerisms often led to technical fouls and fines on the court, and his larger than life persona sometimes gave rise to national controversy off of it, such as when he was featured in ads that rejected pro athletes as role models and declared, "I am not a role model." Although his words often led to controversy, according to Barkley his mouth was never the cause because it always spoke the truth. He stated, "I don't create controversies. They're there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention."
Besides his on-court fights with other players, he has exhibited confrontational behavior off-court. He was arrested for breaking a man's nose during a fight after a game with the Milwaukee Bucks and also for throwing a man through a plate-glass window in Orlando, after being struck with a glass of ice. Barkley continues to be popular with the fans and media.
As a player, Barkley was a perennial All-Star who earned league MVP honors in 1993. He employed a physical style of play that earned him the nicknames "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound". He was named to the All-NBA team eleven times and earned two gold medals as a member of the United States Olympic Basketball team. He led both teams in scoring and was instrumental in helping the 1992 "Dream Team" and 1996 Men's Basketball team compile a perfect 16–0 record. He retired as one of only four players in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in their career. In 1996, Barkley, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary, was honored as one of the 50 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary Team.
In recognition of his collegiate and NBA achievements, Barkley's number 34 jersey was officially retired by Auburn University on March 3, 2001. In the same month, the Philadelphia 76ers also officially retired Barkley's number 34 jersey. On March 20, 2004, the Phoenix Suns honored Barkley as well by including him in the "Suns Ring of Honor". In recognition of his achievements as a player, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. In October 2021, as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary, Barkley was honored as one of the 75 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1984–85
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 82 || 60 || 28.6 || .545 || .167 || .733 || 8.6 || 1.9 || 1.2 || 1.0 || 14.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985–86
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 36.9 || .572 || .227 || .685 || 12.8 || 3.9 || 2.2 || 1.6 || 20.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986–87
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 68 || 62 || 40.3 || .594 || .202 || .761 || style="background:#cfecec;"|14.6* || 4.9 || 1.8 || 1.5 ||23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987–88
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 39.6 || .587 || .280 || .751 || 11.9 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.3 || 28.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1988–89
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .579 || .216 || .753 || 12.5 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .9 || 25.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989–90
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .600 || .217 || .749 || 11.5 || 3.9 || 1.9 || .6 || 25.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990–91
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 67 || 67 || 37.3 || .570 || .284 || .722 || 10.1 || 4.2 || 1.6 || .5 || 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991–92
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 75 || 75 || 38.4 || .552 || .234 || .695 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.8 || .6 || 23.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1992–93
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 76 || 76 || 37.6 || .520 || .305 || .765 || 12.2 || 5.1 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 25.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993–94
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 65 || 65 || 35.4 || .495 || .270 || .704 || 11.2 || 4.6 || 1.6 || .6 || 21.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994–95
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 68 || 68 || 35.0 || .486 || .338 || .748 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .7 || 23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995–96
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 71 || 71 || 37.1 || .500 || .280 || .777 || 11.6 || 3.7 || 1.6 || .8 || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 53 || 53 || 37.9 || .484 || .283 || .694 || 13.5 || 4.7 || 1.3 || .5 || 19.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997–98
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 68 || 41 || 33.0 || .485 || .214 || .746 || 11.7 || 3.2 || 1.0 || .4 || 15.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998–99
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 42 || 40 || 36.3 || .478 || .160 || .719 || 12.3 || 4.6 || 1.0 || .3 || 16.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999–00
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 20 || 18 || 31.0 || .477 || .231 || .645 || 10.5 || 3.2 || .7 || .2 || 14.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 1,073 || 1,012 || 36.7 || .541 || .266 || .735 || 11.7 || 3.9 || 1.5 || .8 || 22.1
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|All-Star
| 11 || 7 || 23.2 || .495 || .250 || .625 || 6.7 || 1.8 || 1.3 || .4 || 12.6
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 13 || 2 || 31.4 || .540 || .667 || .733 || 11.1 || 2.0 || 1.8 || 1.2 || 14.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 12 || 12 || 41.4 || .578 || .067 || .695 || 15.8|| 5.6 || 2.3 || 1.3 || 25.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 5 || 5 || 42.0 || .573 || .125 || .800|| 12.6 || 2.4 || .8 || 1.6 || 24.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 3 || 3|| 45.0 || .644 || .200 || .710 || 11.7 || 5.3 || 1.7 || .7 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 10 || 10 || 41.9 || .543 || .333 || .602 || 15.5 || 4.3 || .8 || .7 || 24.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 8 || 8 || 40.8 || .592 || .100 || .653 || 10.5 || 6.0|| 1.9|| .4 || 24.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 24 || 24|| 42.8 || .477 || .222 || .771 || 13.6 || 4.3 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 26.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 42.5 || .509 || .350 || .764 || 13.0 || 4.8 || 2.5 || .9|| 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 39.0 || .500 || .257 || .733 || 13.4 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.1 || 25.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 4 || 4 || 41.0 || .443 || .250 || .787 || 13.5 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 1.0 || 25.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 16 || 16 || 37.8 || .434 || .289 || .769 || 12.0 || 3.4 || 1.2 || .4 || 17.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 0 || 21.8 || .522 || .000 || .571 || 5.3 || 1.0 || 1.3 || .0 || 9.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 4 || 39.3 || .529 || .286 || .667 || 13.8 || 3.8 || 1.5 || .5 || 23.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 123 || 108 || 39.4 || .513 || .255 || .717 || 12.9 || 3.9 || 1.6 || .9 || 23.0
NBA records
Regular season
Most offensive rebounds in a half: 13, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, March 4, 1987
Most offensive rebounds in a quarter: 11, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks,
Tied with Larry Smith (Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets, )
Smallest Player to lead the league in rebounds: at 6’6
Playoffs
Most free throws made in a half: 19, Phoenix Suns vs. Seattle SuperSonics,
Most free throw attempts in a 7-game series: 100, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
Most turnovers in a 7-game series: 37, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
As of 2021, he has the 12th highest PER in NBA history.
Post-basketball life
Television analyst
Since 2000, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). He appears on the network's NBA coverage during pre-game and halftime shows, in addition to special NBA events. He also occasionally works as an onsite game analyst. He is part of the crew on Inside the NBA, a post-game show during which Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal recap and comment on NBA games that have occurred during the day and also on general NBA affairs. Barkley has won four Sports Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" for his work on TNT.
During the broadcast of a game, in which Barkley was courtside with Marv Albert, Barkley poked fun at NBA official Dick Bavetta's age. Albert replied to Barkley, "I believe Dick would beat you in a footrace." In response to that remark, Barkley went on to challenge Bavetta to a race at the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend for $5,000. The winner was to choose a charity to which the money would be donated. The NBA agreed to pitch in an additional $50,000, and TNT threw in $25,000. The pair raced for three and a half lengths of the basketball court until Barkley ultimately won. After the event, the two kissed in a show of good sportsmanship.
Barkley was also known for being the first-ever celebrity guest picker for College GameDay, in 2004.
Additionally, since 2011, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for the joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament between Turner Sports and CBS. Barkley has broadcast every Final Four since 2011.
He also served as a guest commentator for NBC's coverage of the NFL Wild Card playoffs on January 7, 2012; the same night he hosted Saturday Night Live, which is taped next door to the Football Night in America studio in Manhattan's GE Building.
Barkley announced in November 2012 that he was contemplating retirement from broadcasting. "[N]ow I'm like, 'Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract, it will be 17 years.' Seventeen years is a long time. It's a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me", he said. After repeating that he planned to retire in 2016, he signed another contract with Turner Sports. He later said that he wants to retire when he is 60 in 2023.
In July 2016, it was announced that Barkley will host a six-episode unscripted show called The Race Card. The show was renamed to American Race, and premiered on TNT on May 11, 2017.
Gambling
Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In a 2007 interview with ESPN's Trey Wingo, Barkley revealed that he had lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million "in a six-hour period" while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, "It's not a problem. If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."
Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, "No matter how much I win, it ain't a lot. It's only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it's fun, I think it's exciting. I'm gonna continue to do it, but I have to get to a point where I don't try to break the casino 'cause you never can."
In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promptly paid the casino. After repaying his debt, Barkley stated during a pregame show on TNT, "I've got to stop gambling...I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble... Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it."
Golf
Barkley began playing golf during his NBA career, later staying with the sport as it was a way to remain in competition after his basketball career ended. He is a regular competitor at the American Century Championship pro-am tournament, regularly finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard. He is widely regarded as a poor golfer with a particularly bad swing; he later underwent training to improve his swing, which led to an improved performance in the 2021 American Century Championship.
Barkley participated in Champions for Change, the third iteration of The Match. As part of a team with Phil Mickelson, Barkley pulled off a major upset defeating Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry by a score of 4–3.
Politics
Barkley spoke for many years of his Republican Party affiliation. In 1995, he considered running as a Republican candidate for Alabama's governorship in the 1998 election. However, in 2006, he altered his political stance, stating "I was a Republican until they lost their minds." At a July 2006 meeting of the Southern Regional Conference of the National School Boards Association in Destin, Florida, Barkley lent credence to the idea of running for Governor of Alabama, stating: I'm serious. I've got to get people to realize that the government is full of it. Republicans and Democrats want to argue over stuff that's not important, like gay marriage or the war in Iraq or illegal immigration... When I run—if I run—we're going to talk about real issues like improving our schools, cleaning up our neighborhoods of drugs and crime and making Alabama a better place for all people.
In September 2006, Barkley once again reiterated his desire to run for governor. He noted, "I can't run until 2014 ... I have to live there for seven years, so I'm looking for a house there as we speak." In July 2007, he made a video declaring his support for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. In September 2007, during a broadcast on Monday Night Football, Barkley announced that he bought a house in Alabama to satisfy residency requirements for a 2014 campaign for governor. In addition, Barkley declared himself an Independent and not a Democrat as previously reported. "The Republicans are full of it", Barkley said, "The Democrats are a little less full of it."
In February 2008, Barkley announced that he would be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014 as an Independent. On October 27, 2008, he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in an interview with CNN, stating that he planned to run in the 2014 election cycle, but he began to back off the idea in a November 24, 2009 interview on The Jay Leno Show. In 2010, he confirmed that he was not running in 2014. In August 2015, Barkley announced his support for Republican John Kasich in the 2016 presidential election. On Lance Armstrong's podcast in 2019, he confirmed that he would not be running for office.
Barkley is an outspoken supporter of gay rights. In 2006, he told Fox Sports: "I'm a big advocate of gay marriage. If they want to get married, God bless them." Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN two years later, he said: "Every time I hear the word 'conservative,' it makes me sick to my stomach, because they're really just fake Christians, as I call them. That's all they are. ... I think they want to be judge and jury. Like, I'm for gay marriage. It's none of my business if gay people want to get married. I'm pro-choice. And I think these Christians, first of all, they're not supposed to judge other people. But they're the most hypocritical judge of people we have in the country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they're Christians. They're not forgiving at all." During a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day double-header on TNT, Barkley responded to a statement made by Dr. King's daughter Bernice, by saying, "People try to make it about black and white. [But] he talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now, people discriminating against homosexuality in this country. I love the homosexuality people. God bless the gay people. They are great people."
Commenting on the Ferguson unrest, Barkley called the Ferguson looters "scumbags", praised the police officers who work in black neighborhoods, and said that he supports the decision made by the grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting. Previously, in 2013, Barkley expressed his agreement with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting.
In 2014, when Barkley was asked about the rumor that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was being accused for not being "black enough" on the radio show Afternoons with Anthony and Rob Ellis, he said:
Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out. One of the reasons we're never going to be successful as a whole, because of other black people. And for some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person. And it's a dirty, dark secret. There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success. It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful... We're the only ethnic group who say, 'Hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' It's just typical BS that goes on when you're black, man.
Barkley has also been known as a critic of President Donald Trump from as early as his Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Before Trump won the Republican primaries that year, Barkley stated his disgust towards the words and messages that Trump was promoting throughout the presidential race. In September 2017, when President Trump called out former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for his kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem during the 2016 NFL season, Barkley expressed his complete disappointment in President Trump (however, Barkley has stated that he does not support athletes kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest). In December 2017, Barkley mocked President Trump's tax bill, stating "Thank you Republicans, I knew I could always count on y’all to take care of us rich people, us one percenters. Sorry, poor people. I’m hoping for y’all, but y’all ain’t got no chance."
In his response to the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments as highlighted by the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barkley stated:
Barkley supported Democrat Doug Jones in the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama. During Alabama's Senate election, Barkley noted that Jones' competitor, Roy Moore, was a complete embarrassment to the state.
In an interview with Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast, Barkley said if he ruled the world for one day, he would get rid of both Republicans and Democrats because "They're both awful", adding: “They fight all of the time like little kids."
Books
In 1991, Barkley and sportswriter Roy S. Johnson collaborated on the autobiographical work Outrageous. Editorial choices made by Johnson in the book led to Barkley famously quipping that he had been misquoted in his own autobiography. In 2000, Barkley wrote the foreword for Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly's book The Life of Reilly. In it, Barkley quipped, "Of all the people in sports I'd like to throw through a plate glass window, Reilly's not one of them. It's a shame though, skinny white boys look real aerodynamic." In 2002, Barkley released the book I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It, which included editing and commentary by close friend Michael Wilbon. Three years later, Barkley released Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?, which is a collection of interviews with leading figures in entertainment, business, sports, and government. Michael Wilbon also contributed to this book and was present at many of the interviews.
Acting
He played himself in the 1996 film Space Jam. He made a brief appearance in the TV series Suits, in episode 3 of the fifth season. He also appeared in the eighth season of Modern Family. He also voices animated versions of himself in Clerks: The Animated Series and We Bare Bears. In 2019, he appeared in "The Piña Colada Song" episode of The Goldbergs as a gym teacher and alien conspiracy theorist briefly trained as a prospective replacement for the departing Coach Mellor. Barkley hosted Saturday Night Live on four separate occasions between 1993 and 2018.
DUI conviction
On December 31, 2008, Barkley was pulled over in Scottsdale, Arizona for running a stop sign. The officer smelled alcohol on Barkley's breath and proceeded to administer field sobriety tests, which he failed. He was arrested on drunk driving charges and had his vehicle impounded. Barkley refused to submit a breath test and was given a blood test. He was then cited and released. Gilbert police noted Barkley was cooperative and respectful during the entire incident, adding that he was treated no differently than anyone arrested on DUI charges. The police report of the incident stated that Barkley told the police he was in a hurry to receive oral sex from his female passenger when he ran through a stop sign early Wednesday. Test results released by the police showed that Barkley had a blood-alcohol level at .149, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in Arizona. Two months after his arrest, Barkley pleaded guilty to two DUI-related counts and one count of running a red light. He was sentenced to ten days in jail and fined $2,000. The sentence was later reduced to three days after Barkley entered an alcohol treatment program.
As part of the fallout of his arrest, Barkley took a two-month hiatus from his commentating duties for TNT. During his absence, T-Mobile elected not to air previously scheduled ads that featured Barkley, stating, "Given the recent developments, for the time being, we've replaced TV ads featuring Mr. Barkley with more general-market advertising." On February 19, 2009, Barkley returned to TNT and spent the first segment of the NBA pregame show discussing the incident and his experiences. Shortly after his return, T-Mobile once again began airing ads featuring Barkley.
WeightWatchers
In 2011, Barkley became a spokesman for WeightWatchers, promoting their "Lose Like a Man" program and appearing in both television and online ads.
Video games
Barkley has been featured in several video games. Barkley Shut Up and Jam! is a basketball video game which was developed by Accolade. It was released for the Super NES and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994, and was followed up by a sequel for only the Genesis in 1995. An unofficial sequel to the initial game called Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden was developed and published in 2008. The game was developed by Tales of Game's Studios and was a departure from the first game in that the game was a traditional style JRPG.
Barkley features in EA Sports starting with Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs in 1991, but by the late 1990s did not appear due to licensing reasons. Barkley was added to the Houston Rockets team in the game Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside.
Barkley was featured in NBA 2K13 as part of the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team". Barkley also had the same role in NBA 2K17.
The NBA2K series includes the TNT team of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith providing each match with pre-match analysis; however, Barkley opts not to join his fellow team members in protest at the 2K series not paying the NBPA any residuals. This boycott also means Barkley is not included in the game as a legendary player as part of any All-Time team.
Personal life
Barkley married Maureen Blumhardt in 1989, and in the same year, the couple had a daughter named Christiana.
Barkley's daughter was named after the Christiana Mall in Delaware. In a 2021 podcast, he explained, "...I just liked the mall." A DNA test read by George Lopez on Lopez Tonight revealed Barkley to be of 14% Native American, 11% European, and 75% African descent.
See also
List of members of the Basketball Hall of Fame
List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career turnovers leaders
List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career minutes played leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual rebounding leaders
Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley
Space Jam
Gnarls Barkley
References
Bibliography
External links
Charles Barkley: NBA.com Historical Biography
Charles Barkley article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
1963 births
Living people
Activists from Alabama
African-American activists
African-American basketball players
African-American sports journalists
African-American television personalities
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
American sports journalists
American sportspeople convicted of crimes
Auburn Tigers men's basketball players
Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball players from Birmingham, Alabama
College basketball announcers in the United States
Houston Rockets players
Journalists from Alabama
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball
People from Leeds, Alabama
Philadelphia 76ers draft picks
Philadelphia 76ers players
Phoenix Suns players
Power forwards (basketball)
Small forwards
United States men's national basketball team players
| false |
[
"Canada has sent athletes to every Winter Olympic Games and almost every Summer Olympic Games since its debut at the 1900 games with the exception of the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted. Canada has won at least one medal at every Olympics in which it has competed. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is the National Olympic Committee for Canada.\n\nAt the 2010 Winter Olympics, which was hosted in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the country won more gold medals than any other competing nation for the first time.\n\nHosted Games\n\nCanada has hosted the Olympic games three times: the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.\n\nUnsuccessful bids\n\nFuture bids\nStakeholders from Vancouver and a group from Québec City have both expressed interest in their respective cities hosting the 2030 Winter Olympics.\n\nMedal tables\n\nSummer games\n\nWinter games\n\nRecords\nIn 2012, Equestrian show jumper Ian Millar competed at his tenth Summer Olympics, tying the record for most Olympic games participated in set by Austrian sailor Hubert Raudaschl between 1964 and 1996. He has been named to eleven straight Olympic teams, but did not compete at the 1980 Summer Olympics due to the Canadian boycott. In 2008 he won his first medal, a silver medal in the team jumping event.\n\nClara Hughes is the inaugural and only Olympian of any country or gender, to win medals all Olympic Games: two Summer and four Winter medals. Cindy Klassen and Charles Hamelin hold the record for most Winter medals won by a Canadian, with six apiece. Penny Oleksiak is the most decorated Canadian athlete to ever compete at the Summer Games, winning 7 medals. \n\nCatriona Le May Doan became the inaugural Canadian to defend their gold medal at the Olympics. She repeated her gold medal in the women's 500m long track speedskating event at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics from the 1998 Nagano Olympics.\n\nAlexandre Bilodeau became the first freestyle skiing gold medallist to defend his Olympic title, and first repeat gold medallist, winning the men's moguls at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. He became the second Canadian to defend their Olympic gold, and first man.\n\nTrampoline gymnast Rosie MacLennan was the first Canadian to defend their gold medal in an individual sport at the Summer Olympics. She won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, the inaugural Olympian to defend their title in that discipline.\n\nAfter captaining the women's ice hockey team to gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Caroline Ouellette became the first Winter Olympian of any country or gender to enter four or more career events and win gold in each. Oullette had previously won gold in ice hockey in 2002, 2006, and 2010.\n\nJennifer Jones skipped the Canadian women's team at the 2014 Winter Olympics to a gold medal. She is the first ever female skip in Olympic history to be undefeated throughout the tournament. Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer, Dawn McEwen and spare Kirsten Wall went unbeaten with an 11-0 record defeating China, Sweden (round-robin and finals), Great Britain (round-robin and semi-finals), Denmark, Switzerland, Japan, Russia, the United States, and Korea.\n\nDuring the 2016 Summer Olympics, swimmer Penny Oleksiak became the inaugural Canadian of either gender to win four medals at a single Summer Games and the distinction of the country's youngest Olympic multiple medalist at the age of 16: a gold in the 100 m freestyle, a silver in the 100 m butterfly, and two bronzes in the women's freestyle relays (4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m). She shares the distinction if being the co-inaugural Olympic medalist born in the 21st century when, in women's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay a few days earlier, won the bronze medal with teammate Taylor Ruck.\n\nAfter capturing gold in 2010 Winter Olympics, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir became the inaugural ice dancers from North America to win an Olympic gold medal, ending the 34-year streak of the Europeans. They were the inaugural ice dance team to win the Olympic gold at home ice and the inaugural ice dancers to win gold at their Olympic debut. They are the youngest pair to win an Olympic title at 20 and 22 respectively. They would win two more silver medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics and two more gold medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics, giving them the distinction of being the most decorated figure skaters at the Winter Games.\n\nBroadcaster Richard Garneau covered 23 Olympic Games, more than any other journalist in the world, starting with Rome in 1960 to London in 2012, missing only the Atlanta and Nagano Games. The International Olympic Committee awarded him posthumously the Pierre de Coubertin medal in recognition of his exceptional service to the Olympic movement.\n\nTop medal earners\nYears in bolded text are Olympics at which that competitor won a medal.\n\n3+ medals at one Olympics\n\nSee also\n\n List of flag bearers for Canada at the Olympics\n List of Canadian Summer Olympics gold medalists\n List of Olympic men's ice hockey players for Canada\n List of Olympic women's ice hockey players for Canada\n Canadian Olympic stamps\n Own the Podium\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n \n CBC Digital Archives - Olympics\n Olympics - TSN",
"is one of the most famous judo competitors in Japan. He is the only judoka in the world who has won three Olympic gold medals in a row, all in the extra lightweight (-60 kg) division.\n\nBiography\nNomura was born into a family of judoka. His grandfather was a local judo instructor, and his father was the coach of Shinji Hosokawa, who won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Nomura's uncle, Toyokazu Nomura, was also a gold medalist at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the (-70 kg) division.\n\nNomura began learning judo at his grandfather's dojo at age six. He was successful in several local and national level competitions during high school and junior-high school, and entered Tenri University in 1993. He won the All-Japan Selected judo championships for his weight class in April, 1996, to gain a spot on the Japanese olympic team for the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, United States. Though relatively unknown at the world level at the time, he won his first olympic gold medal on July 26, 1996, defeating Girolamo Giovinazzo by seoi nage.\n\nNomura swept the All-Japan Selected judo championships again in 1997, and won a gold medal at the 1997 World Judo Championships in Paris to reinforce his position as the premier competitor at his weight class. After winning the All-Japan Selected judo championships for the third consecutive year in 1998, he injured his left knee in the Jigoro Kano Cup semi-finals on January 9, 1999, and was forced to withdraw from the competition. He did not participate in competitions for the rest of the year to recover from this injury and to complete his degree in health education.\n\nNomura made his return at the All-Japan Selected judo championships in 2000, winning the competition for the third time to gain a second trip to the olympics. He became the first -60 kg division competitor to win consecutive olympic gold medals on September 16, 2000 by defeating Jung Bu-Kyung of South Korea by sumi otoshi only 14 seconds into the match.\n\nNomura married former model Yoko Sakai in May, 2001. During this time Nomura took time off from judo to study abroad in San Francisco. He won the All-Japan Selected judo championships for the first time in three years (fourth total win) in April, 2003 to advance to the 2003 World Judo Championships where he made a disappointing bronze medal finish. He won the Japanese nationals for the second consecutive year (fifth total win) in April, 2004, which enabled him to seek an unprecedented third consecutive olympic gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. On August 14, 2004 he achieved this feat with a win over Nestor Khergiani of Georgia. This made Nomura the only olympic judo practitioner to have won three consecutive gold medals, and the first olympic competitor from Asia to win three consecutive gold medals in any competition. This was also the 100th gold medal won by Japan in the Summer Olympics.\n\nNomura did not participate in judo competitions after the 2004 olympic final, but on January 10, 2006, he announced his intention to seek a fourth consecutive gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He made his return with a win at an international tournament held in the Czech Republic, and won the All-Japan Selected judo championships for the sixth time in 2007. In 2008, however, Nomura failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games when, on April 5, he was defeated by Daisuke Asano in the semifinals of the -60 kg category at the National Weight Class Invitational Tournament, which represented the last opportunity to clinch the berth as the Japanese athlete in the -60 kg category. A day after his defeat, Nomura made it known, through a spokesperson, his intention to retire from competitive judo. On April 25, he underwent knee surgery, although it remains unknown whether this injury might have played any role in his unexpected elimination from the aforementioned Olympic-qualifying competition.\n\nHe announced he would continue his career and intended to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Ultimately he did not do so, and announced his retirement from judo in August 2015, stating that his health no longer allowed him to compete.\n\nSee also\n List of judoka\n List of Olympic medalists in judo\n List of multiple Olympic gold medalists\n List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event\n List of multiple Olympic medalists in one event\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Competition videos of Tadahiro Nomura at Judovision\n\n1974 births\nLiving people\nJapanese male judoka\nOlympic judoka of Japan\nJudoka at the 1996 Summer Olympics\nJudoka at the 2000 Summer Olympics\nJudoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics\nOlympic gold medalists for Japan\nSportspeople from Nara Prefecture\nOlympic medalists in judo\nWorld judo champions\nMedalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics\nMedalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics\nMedalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics\nRecipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon"
] |
[
"Charles Barkley",
"Olympics",
"When did he enter the Olympics?",
"Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games",
"What did he train for?",
"Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer",
"How was the tryout?",
"He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team,",
"Why wasn't he selected?",
"According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.",
"Did he win any type of recognition for being in the Olympics at all?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_29d9d527735c4372af7e4800b812f4d4_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article other than Barkley being cut?
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Charles Barkley
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Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but wasn't selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense. Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules which had previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The result was the "Dream Team", which went 6-0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8-0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single game scoring record with 30 points in a 127-83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. Barkley was also part of an ugly moment in the 1992 Olympics when he intentionally elbowed Angola player Herlander Coimbra in the chest during a 116-48 rout of that team. At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8-0 record and captured gold medal honors. CANNOTANSWER
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Barkley was also part of an ugly moment in the 1992 Olympics when he intentionally elbowed Angola player Herlander Coimbra in the chest during a 116-48 rout of that team.
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Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player and current television analyst. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck" and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for three teams. Though shorter than the typical power forward, he used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, an 11-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). During the NBA's 50th anniversary, Barkley was named one of the league's 50 Greatest Players. He was again named to the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History for the league's 75th anniversary.
An All-American power forward at Auburn University, Barkley was drafted as a junior by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 5th pick of the 1984 NBA draft. In his rookie season, Barkley was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1985. In the 1986–87 season, Barkley led the league with the highest rebounding average and earned his first NBA rebounding title. He was named the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1991, and in 1993 with the Phoenix Suns, he was voted the league's MVP. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, winning two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. Since his retirement, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett have joined the 20K/10K/4K Club. Barkley is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2006 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team".
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he spat on a young girl while attempting to spit at a heckler, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Since retiring as a player, Barkley has had a successful career as an NBA analyst. He works for Turner Network Television (TNT) on Inside the NBA alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson as a studio pundit for its coverage of NBA games (for which he has won four Sports Emmy Awards). In addition, Barkley has written several books and has shown an interest in politics.
Early life
Barkley was born and raised in Leeds, Alabama, 10 miles outside Birmingham. He was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school. His parents divorced when he was young after his father abandoned the family, which included younger brother Darryl Barkley. His mother remarried and they had a son, John Glenn. Another brother, Rennie, died in infancy. His stepfather was killed in an accident when Charles was 11 years old.
He attended Leeds High School. As a junior, Barkley stood and weighed . He failed to make the varsity team and was named as a reserve. However, during the summer Barkley grew to and earned a starting position on the varsity as a senior. He averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game and led his team to a 26–3 record en route to the state semi-finals. Despite his improvement, Barkley garnered no attention from college scouts until the state high school semi-finals, where he scored 26 points against Alabama's most highly recruited player, Bobby Lee Hurt. An assistant to Auburn University's head coach, Sonny Smith, was at the game and reported seeing, "a fat guy...who can play like the wind". Barkley was soon recruited by Smith and majored in business management while attending Auburn University.
College
Barkley played collegiate basketball at Auburn for three seasons. Although he struggled to control his weight, he excelled as a player and led the SEC in rebounding each year. He became a popular crowd-pleaser, exciting the fans with dunks and blocked shots that belied his lack of height and overweight frame. It was not uncommon to see the hefty Barkley grab a defensive rebound and, instead of passing, dribble the entire length of the court and finish at the opposite end with a two-handed dunk. His physical size and skills ultimately earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound" and the "Crisco Kid".
During his college career, Barkley played the center position, despite being shorter than the average center. His height, officially listed as , is stated as in his book, I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It. He became a member of Auburn's All-Century team and still holds the Auburn record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. He received numerous awards, including Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year (1984), three All-SEC selections and one Second Team All-American selection. Later, Barkley was named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald.
In Barkley's three-year college career, he averaged 14.1 points on 62.6% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. In 1984, he led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament in school history and finished with 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Auburn retired Barkley's No. 34 jersey on March 3, 2001.
He was one of 74 college players invited to the spring tryouts for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, coached by Bob Knight. Barkley made the initial cut in April to the final twenty, but was one of four released in May (with John Stockton, Terry Porter, and Maurice Martin) in the penultimate cut to sixteen players.
In 2010, Barkley admitted that he asked for, and had been given, money from sports agents during his career at Auburn. Barkley called the sums he had requested from agents as being "chump change", and went on to say, "Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?" According to Barkley, he paid back all of the money he had borrowed after signing his first NBA contract.
NBA career
Philadelphia 76ers (1984–1992)
Barkley left before his final year at Auburn and made himself eligible for the 1984 NBA draft. He was selected with the fifth pick in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers, two slots after the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. He joined a veteran team that included Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks, players who took Philadelphia to the 1983 NBA championship. Under the tutelage of Malone, Barkley was able to manage his weight and learned to prepare and condition himself properly for a game; Barkley cited Malone as the most influential player of his career, and he often referred to him as "Dad". He averaged 14.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the regular season and earned a berth on the All-Rookie Team. In the postseason, the Sixers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals but were defeated in five games by the Boston Celtics. As a rookie in the postseason, Barkley averaged 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.
During his second year, Barkley improved his game under the leadership of Moses Malone during the off-season with his workouts, in the process he became the team's leading rebounder and number two scorer, averaging 20.0 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. He became the Sixers' starting power forward and helped lead his team into the playoffs, averaging 25.0 points on .578 shooting from the field and 15.8 rebounds per game. Despite his efforts, Philadelphia was defeated 4–3 by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team.
Before the 1986–87 season, Moses Malone was traded to the Washington Bullets and Barkley began to assume control as the team leader. On November 4, 1986, Barkley recorded 34 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 14 assists in a 121–125 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 20, 1987, Barkley recorded 26 points, 25 rebounds (career-high tying 16 offensive rebounds) and 9 assists in a 116–106 win over the Denver Nuggets. He earned his first and only rebounding title, averaging 14.6 rebounds per game and also led the league in offensive rebounds with 5.7 per game. He averaged 23.0 points on .594 shooting, earning his first trip to an NBA All-Star game and All-NBA Second Team honors for the second straight season. In the playoffs, Barkley averaged 24.6 points and 12.6 rebounds in a losing effort, for the second straight year, to the Bucks in a five-game first round playoff series.
The following season, Julius Erving announced his retirement and Barkley became the Sixers' franchise player. On November 30, 1988, Barkley recorded 41 points, 22 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals in a 114–106 win over the Blazers. Playing in 80 games and getting 300 more minutes than his nearest teammate, Barkley had his most productive season, averaging 28.3 points on .587 shooting and 11.9 rebounds per game. He appeared in his second All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. His celebrity status as the Sixers' franchise player led to his first appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated. For the first time since the 1974–75 season, however, the 76ers failed to make the playoffs. In the 1988–89 season, Barkley continued to play well, averaging 25.8 points on .579 shooting and 12.5 rebounds per game. He earned his third straight All-Star Game appearance and was named to the All-NBA First team for the second straight season. Despite Barkley contributing 27.0 points on .644 shooting, 11.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, the 76ers were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Knicks.
During the 1989–90 season, despite receiving more first-place votes, Barkley finished second in MVP voting behind the Los Angeles Lakers' Magic Johnson. He was named Player of the Year by The Sporting News and Basketball Weekly. He averaged 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and a career-high .600 shooting. He was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year and earned his fourth All-Star selection. He helped Philadelphia win 53 regular-season games, only to lose to the Chicago Bulls in a five-game Eastern Conference Semi-finals series. Barkley averaged 24.7 points and 15.5 rebounds in another postseason loss. His exceptional play continued into his seventh season, where he averaged 27.6 points on .570 shooting and 10.1 rebounds per game. His fifth straight All-Star Game appearance proved to be his best yet. He led the East to a 116–114 win over the West with 17 points and 22 rebounds, the most rebounds in an All-Star Game since Wilt Chamberlain recorded 22 in 1967. Barkley was presented with Most Valuable Player honors at the All-Star Game and, at the end of the season, named to the All-NBA First Team for the fourth straight year. That year, when the New York Times asked the San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson if he would choose Barkley or Jordan for his side in a hypothetical pickup game, Robinson said, "I would pick Barkley. When he is on his game, I think he has the biggest impact ever." In the playoffs, Philadelphia lost again to Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, with Barkley contributing 24.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
The 1991–92 season was Barkley's final year in Philadelphia. In his last season, he wore number 32 instead of his 34 to honor Magic Johnson, who had announced prior to the start of the season that he was HIV-positive. Although the 76ers had initially retired the number 32 in honor of Billy Cunningham, it was unretired, with Cunningham's approval, for Barkley to wear. Following Johnson's announcement, Barkley also apologized for having made light of his condition. Responding to concerns that players may contract HIV by contact with Johnson, Barkley stated, "We're just playing basketball. It's not like we're going out to have unprotected sex with Magic."
In his final season with the Sixers, averaging 23.1 points on .552 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, Barkley earned his sixth straight All-Star appearance and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, his seventh straight appearance on either the first or second team. He ended his 76ers career ranked fourth in team history in total points (14,184), third in scoring average (23.3 ppg), third in rebounds (7,079), eighth in assists (2,276) and second in field-goal percentage (.576). He led Philadelphia in rebounding and field-goal percentage for seven consecutive seasons and in scoring for six straight years. However, Barkley demanded a trade out of Philadelphia after the Sixers failed to make the postseason with a 35–47 record. Barkley was initially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before the end of the season, but the 76ers wound up retracting their deal a few hours later. On July 17, 1992, he was officially traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
During Barkley's eight seasons in Philadelphia, he became a household name and was one of the few NBA players to have an action figure produced by Kenner's Starting Lineup toy line. He also had his own signature shoe line with Nike. His outspoken and aggressive play, however, resulted in some on-court incidents, notoriously a fight with Detroit Pistons center Bill Laimbeer in 1990, which drew a record total $162,500 fine.
Spitting incident
On March 26, 1991, during a game versus the New Jersey Nets, Barkley attempted to spit on a fan who was allegedly heckling with racial slurs, but the result was his spit hitting a young girl. Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of operations at the time, suspended Barkley, without pay, for one game and fined him $10,000 for spitting and verbally abusing the fan. It became a national story and Barkley was vilified for it. Barkley, however, eventually developed a friendship with the girl and her family. He apologized and, among other things, provided them tickets to future games.
Upon retirement, Barkley was later quoted as stating, in regard to his career, "I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."
Phoenix Suns (1992–1996)
The trade to Phoenix in the 1992–93 season went well for both Barkley and the Suns. In his first game with the Suns, Barkley almost recorded a triple-double after racking up 37 points, 21 rebounds (12 of which were offensive rebounds) and 8 assists in a 111–105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 25.6 points on .520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a career high 5.1 assists per game, leading the Suns to an NBA best 62–20 record. For his efforts, Barkley won the league's Most Valuable Player Award, and was selected to play in his seventh straight All-Star Game. He became the third player ever to win league MVP honors in the season immediately after being traded, established multiple career highs and led Phoenix to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976. Despite Barkley's proclamation to Jordan, that it was "destiny" for the Suns to win the title, they were defeated in six games by the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 26.6 points and 13.6 rebounds per game during the whole postseason, including 27.3 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game throughout the championship series. In the fourth game of the Finals, Barkley recorded a triple-double after collecting 32 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
As a result of severe back pains, Barkley began to speculate that the 1993–94 season would be his last in Phoenix. Playing through the worst injury problems of his career, Barkley managed 21.6 points on .495 shooting and 11.2 rebounds per game. He was selected to his eighth consecutive All-Star Game, but did not play because of a torn right quadriceps tendon, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. With Barkley fighting injuries, the Suns still managed a 56–26 record and made it to the Western Conference Semi-finals. Despite holding a 2–0 lead in the series, the Suns lost in seven games to the eventual champions, the Houston Rockets, who were led by Hakeem Olajuwon. Despite his injuries, in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, Barkley hit 23 of 31 field-goal attempts and finished with 56 points, the then-third-highest total ever in a playoff game. After contemplating retirement in the off-season, Barkley returned for his eleventh season and continued to battle injuries. He struggled during the first half of the season, but managed to gradually improve, earning his ninth consecutive appearance in the All-Star Game. He averaged 23 points on .486 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, while leading the Suns to a 59–23 record. In the playoffs, despite having a 3–1 lead in the series, the Suns once again lost to the defending and eventual two-time champion Houston Rockets in seven games. Barkley averaged 25.7 points on .500 shooting and 13.4 rebounds per game in the postseason, but was limited in Game 7 of the semi-finals by a leg injury.
The 1995–96 season was Barkley's last with the Phoenix Suns. He led the team in scoring, rebounds and steals, averaging 23.3 points on .500 shooting, 11.6 rebounds and a career high .777 free throw shooting. He earned his tenth appearance in an All-Star Game as the top vote-getter among Western Conference players and posted his 18th career triple-double on November 22. He also became just the tenth player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in their career. In the postseason, Barkley averaged 25.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in a four-game first round playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs. After the Suns closed out the season with a 41–41 record and a first-round playoff loss, Barkley was traded to Houston in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown.
During his career with the Suns, Barkley excelled, earning All-NBA and All-Star honors in each of his four seasons.
Role model controversy
Throughout his career, Barkley argued that athletes should not be considered role models. He stated, "A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models?" In 1993, his argument prompted national news when he wrote the text for his "I am not a role model" Nike commercial. Dan Quayle, the former Vice President of the United States, called it a "family-values message" for Barkley's oft-ignored call for parents and teachers to quit looking to him to "raise your kids" and instead be role models themselves.
Barkley's message sparked a great public debate about the nature of role models. He argued: I think the media demands that athletes be role models because there's some jealousy involved. It's as if they say, this is a young black kid playing a game for a living and making all this money, so we're going to make it tough on him. And what they're really doing is telling kids to look up to someone they can't become, because not many people can be like we are. Kids can't be like Michael Jordan.
Houston Rockets (1996–2000)
The trade to the Houston Rockets in the 1996–97 season was Barkley's last chance at capturing an NBA championship title. He joined a veteran team that included two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. To begin the season, Barkley was suspended for the season opener and fined $5,000 for fighting Charles Oakley during an October 25, 1996 preseason game. After Oakley committed a flagrant foul on Barkley, Barkley responded by shoving Oakley. In his first game with the Houston Rockets, Charles Barkley had a career-high 33 rebounds. He continued to battle injuries throughout the season and played only 53 games, missing 14 because of a laceration and bruise on his left pelvis, 11 because of a sprained right ankle, and four due to suspensions. He became the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 19.2 points on .484 shooting; the first time since his rookie year that he averaged below 20 points per game. With Olajuwon taking most of the shots, Barkley focused primarily on rebounding, averaging 13.5 per game, the second-best in his career. The Rockets ended the regular season with a 57–25 record and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Utah Jazz. Barkley averaged 17.9 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in another postseason loss.
The 1997–98 season was another injury-plagued year for Barkley. He averaged 15.2 points on .485 shooting and 11.7 rebounds per game. The Rockets ended the season with a 41–41 record and were eliminated in five games by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Limited by injuries, Barkley played four games in the series and averaged career lows of 9.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. During the lockout-shortened season, Barkley played 42 regular-season games and managed 16.1 points on .478 shooting and 12.3 rebounds per game. He became the second player in NBA history, following Wilt Chamberlain, to accumulate 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in his career. The Rockets concluded the shortened season with a 31–19 record and advanced to the playoffs. In his last postseason appearance, Barkley averaged 23.5 points on .529 shooting and 13.8 rebounds per game in a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He concluded his postseason career averaging 23 points on .513 shooting, 12.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 123 games.
The 1999–2000 season was Barkley's final year in the NBA. Initially, Barkley averaged 14.5 points on .477 shooting and 10.5 rebounds per game. Along with Shaquille O'Neal, Barkley was ejected from a November 10, 1999 game against the Los Angeles Lakers. After O'Neal blocked a layup by Barkley, O'Neal shoved Barkley, who then threw the ball at O'Neal. Barkley's season and career seemingly ended prematurely at the age of 36 after rupturing his left quadriceps tendon on December 8, 1999, in Philadelphia, where his career began. Refusing to allow his injury to be the last image of his career, Barkley returned after four months for one final game. On April 19, 2000, in a home game against the Vancouver Grizzlies, Barkley scored a memorable basket on an offensive rebound and putback, a common trademark during his career. He accomplished what he set out to do after being activated from the injured list, and walked off the court to a standing ovation. He stated, "I can't explain what tonight meant. I did it for me. I've won and lost a lot of games, but the last memory I had was being carried off the court. I couldn't get over the mental block of being carried off the court. It was important psychologically to walk off the court on my own." After the basket, Barkley immediately retired and concluded his sixteen-year Hall of Fame career.
Olympics
Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but was not selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.
Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules that previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The team was nicknamed the "Dream Team" and went 6–0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8–0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points, only surpassed by the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single-game scoring record with 30 points in a 127–83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. During the game Angola, Barkley elbowed Herlander Coimbra in the chest and was unapologetic after the game, claiming he was hit first. Barkley was called for an intentional foul on the play. Coimbra's resulting free throw was the only point scored by Angola during a 46–1 run by the U.S.
At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8–0 record and captured gold medal.
Player profile
Barkley played the power forward position, but occasionally played small forward and center. He was known for his unusual build as a basketball player, stockier than most small forwards, yet shorter than most power forwards he faced. However, Barkley was still capable of outplaying both taller and quicker opponents because of his unusual combination of strength and agility.
Barkley was a prolific scorer who averaged 22.1 points per game during the regular season for his career and 23.0 points per game in the playoffs for his career. Barkley was an incredibly efficient offensive force, leading the NBA in 2-point field goal percentage every season from the 1986–87 season to the 1990–91 season. He led the league in effective field goal percentage in both the 1986–87 and 1987–88 seasons as well, and also led the league in offensive rating in both the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was one of the NBA's most versatile players and accurate scorers capable of scoring from anywhere on the court and established himself as one of the NBA's premier clutch players. During his NBA career, Barkley was a constant mismatch because he possessed a set of very uncommon skills and could play in a variety of positions. He would use all facets of his game in a single play; as a scorer, he had the ability to score from the perimeter and the post, using an array of spin moves and fadeaways, or finishing a fast break with a powerful dunk. He was one of the most efficient scorers of all-time, scoring at 54.13% total field goal percentage for his season career and 51.34% total field goal shooting for his playoff career (including a career-high season average of 60% during the 1989–90 NBA season).
Barkley is the shortest player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding when he averaged a career-high 14.6 rebounds per game during the 1986–87 season. His tenacious and aggressive form of play built into an undersized frame that fluctuated between and helped cement his legacy as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history, averaging 11.7 rebounds per game in the regular season for his career and 12.9 rebounds per game in his playoff career and totaling 12,546 rebounds for his season career. Barkley topped the NBA in offensive rebounding for three straight years and was most famous among very few power forwards who could control a defensive rebound, dribble the length of the court and finish at the rim with a powerful dunk.
Barkley also possessed considerable defensive talents led by an aggressive demeanor, foot speed and his capacity to read the floor to anticipate for steals, a reason why he established his career as the second All-Time leader in steals for the power forward position and leader of the highest all-time steal per game average for the power forward position. Despite being undersized for both the small forward and power forward positions, he also finished among the all-time leaders in blocked shots. His speed and leaping ability made him one of the few power forwards capable of running down court to block a faster player with a chase-down block.
In a SLAM magazine issue ranking NBA greats, Barkley was ranked among the top 20 players of All-Time. In the magazine, NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton commented on Barkley's ability. Walton stated, "Barkley is like Magic [Johnson] and Larry [Bird] in that they don't really play a position. He plays everything; he plays basketball. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. He's a dominant rebounder, a dominant defensive player, a three-point shooter, a dribbler, a playmaker."
Legacy
During his 16-year NBA career, Barkley was regarded as one of the most controversial, outspoken and dominating players in the history of basketball. His impact on the sport went beyond his rebounding titles, assists, scoring and physical play. His confrontational mannerisms often led to technical fouls and fines on the court, and his larger than life persona sometimes gave rise to national controversy off of it, such as when he was featured in ads that rejected pro athletes as role models and declared, "I am not a role model." Although his words often led to controversy, according to Barkley his mouth was never the cause because it always spoke the truth. He stated, "I don't create controversies. They're there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention."
Besides his on-court fights with other players, he has exhibited confrontational behavior off-court. He was arrested for breaking a man's nose during a fight after a game with the Milwaukee Bucks and also for throwing a man through a plate-glass window in Orlando, after being struck with a glass of ice. Barkley continues to be popular with the fans and media.
As a player, Barkley was a perennial All-Star who earned league MVP honors in 1993. He employed a physical style of play that earned him the nicknames "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound". He was named to the All-NBA team eleven times and earned two gold medals as a member of the United States Olympic Basketball team. He led both teams in scoring and was instrumental in helping the 1992 "Dream Team" and 1996 Men's Basketball team compile a perfect 16–0 record. He retired as one of only four players in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in their career. In 1996, Barkley, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary, was honored as one of the 50 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary Team.
In recognition of his collegiate and NBA achievements, Barkley's number 34 jersey was officially retired by Auburn University on March 3, 2001. In the same month, the Philadelphia 76ers also officially retired Barkley's number 34 jersey. On March 20, 2004, the Phoenix Suns honored Barkley as well by including him in the "Suns Ring of Honor". In recognition of his achievements as a player, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. In October 2021, as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary, Barkley was honored as one of the 75 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1984–85
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 82 || 60 || 28.6 || .545 || .167 || .733 || 8.6 || 1.9 || 1.2 || 1.0 || 14.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985–86
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 36.9 || .572 || .227 || .685 || 12.8 || 3.9 || 2.2 || 1.6 || 20.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986–87
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 68 || 62 || 40.3 || .594 || .202 || .761 || style="background:#cfecec;"|14.6* || 4.9 || 1.8 || 1.5 ||23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987–88
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 80 || 80 || 39.6 || .587 || .280 || .751 || 11.9 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.3 || 28.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1988–89
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .579 || .216 || .753 || 12.5 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .9 || 25.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989–90
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 79 || 79 || 39.1 || .600 || .217 || .749 || 11.5 || 3.9 || 1.9 || .6 || 25.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990–91
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 67 || 67 || 37.3 || .570 || .284 || .722 || 10.1 || 4.2 || 1.6 || .5 || 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991–92
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 75 || 75 || 38.4 || .552 || .234 || .695 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.8 || .6 || 23.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1992–93
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 76 || 76 || 37.6 || .520 || .305 || .765 || 12.2 || 5.1 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 25.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993–94
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 65 || 65 || 35.4 || .495 || .270 || .704 || 11.2 || 4.6 || 1.6 || .6 || 21.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994–95
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 68 || 68 || 35.0 || .486 || .338 || .748 || 11.1 || 4.1 || 1.6 || .7 || 23.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995–96
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 71 || 71 || 37.1 || .500 || .280 || .777 || 11.6 || 3.7 || 1.6 || .8 || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 53 || 53 || 37.9 || .484 || .283 || .694 || 13.5 || 4.7 || 1.3 || .5 || 19.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997–98
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 68 || 41 || 33.0 || .485 || .214 || .746 || 11.7 || 3.2 || 1.0 || .4 || 15.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998–99
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 42 || 40 || 36.3 || .478 || .160 || .719 || 12.3 || 4.6 || 1.0 || .3 || 16.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999–00
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 20 || 18 || 31.0 || .477 || .231 || .645 || 10.5 || 3.2 || .7 || .2 || 14.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 1,073 || 1,012 || 36.7 || .541 || .266 || .735 || 11.7 || 3.9 || 1.5 || .8 || 22.1
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|All-Star
| 11 || 7 || 23.2 || .495 || .250 || .625 || 6.7 || 1.8 || 1.3 || .4 || 12.6
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1985
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 13 || 2 || 31.4 || .540 || .667 || .733 || 11.1 || 2.0 || 1.8 || 1.2 || 14.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1986
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 12 || 12 || 41.4 || .578 || .067 || .695 || 15.8|| 5.6 || 2.3 || 1.3 || 25.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1987
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 5 || 5 || 42.0 || .573 || .125 || .800|| 12.6 || 2.4 || .8 || 1.6 || 24.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1989
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 3 || 3|| 45.0 || .644 || .200 || .710 || 11.7 || 5.3 || 1.7 || .7 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1990
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 10 || 10 || 41.9 || .543 || .333 || .602 || 15.5 || 4.3 || .8 || .7 || 24.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1991
| style="text-align:left;"|Philadelphia
| 8 || 8 || 40.8 || .592 || .100 || .653 || 10.5 || 6.0|| 1.9|| .4 || 24.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1993
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 24 || 24|| 42.8 || .477 || .222 || .771 || 13.6 || 4.3 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 26.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1994
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 42.5 || .509 || .350 || .764 || 13.0 || 4.8 || 2.5 || .9|| 27.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1995
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 10 || 10 || 39.0 || .500 || .257 || .733 || 13.4 || 3.2 || 1.3 || 1.1 || 25.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1996
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 4 || 4 || 41.0 || .443 || .250 || .787 || 13.5 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 1.0 || 25.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1997
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 16 || 16 || 37.8 || .434 || .289 || .769 || 12.0 || 3.4 || 1.2 || .4 || 17.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 0 || 21.8 || .522 || .000 || .571 || 5.3 || 1.0 || 1.3 || .0 || 9.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999
| style="text-align:left;"|Houston
| 4 || 4 || 39.3 || .529 || .286 || .667 || 13.8 || 3.8 || 1.5 || .5 || 23.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 123 || 108 || 39.4 || .513 || .255 || .717 || 12.9 || 3.9 || 1.6 || .9 || 23.0
NBA records
Regular season
Most offensive rebounds in a half: 13, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, March 4, 1987
Most offensive rebounds in a quarter: 11, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks,
Tied with Larry Smith (Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets, )
Smallest Player to lead the league in rebounds: at 6’6
Playoffs
Most free throws made in a half: 19, Phoenix Suns vs. Seattle SuperSonics,
Most free throw attempts in a 7-game series: 100, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
Most turnovers in a 7-game series: 37, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals
As of 2021, he has the 12th highest PER in NBA history.
Post-basketball life
Television analyst
Since 2000, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). He appears on the network's NBA coverage during pre-game and halftime shows, in addition to special NBA events. He also occasionally works as an onsite game analyst. He is part of the crew on Inside the NBA, a post-game show during which Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal recap and comment on NBA games that have occurred during the day and also on general NBA affairs. Barkley has won four Sports Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" for his work on TNT.
During the broadcast of a game, in which Barkley was courtside with Marv Albert, Barkley poked fun at NBA official Dick Bavetta's age. Albert replied to Barkley, "I believe Dick would beat you in a footrace." In response to that remark, Barkley went on to challenge Bavetta to a race at the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend for $5,000. The winner was to choose a charity to which the money would be donated. The NBA agreed to pitch in an additional $50,000, and TNT threw in $25,000. The pair raced for three and a half lengths of the basketball court until Barkley ultimately won. After the event, the two kissed in a show of good sportsmanship.
Barkley was also known for being the first-ever celebrity guest picker for College GameDay, in 2004.
Additionally, since 2011, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for the joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament between Turner Sports and CBS. Barkley has broadcast every Final Four since 2011.
He also served as a guest commentator for NBC's coverage of the NFL Wild Card playoffs on January 7, 2012; the same night he hosted Saturday Night Live, which is taped next door to the Football Night in America studio in Manhattan's GE Building.
Barkley announced in November 2012 that he was contemplating retirement from broadcasting. "[N]ow I'm like, 'Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract, it will be 17 years.' Seventeen years is a long time. It's a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me", he said. After repeating that he planned to retire in 2016, he signed another contract with Turner Sports. He later said that he wants to retire when he is 60 in 2023.
In July 2016, it was announced that Barkley will host a six-episode unscripted show called The Race Card. The show was renamed to American Race, and premiered on TNT on May 11, 2017.
Gambling
Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In a 2007 interview with ESPN's Trey Wingo, Barkley revealed that he had lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million "in a six-hour period" while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, "It's not a problem. If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."
Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, "No matter how much I win, it ain't a lot. It's only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it's fun, I think it's exciting. I'm gonna continue to do it, but I have to get to a point where I don't try to break the casino 'cause you never can."
In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promptly paid the casino. After repaying his debt, Barkley stated during a pregame show on TNT, "I've got to stop gambling...I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble... Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it."
Golf
Barkley began playing golf during his NBA career, later staying with the sport as it was a way to remain in competition after his basketball career ended. He is a regular competitor at the American Century Championship pro-am tournament, regularly finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard. He is widely regarded as a poor golfer with a particularly bad swing; he later underwent training to improve his swing, which led to an improved performance in the 2021 American Century Championship.
Barkley participated in Champions for Change, the third iteration of The Match. As part of a team with Phil Mickelson, Barkley pulled off a major upset defeating Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry by a score of 4–3.
Politics
Barkley spoke for many years of his Republican Party affiliation. In 1995, he considered running as a Republican candidate for Alabama's governorship in the 1998 election. However, in 2006, he altered his political stance, stating "I was a Republican until they lost their minds." At a July 2006 meeting of the Southern Regional Conference of the National School Boards Association in Destin, Florida, Barkley lent credence to the idea of running for Governor of Alabama, stating: I'm serious. I've got to get people to realize that the government is full of it. Republicans and Democrats want to argue over stuff that's not important, like gay marriage or the war in Iraq or illegal immigration... When I run—if I run—we're going to talk about real issues like improving our schools, cleaning up our neighborhoods of drugs and crime and making Alabama a better place for all people.
In September 2006, Barkley once again reiterated his desire to run for governor. He noted, "I can't run until 2014 ... I have to live there for seven years, so I'm looking for a house there as we speak." In July 2007, he made a video declaring his support for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. In September 2007, during a broadcast on Monday Night Football, Barkley announced that he bought a house in Alabama to satisfy residency requirements for a 2014 campaign for governor. In addition, Barkley declared himself an Independent and not a Democrat as previously reported. "The Republicans are full of it", Barkley said, "The Democrats are a little less full of it."
In February 2008, Barkley announced that he would be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014 as an Independent. On October 27, 2008, he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in an interview with CNN, stating that he planned to run in the 2014 election cycle, but he began to back off the idea in a November 24, 2009 interview on The Jay Leno Show. In 2010, he confirmed that he was not running in 2014. In August 2015, Barkley announced his support for Republican John Kasich in the 2016 presidential election. On Lance Armstrong's podcast in 2019, he confirmed that he would not be running for office.
Barkley is an outspoken supporter of gay rights. In 2006, he told Fox Sports: "I'm a big advocate of gay marriage. If they want to get married, God bless them." Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN two years later, he said: "Every time I hear the word 'conservative,' it makes me sick to my stomach, because they're really just fake Christians, as I call them. That's all they are. ... I think they want to be judge and jury. Like, I'm for gay marriage. It's none of my business if gay people want to get married. I'm pro-choice. And I think these Christians, first of all, they're not supposed to judge other people. But they're the most hypocritical judge of people we have in the country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they're Christians. They're not forgiving at all." During a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day double-header on TNT, Barkley responded to a statement made by Dr. King's daughter Bernice, by saying, "People try to make it about black and white. [But] he talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now, people discriminating against homosexuality in this country. I love the homosexuality people. God bless the gay people. They are great people."
Commenting on the Ferguson unrest, Barkley called the Ferguson looters "scumbags", praised the police officers who work in black neighborhoods, and said that he supports the decision made by the grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting. Previously, in 2013, Barkley expressed his agreement with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting.
In 2014, when Barkley was asked about the rumor that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was being accused for not being "black enough" on the radio show Afternoons with Anthony and Rob Ellis, he said:
Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out. One of the reasons we're never going to be successful as a whole, because of other black people. And for some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person. And it's a dirty, dark secret. There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success. It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful... We're the only ethnic group who say, 'Hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' It's just typical BS that goes on when you're black, man.
Barkley has also been known as a critic of President Donald Trump from as early as his Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Before Trump won the Republican primaries that year, Barkley stated his disgust towards the words and messages that Trump was promoting throughout the presidential race. In September 2017, when President Trump called out former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for his kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem during the 2016 NFL season, Barkley expressed his complete disappointment in President Trump (however, Barkley has stated that he does not support athletes kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest). In December 2017, Barkley mocked President Trump's tax bill, stating "Thank you Republicans, I knew I could always count on y’all to take care of us rich people, us one percenters. Sorry, poor people. I’m hoping for y’all, but y’all ain’t got no chance."
In his response to the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments as highlighted by the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barkley stated:
Barkley supported Democrat Doug Jones in the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama. During Alabama's Senate election, Barkley noted that Jones' competitor, Roy Moore, was a complete embarrassment to the state.
In an interview with Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast, Barkley said if he ruled the world for one day, he would get rid of both Republicans and Democrats because "They're both awful", adding: “They fight all of the time like little kids."
Books
In 1991, Barkley and sportswriter Roy S. Johnson collaborated on the autobiographical work Outrageous. Editorial choices made by Johnson in the book led to Barkley famously quipping that he had been misquoted in his own autobiography. In 2000, Barkley wrote the foreword for Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly's book The Life of Reilly. In it, Barkley quipped, "Of all the people in sports I'd like to throw through a plate glass window, Reilly's not one of them. It's a shame though, skinny white boys look real aerodynamic." In 2002, Barkley released the book I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It, which included editing and commentary by close friend Michael Wilbon. Three years later, Barkley released Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?, which is a collection of interviews with leading figures in entertainment, business, sports, and government. Michael Wilbon also contributed to this book and was present at many of the interviews.
Acting
He played himself in the 1996 film Space Jam. He made a brief appearance in the TV series Suits, in episode 3 of the fifth season. He also appeared in the eighth season of Modern Family. He also voices animated versions of himself in Clerks: The Animated Series and We Bare Bears. In 2019, he appeared in "The Piña Colada Song" episode of The Goldbergs as a gym teacher and alien conspiracy theorist briefly trained as a prospective replacement for the departing Coach Mellor. Barkley hosted Saturday Night Live on four separate occasions between 1993 and 2018.
DUI conviction
On December 31, 2008, Barkley was pulled over in Scottsdale, Arizona for running a stop sign. The officer smelled alcohol on Barkley's breath and proceeded to administer field sobriety tests, which he failed. He was arrested on drunk driving charges and had his vehicle impounded. Barkley refused to submit a breath test and was given a blood test. He was then cited and released. Gilbert police noted Barkley was cooperative and respectful during the entire incident, adding that he was treated no differently than anyone arrested on DUI charges. The police report of the incident stated that Barkley told the police he was in a hurry to receive oral sex from his female passenger when he ran through a stop sign early Wednesday. Test results released by the police showed that Barkley had a blood-alcohol level at .149, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in Arizona. Two months after his arrest, Barkley pleaded guilty to two DUI-related counts and one count of running a red light. He was sentenced to ten days in jail and fined $2,000. The sentence was later reduced to three days after Barkley entered an alcohol treatment program.
As part of the fallout of his arrest, Barkley took a two-month hiatus from his commentating duties for TNT. During his absence, T-Mobile elected not to air previously scheduled ads that featured Barkley, stating, "Given the recent developments, for the time being, we've replaced TV ads featuring Mr. Barkley with more general-market advertising." On February 19, 2009, Barkley returned to TNT and spent the first segment of the NBA pregame show discussing the incident and his experiences. Shortly after his return, T-Mobile once again began airing ads featuring Barkley.
WeightWatchers
In 2011, Barkley became a spokesman for WeightWatchers, promoting their "Lose Like a Man" program and appearing in both television and online ads.
Video games
Barkley has been featured in several video games. Barkley Shut Up and Jam! is a basketball video game which was developed by Accolade. It was released for the Super NES and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994, and was followed up by a sequel for only the Genesis in 1995. An unofficial sequel to the initial game called Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden was developed and published in 2008. The game was developed by Tales of Game's Studios and was a departure from the first game in that the game was a traditional style JRPG.
Barkley features in EA Sports starting with Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs in 1991, but by the late 1990s did not appear due to licensing reasons. Barkley was added to the Houston Rockets team in the game Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside.
Barkley was featured in NBA 2K13 as part of the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team". Barkley also had the same role in NBA 2K17.
The NBA2K series includes the TNT team of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith providing each match with pre-match analysis; however, Barkley opts not to join his fellow team members in protest at the 2K series not paying the NBPA any residuals. This boycott also means Barkley is not included in the game as a legendary player as part of any All-Time team.
Personal life
Barkley married Maureen Blumhardt in 1989, and in the same year, the couple had a daughter named Christiana.
Barkley's daughter was named after the Christiana Mall in Delaware. In a 2021 podcast, he explained, "...I just liked the mall." A DNA test read by George Lopez on Lopez Tonight revealed Barkley to be of 14% Native American, 11% European, and 75% African descent.
See also
List of members of the Basketball Hall of Fame
List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career turnovers leaders
List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association career minutes played leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff steals leaders
List of National Basketball Association career playoff free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual rebounding leaders
Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley
Space Jam
Gnarls Barkley
References
Bibliography
External links
Charles Barkley: NBA.com Historical Biography
Charles Barkley article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
1963 births
Living people
Activists from Alabama
African-American activists
African-American basketball players
African-American sports journalists
African-American television personalities
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
American sports journalists
American sportspeople convicted of crimes
Auburn Tigers men's basketball players
Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball players from Birmingham, Alabama
College basketball announcers in the United States
Houston Rockets players
Journalists from Alabama
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball
People from Leeds, Alabama
Philadelphia 76ers draft picks
Philadelphia 76ers players
Phoenix Suns players
Power forwards (basketball)
Small forwards
United States men's national basketball team players
| false |
[
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)"
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
|
what were his accomplishments in 1983?
| 1 |
what were Ted DiBiase's accomplishments in 1983?
|
Ted DiBiase
|
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
|
He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.
|
Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
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"The Anoa'i family, originating from American Samoa, is a family of professional wrestlers. Family members have comprised several tag teams and stables within a variety of promotions. Famous members of the family include Rosey, WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, Umaga, WWE Hall of Famer Yokozuna, Roman Reigns, The Usos, and WWE Hall of Fame brothers Afa and Sika Anoa'i, the Wild Samoans. Peter Maivia and grandson The Rock are considered honorary members. WWE Hall of Famer & former wrestler Jimmy Snuka also married into the family through his first wife, Sharon Georgi. Snuka's daughter, Tamina Snuka, is considered as part of the family as well, and WWE Superstar Naomi married into the family by marrying Jimmy Uso.\n\nReverend Amituana'i Anoa'i and Peter Maivia were blood brothers, a connection that continued with Afa and Sika, who regard Peter as their uncle. Peter married Ofelia \"Lia\" Fuataga, who already had a daughter named Ata, whom he adopted and raised as his own. Ata married wrestler Rocky Johnson, and the couple became the parents of Dwayne Johnson, who wrestled as \"Rocky Maivia\" and \"The Rock\" before establishing himself as an actor. Peter's first cousin Joseph Fanene was the father of Savelina Fanene, who was formerly known in WWE as Nia Jax.\n\nAnoa'i Family tree\n\nOther members \nHollywood stuntman Tanoai Reed (known as Toa on the new American Gladiators) is the great nephew of wrestling promoter Lia Maivia (Peter Maivia's wife), while professional wrestler Lina Fanene (Nia Jax) is Dwayne Johnson's cousin. Sean Maluta, nephew of Afa Anoa'i, was a participant in WWE's first Cruiserweight Classic tournament.\n\nTag teams and stables\n\nThe Wild Samoans\n\nThe Headshrinkers\n\n3-Minute Warning\n\nSamoan Gangstas \n\nSamoan Gangstas was a tag team in the independent promotion World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW). The tag team consisted of members from the Anoa'i family.\n\nSamoan Gangstas was a tag team made up of brothers from another mothers Matt E. Smalls and Sweet Sammy Silk (Matt and Samu Anoa'i). Their tag team was formed in 1997 in WXW, the promotion of one half of The Wild Samoans, Samu's father and Matt's uncle Afa Anoa'i. The duo received success in WXW in the tag team division. On June 24, they won their first WXW Tag Team Championship by beating Love Connection (Sweet Daddy Jay Love and Georgie Love). However, they were temporarily suspended and the title was declared vacant. Matt was repackaged as Matty Smalls. They returned in the summer of 1997 and defeated Siberian Express (The Mad Russian and Russian Eliminator), on September 17 to win their second WXW Tag Team Championship.\n\nProblems began between Smalls and Smooth. The two partners began feuding with each other and could not focus properly on their tag title. On March 27, 1998, Smooth defeated Smalls in a Loser Leaves Town match. As a result of losing this match, Smalls was forced to leave the promotion. He left WXW while Smooth focused on a singles career. After a short while, Smalls returned to WXW and the two partners reunited again as Samoan Gangstas and began teaming in the tag team division. They feuded with several tag teams in WXW and focused to regain the WXW Tag Team Championship. However, due to their family disputes and problems with each other, they did not take part in the tournament for the vacated tag title, and instead feuded with each other. Samoan Gangstas feuded with each other after their splitting until Smalls left WXW and began wrestling as Kimo. He began teaming with Ekmo (Eddie Fatu) as The Island Boyz and the duo worked in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) before signing with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and working in its developmental territories.\n\nThe Sons of Samoa \nThe Sons of Samoa are a tag team currently wrestling in the Puerto Rican wrestling promotion World Wrestling Council and WXW. The team consists of Afa Jr. and L.A. Smooth.\n\nThe team was formed at WXW in 1998, briefly as a stable with Samu. The team reformed in April 2009 at a WXW show with Afa Jr. and L.A. Smooth. In 2013, they began wrestling at the WWC promotion in Puerto Rico. At Euphoria 2013, they lost to Thunder and Lightning. They won the WWC World Tag Team Championship from Thunder and Lightning on February 9, before losing the titles back to Thunder and Lightning on March 30 at Camino a la Gloria. However, they won the titles on June 29, 2013, at Summer Madness.\n\nThe Usos \n\nThe Usos (born August 22, 1985) are a Samoan American professional wrestling tag team consisting of twin brothers Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso, who appear in WWE where they are former two-time WWE Tag Team Champions. They are also former five-time WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions. The pair were previously managed by Tamina Snuka and are one-time FCW Florida Tag Team Champions.\n\nThe Bloodline \n\nThe Bloodline is a professional wrestling stable currently performing in WWE on the SmackDown brand. The group is led by Roman Reigns, who is the current WWE Universal Champion, and is also composed of The Usos, and Paul Heyman, who acts as Reigns' on-screen \"special counsel\".\n\nChampionship and accomplishments \n Afa Anoa'i\nChampionships and accomplishments\n Sika Anoa'i\nChampionships and accomplishments\n Lloyd Anoa'i\nChampionships and accomplishments\n Rikishi\n Championships and accomplishments\n Sam Fatu\n Championships and accomplishments\n Umaga\n Championships and accomplishments\n Yokozuna\n Championships and accomplishments\n Rosey\n Championships and accomplishments\n Roman Reigns\n Championships and accomplishments\n The Usos\n Championships and accomplishments\n Dwayne Johnson\n Championships and accomplishments\n Peter Maivia\n Championships and accomplishments\n Jacob Fatu\n Championships and accomplishments\n Lance Anoa'i\n Championships and accomplishments\nNia Jax\n Championships and accomplishments\n\nSee also \nList of family relations in professional wrestling\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links \n Samoan Dynasty\n\n \nProfessional wrestling families\nAmerican families",
"Zeng Yi (born 1957) is a professional painter specialized in oil painting.\n\nAccomplishments\nMr. Zeng was born in Neijiang, Sichuan Province, China. His paintings were published in many fine art magazines such as Chinese Oil Painting, Art Panorama and other newspapers. He have taught for more than 20 years in Art and Design Department in universities as well.\n\n 2005 Participant Beijing Art Expo.\n 2006 Chengdu Television interviewed and reported his artworks of Maidservant Beside Lotus Pool Series. \n 2008 Participant Sir Ka-shing Li Autumn Auction， the works - Maidservant Beside Lotus Pool Series stroke a bargain. \n 2011 Invited to participate Shanghai Spring Art Exposition.\n\nAfter 2009, he frequently traveled to U.S to participate art exhibitions and painting sessions. His paintings were also collected by the Chinese American Museum.\n\nHis work has been praised by many foreign collectors. Jin Rui, a famous painter, pondered on the rich connotations and charms of most traditional Chinese characters from Yi's works. Then he wrote an article \"The Fallen of Flowers Dancing in the Sky Behold Floating Like a Dream- What I found in Yi's Oil Painting\" for him.\n\nReferences\n\n1957 births\nPainters from Sichuan\nLiving people\nPeople from Neijiang"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit."
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
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what more followed this victory?
| 2 |
what more followedthe NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit victory?
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Ted DiBiase
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DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
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Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.
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Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
| false |
[
"The England cricket team represents England and Wales in Test cricket; until 1992, they also incorporated Scotland. Between 1990 and 2004, England played 172 Test matches, resulting in 58 victories, 53 draws and 61 defeats. They faced both Bangladesh and Zimbabwe for the first time in Test cricket during this period, and also played South Africa for the first time in almost 30 years after their apartheid-era sporting boycott was lifted. The period includes what is often described as the England cricket team's lowest point: when they fell to the bottom of the ICC Test rankings in 1999.\n\nEngland faced the West Indies most frequently during this period—playing 39 matches against them—closely followed by 37 matches against Australia. England won more matches than they lost against Bangladesh, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe. Against South Africa they won seven and lost seven, while they had losing records against Australia, India and Pakistan. England won nine matches by an innings, with their largest victory being by an innings and 209 runs against Zimbabwe in 2000. They won by ten wickets three times during this period, and their largest victory by runs alone was against Bangladesh in 2003–04, whom they beat by 329 runs. Conversely, England suffered their third-largest ever defeat by an innings, losing to Sri Lanka by an innings and 215 runs during their tour there in 2003–04. Overall, England lost by an innings 20 times between 1990 and 2004.\n\nKey\n\nMatches\n\nSummary\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nEngland in international cricket\nEngland Test\nTest",
"The 1958 Kentucky Wildcats football team represented the University of Kentucky in the 1958 NCAA University Division football season. The Wildcats scored 136 points while allowing 115 points, and finished with a record of 5–4–1.\n\nSeason\nKentucky opened with a 51–0 win over Hawaii at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. A 13–0 win in the SEC opener against Georgia Tech followed. 2–0 Kentucky, then ranked #17 in the AP poll, then lost four games in a row: 27–6 to #9 Ole Miss in Memphis, 8–0 to #1 Auburn, 32–7 at #9 LSU and 28–0 at Georgia. A 33–12 win over Mississippi State was followed by a 0–0 tie against Vanderbilt. After a 20–6 win against Xavier, Kentucky closed the season with a 6–2 victory at Tennessee.\n\nThe victory over Tennessee was Kentucky's second in a row, and second in a stretch of four games in which Kentucky denied Tennessee a win. The Wildcats were invited to participate in the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl but declined due to what they considered to be poor treatment during their season opener, a win against Hawaii in the stadium in which the Bluegrass Bowl would be played. Florida State and Oklahoma State played in the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl instead.\n\nSchedule\n\nSchedule source:\n\nTeam players in the 1959 NFL Draft\n\nReferences\n\nKentucky\nKentucky Wildcats football seasons\nKentucky Wildcats football"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes."
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
|
when did he fight again?
| 3 |
when did Ted DiBiase fight again?
|
Ted DiBiase
|
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
|
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions
|
Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
| false |
[
"Joves De La Puz is a former professional boxer from the Philippines. In his only known professional boxing fight, he challenged for the then fledging International Boxing Federation's world Bantamweight title against Satoshi Shingaki.\n\nTitle fight\nDe La Puz challenged Satoshi Shingaki for Shingaki's IBF world Bantamweight title on August 4, 1984 in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. The fight was a close one, lasting the fifteen round distance. De La Puz almost made history by becoming the first ever professional boxer to win a world championship in his very first professional fight, when he lost by a 15-round split decision, with scores of 144-147 and 144–146 against him and a 144-143 for him on the three judges' scorecards.\n\nHe never fought again as a professional; no explanation has been given for his not being able to fight again afterwards. He did, however, enjoy Okinawa so much that he decided to make it his permanent home and currently resides there.\n\nHis professional boxing record is 0 wins and 1 loss in one professional boxing contest.\n\nSee also\nJoko Arter\nRafael Lovera\nPete Rademacher\n\nExternal links\n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nFilipino male boxers\nPeople from Okinawa Prefecture\nBantamweight boxers\nSportspeople from Okinawa Prefecture\nLiving people",
"Sir Charles Frederick Hamond (1817 – 2 March 1905) was a Conservative Party politician.\n\nHamond first stood for election at the 1874 Newcastle-upon-Tyne by-election, but was unsuccessful. However, he was then elected for the seat at the 1874 election, but was beaten again in 1880. He continued to fight for the seat, standing in 1885 and an 1886 by-election, before being elected to the seat again in 1892. He held the seat until 1900 when he did not seek re-election.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nConservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies\nUK MPs 1892–1895\nUK MPs 1895–1900\nUK MPs 1874–1880\n1817 births\n1905 deaths"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions"
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C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
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what was the highlight of this team's performance?
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what was the highlight of PWF Tag Team Champions's performance?
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Ted DiBiase
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DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
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DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points.
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Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
| false |
[
"Highlight film is a video synopsis of an athletic team's entire season, especially one produced about such a team in the United States.\n\nThe practice of teams producing highlight films appears to have emerged gradually during the 1970s; a particularly notable offering of this genre was that of the 1979 Dallas Cowboys; its title, America's Team, ended up being popularly applied to the club itself.\n\nToday virtually all American sports teams produce annual highlight films, regardless of the outcome (good or bad) of the club's season; originally turned out as video cassettes, they are more commonly now done in DVD format.\n\nSee also\nNFL Films\n\nFilm genres",
"\"Cruiser\" is a song by American new wave band The Cars, from their 1981 album Shake It Up.\n\nBackground\n\"Cruiser\" was written by Cars songwriter and vocalist Ric Ocasek and sung by bassist-vocalist Benjamin Orr.\n\nUpon the release of Shake It Up, \"Cruiser\" was singled out for some praise. The Bangor Daily News, in an otherwise unenthusiastic review of Shake It Up, cited \"Cruiser\" as a source of \"real excitement\". AllMusic reviewer Greg Prato describes the song as \"rocking\" and a highlight of the album. On the other hand, AllMusic critic Tim Sendra describes the song as \"a pale version of a rocker from either of the first two albums.\" Daily Record critic Jim Bohen describes how drummer David Robinson \"pounds his drums over the beat of the rhythm machine\" to generate \"dance floor dynamics.\"\n\nIn addition to appearing on the album, \"Cruiser\" was released as the B-side of the single \"Shake It Up\". \"Cruiser\" was also included in the 1995 Cars compilation Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology. Prato describes the song as a highlight of the anthology.\n\nLive versions of the song appeared in the VHS release The Cars Live 1984–1985 and the CD/DVD release The Cars Unlocked.\n\nReception\n\"Cruiser\" became a minor rock radio hit on its own. It reached number 37 on Billboard Top Tracks chart in 1982. Along with \"Shake It Up\" it reached #14 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Boston Globe critic Steve Morse praised \"Cruiser\" as a highlight of Shake It Up and an exception from the \"absence of spirit\" of the album.\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\nThe Cars songs\n1981 songs\nSongs written by Ric Ocasek\nSong recordings produced by Roy Thomas Baker"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions",
"what was the highlight of this team's performance?",
"DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points."
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
|
what happened in 1987?
| 5 |
what happened in 1987?
|
Ted DiBiase
|
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
|
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign
|
Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
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[
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions",
"what was the highlight of this team's performance?",
"DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points.",
"what happened in 1987?",
"On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign"
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
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what was significant about 1993?
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what was significant about 1993?
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Ted DiBiase
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DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
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In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen.
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Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
| true |
[
"Pity About the Abbey is a 1965 BBC television drama written by Stewart Farrar and John Betjeman, and directed by Ian Curteis. Pity About the Abbey is a 90-minute play written for a strand of programmes titled Londoners.\n\nThe play imagines that Westminster Abbey, one of the most significant religious sites in the United Kingdom, was demolished to make way for a by-pass. They play satirised what the two writers saw as the current trend to demolish significant or beautiful structures under the pretext of necessity, for example the Euston Arch. It was recorded for television by the BBC and broadcast on 29 July 1965, and later repeated as part of The Wednesday Play slot in 1966.\n\nThe programme still exists.\n\nReferences\n\n1965 television plays\nBBC television dramas\nWestminster Abbey",
"\"What Kinda Gone\" is a song recorded by American country music singer Chris Cagle. It was released in July 2007 as the first single from his album My Life's Been a Country Song, which was released in early 2008. Having reached a peak position of number 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in April 2008, it became Cagle's first Top 10 single since 2003's \"Chicks Dig It\", his eleventh chart single overall, and his final Top 10 country single. It was written by Dave Berg, Candyce Cameron and Chip Davis.\n\nContent\nThe narrator's significant other tells him she’s gone, but he wonders what kind of \"gone\" she is talking about and he proceeds to list off the various meanings of the word.\n\nCritical reception\nKevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song an American B+ grade saying that song is \"packed with personality\" and that he was \"smiling from the first verse\".\n\nChart performance\n\"What Kinda Gone\" debuted at number 58 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs for the week of August 4, 2007.\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nChip Davis, the co-songwriter of What Kinda Gone, chats about the song with the 2 music geeks\n\n2007 singles\n2007 songs\nChris Cagle songs\nCapitol Records Nashville singles\nSongs written by Dave Berg (songwriter)\nSong recordings produced by Scott Hendricks"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions",
"what was the highlight of this team's performance?",
"DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points.",
"what happened in 1987?",
"On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign",
"what was significant about 1993?",
"In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen."
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
|
what is the most interesting aspect of this section?
| 7 |
what is the most interesting aspect of In September 1993?
|
Ted DiBiase
|
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
|
DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
|
Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
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"In aeronautics, the aspect ratio of a wing is the ratio of its span to its mean chord. It is equal to the square of the wingspan divided by the wing area. Thus, a long, narrow wing has a high aspect ratio, whereas a short, wide wing has a low aspect ratio.\n\nAspect ratio and other features of the planform are often used to predict the aerodynamic efficiency of a wing because the lift-to-drag ratio increases with aspect ratio, improving the fuel economy in powered airplanes and the gliding angle of sailplanes.\n\nDefinition \nThe aspect ratio is the ratio of the square of the wingspan to the projected wing area , which is equal to the ratio of the wingspan to the standard mean chord :\n\nMechanism \nAs a useful simplification, an airplane in flight can be imagined to affect a circular cylinder of air with a diameter equal to the wingspan. A large wingspan affects a large cylinder of air, and a small wingspan affects a small cylinder of air. A small air cylinder must be pushed down with a greater power (energy change per unit time) than a large cylinder in order to produce an equal upward force (momentum change per unit time). This is because giving the same momentum change to a smaller mass of air requires giving it a greater velocity change, and a much greater energy change because energy is proportional to the square of the velocity while momentum is only linearly proportional to the velocity. The aft-leaning component of this change in velocity is proportional to the induced drag, which is the force needed to take up that power at that airspeed.\n\nThe interaction between undisturbed air outside the cylinder of air, and the downward-moving cylinder of air occurs at the wingtips and can be seen as wingtip vortices.\n\nIt is important to keep in mind that this is a drastic oversimplification, and an airplane wing affects a very large area around itself.\n\nIn aircraft\n\nAlthough a long, narrow wing with a high aspect ratio has aerodynamic advantages like better lift-to-drag-ratio (see also details below), there are several reasons why not all aircraft have high aspect-ratio wings:\n\n Structural: A long wing has higher bending stress for a given load than a short one and therefore requires higher structural-design (architectural and/or material) specifications. Also, longer wings may have some torsion for a given load, and in some applications this torsion is undesirable (e.g. if the warped wing interferes with aileron effect).\n Maneuverability: a low aspect-ratio wing will have a higher roll angular acceleration than one with high aspect ratio, because a high aspect-ratio wing has a higher moment of inertia to overcome. In a steady roll, the longer wing gives a higher roll moment because of the longer moment arm of the aileron. Low aspect-ratio wings are usually used on fighter aircraft, not only for the higher roll rates, but especially for longer chord and thinner airfoils involved in supersonic flight.\n Parasitic drag: While high aspect wings create less induced drag, they have greater parasitic drag (drag due to shape, frontal area, and surface friction). This is because, for an equal wing area, the average chord (length in the direction of wind travel over the wing) is smaller. Due to the effects of Reynolds number, the value of the section drag coefficient is an inverse logarithmic function of the characteristic length of the surface, which means that, even if two wings of the same area are flying at equal speeds and equal angles of attack, the section drag coefficient is slightly higher on the wing with the smaller chord. However, this variation is very small when compared to the variation in induced drag with changing wingspan.For example, the section drag coefficient of a NACA 23012 airfoil (at typical lift coefficients) is inversely proportional to chord length to the power 0.129: \nA 20% increase in chord length would decrease the section drag coefficient by 2.38%.\n Practicality: low aspect ratios have a greater useful internal volume, since the maximum thickness is greater, which can be used to house the fuel tanks, retractable landing gear and other systems.\n Airfield size: Airfields, hangars, and other ground equipment define a maximum wingspan, which cannot be exceeded. To generate enough lift at a given wingspan, the aircraft designer must increase wing area by lengthening the chord, thus lowering the aspect ratio. This limits the Airbus A380 to 80m wide with an aspect ratio of 7.8, while the Boeing 787 or Airbus A350 have an aspect ratio of 9.5, influencing flight economy.\n\nVariable aspect ratio\n\nAircraft which approach or exceed the speed of sound sometimes incorporate variable-sweep wings. These wings give a high aspect ratio when unswept and a low aspect ratio at maximum sweep.\n\nIn subsonic flow, steeply swept and narrow wings are inefficient compared to a high-aspect-ratio wing. However, as the flow becomes transonic and then supersonic, the shock wave first generated along the wing's upper surface causes wave drag on the aircraft, and this drag is proportional to the span of the wing. Thus a long span, valuable at low speeds, causes excessive drag at transonic and supersonic speeds.\n\nBy varying the sweep the wing can be optimised for the current flight speed. However, the extra weight and complexity of a moveable wing mean that such a system is not included in many designs.\n\nBirds and bats\n\nThe aspect ratios of birds' and bats' wings vary considerably. Birds that fly long distances or spend long periods soaring such as albatrosses and eagles often have wings of high aspect ratio. By contrast, birds which require good maneuverability, such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk, have wings of low aspect ratio.\n\nDetails\nFor a constant-chord wing of chord c and span b, the aspect ratio is given by:\n\nIf the wing is swept, c is measured parallel to the direction of forward flight.\n\nFor most wings the length of the chord is not a constant but varies along the wing, so the aspect ratio AR is defined as the square of the wingspan b divided by the wing area S. In symbols,\n.\n\nFor such a wing with varying chord, the standard mean chord SMC is defined as \n\nThe performance of aspect ratio AR related to the lift-to-drag-ratio and wingtip vortices is illustrated in the formula used to calculate the drag coefficient of an aircraft \n\nwhere\n{| border=\"0\"\n|-\n| || is the aircraft drag coefficient\n|-\n| || is the aircraft zero-lift drag coefficient,\n|-\n| || is the aircraft lift coefficient,\n|-\n| || is the circumference-to-diameter ratio of a circle, pi,\n|- \n| || is the Oswald efficiency number\n|-\n| || is the aspect ratio.\n|}\n\nWetted aspect ratio\nThe wetted aspect ratio considers the whole wetted surface area of the airframe, , rather than just the wing. It is a better measure of the aerodynamic efficiency of an aircraft than the wing aspect ratio. It is defined as:\n\nwhere is span and is the wetted surface.\n\nIllustrative examples are provided by the Boeing B-47 and Avro Vulcan. Both aircraft have very similar performance although they are radically different. The B-47 has a high aspect ratio wing, while the Avro Vulcan has a low aspect ratio wing. They have, however, a very similar wetted aspect ratio.\n\nSee also\nCenterboard\nWing configuration\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n Anderson, John D. Jr, Introduction to Flight, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill. New York, NY. \n Anderson, John D. Jr, Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Section 5.3 (4th edition), McGraw-Hill. New York, NY. \n L. J. Clancy (1975), Aerodynamics, Pitman Publishing Limited, London \n John P. Fielding. Introduction to Aircraft Design, Cambridge University Press, \n Daniel P. Raymer (1989). Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., Washington, DC. \n McLean, Doug, Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics, Section 3.3.5 (1st Edition), Wiley. \n\nEngineering ratios\nAircraft wing design\nWing configurations",
"The Cyclopedia Talislanta is a supplement published by Bard Games in 1988 for the fantasy role-playing game Talislanta.\n\nContents\nThe Cyclopedia Talislanta, by Stephan Michael Sechi and with cover art by P.D. Breeding-Black, is the fifth supplement about the world of Talislanta. Information includes\n places of interest in Talislanta \n new monsters, animals, and plants \n New character types\n new skills and abilities \n\nThere are full-color maps of sections of Talislanta which join together to create a full map of the continent.\n\nReception\nStewart Wieck reviewed The Cyclopedia Talislanta for White Wolf #14, rating it 4 overall, and stated that \"Ownership of this book is a necessity for gamers with campaigns set in Talislanta. Other gamers should take a look just to see what Talislanta offers.\"\n\nIn the May 1989 edition of Dragon (Issue #145), Jim Bambra applauded the \"excellent interior illustrations\", and the wide range of new material. He concluded \"GMs and players who already adventure in Talislanta or use it as a source of ideas will find plenty of interesting material within this books pages, as it adds more interesting detail and color to the setting.\"\n\nIn the July-August 1989 edition of Space Gamer (Vol. II No. 1), Craig Sheeley commented that \"The encyclopedia-style information is listed alphabetically, a minor drawback which spreads specific places in the same areas throughout this section. The section new character race types is brief and concise, as is the gamemaster section (which takes up two pages with new weapons, skills and information.)\"\n\nReferences\n\nTalislanta supplements"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions",
"what was the highlight of this team's performance?",
"DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points.",
"what happened in 1987?",
"On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign",
"what was significant about 1993?",
"In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen.",
"what is the most interesting aspect of this section?",
"DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF."
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
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did he regain this title?
| 8 |
did Ted DiBiase regain the titles stripped title after 1993?
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Ted DiBiase
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DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
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The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship.
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Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
| true |
[
"Those of the Unlight is the title of the second studio album by Swedish black metal band Marduk.\n\nIt was released in October 1993 by Osmose Productions, and reissued in digipak format on April 4, 2006 by Regain Records, with bonus videos of three songs performed live on August 12, 1993.\n\nIt is the first album the band produced in a proper black metal style, as opposed to the blackened death metal approach of their 1992 debut, Dark Endless.\n\nThose of the Unlight is the last Marduk release to feature Joakim Göthberg on drums, as he would purely assume vocal duties by the next studio album, Opus Nocturne. It also the last studio release to have two guitarists, as Devo Andersson was not in Marduk after this release, although he did return in 2004 as the bassist.\n\n\"Burn My Coffin\" was originally the title for a track that would appear on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, the title was changed by Per Yngve Ohlin before he died. Marduk later adopted the title for the song on this album.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\n\nMarduk\n Joakim Af Gravf (Joakim Göthberg) – vocals, drums\n Morgan Håkansson (Patrik Niclas Morgan Håkansson) – guitar\n Devo Andersson (Dan Everth Magnus Andersson) – guitar\n B. War (Roger Svensson) – bass\n\nGuest\n Dan Swanö – mixing\n\nReferences\n\n1993 albums\nMarduk (band) albums\nOsmose Productions albums\nRegain Records albums",
"Latisha Chan and Martina Hingis were the defending champions, but Hingis retired from professional tennis at the end of 2017 and Chan chose to prepare for the Asian Games instead.\n\nLucie Hradecká and Ekaterina Makarova won the title, defeating Elise Mertens and Demi Schuurs in the final, 6–2, 7–5.\n\nTímea Babos will regain the WTA no. 1 doubles ranking at the end of the tournament as Chan did not defend her title. Kateřina Siniaková was also in contention for the top ranking at the start of the tournament.\n\nSeeds\nThe top four seeds received a bye into the second round.\n\nDraw\n\nFinals\n\nTop half\n\nBottom half\n\nReferences\n\nSources\nMain Draw\n\nWestern & Southern Open Doubles\nWomen's Doubles"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions",
"what was the highlight of this team's performance?",
"DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points.",
"what happened in 1987?",
"On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign",
"what was significant about 1993?",
"In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen.",
"what is the most interesting aspect of this section?",
"DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.",
"did he regain this title?",
"The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship."
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
|
what followed this?
| 9 |
what followed The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship.?
|
Ted DiBiase
|
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
|
DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League.
|
Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
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"Consequences is an old parlour game in a similar vein to the Surrealist game exquisite corpse and Mad Libs.\n\nEach player is given a sheet of paper, and all are told to write down a word or phrase to fit a description (\"an animal\"), optionally with some extra words to make the story. Each player then folds the paper over to hide the most recent line, and hands it to the next person. At the end of the game, the stories are read out.\n\nExample game\nThe exact sequence varies, but an example sequence given in Everyman's Word Games is:\n An adjective\n A man's name\n The word met followed by an adjective\n A woman's name\n The word at followed by where they met\n The word to followed by what they went there for\n The words he wore followed by what he wore\n The words she wore followed by she wore\n What he did\n What she did\n The words and the consequence was followed by details of what happened as a result\n The words and the world said followed by what it said\n\nThe same reference book gives the following example of a completed story:\n\nVariations\nConsequences can also be played in a drawing version, sometimes known as picture consequences, where the first player draws the head, passes it unseen (by means of folding) to the second player who draws the body, then on to the third player who draws the legs. The composite person or creature is then revealed to all by unfolding the paper.\n\nAlthough Consequences originally is an analogue game there are digital versions available, some of which are slightly modified and adjusted to a digital roam. Examples: FoldingStory™, Unfolding Stories, etc.\n\nReferences\n\nComedy games\nPaper-and-pencil games\nParty games\nRandom text generation",
"TV Time is a social television and tracking website that allows users to report what television series and movies they have seen.\n\nMost followed television series \n\nAs of 1 January, 2022, the most followed television shows on TV Time are:\n\nMost followed films \n\nAs of June 18 2021, the most followed films on TV Time were:\n\nReferences \n\nLists of Internet-related superlatives\n21st century-related lists"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions",
"what was the highlight of this team's performance?",
"DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points.",
"what happened in 1987?",
"On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign",
"what was significant about 1993?",
"In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen.",
"what is the most interesting aspect of this section?",
"DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.",
"did he regain this title?",
"The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship.",
"what followed this?",
"DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League."
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
|
how did they do in the league?
| 10 |
how did The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. do in the league?
|
Ted DiBiase
|
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
|
DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers
|
Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
| false |
[
"The Migraine Disability Assessment Test (MIDAS) is a test used by doctors to determine how severely migraines affect a patient's life. Patients are asked questions about the frequency and duration of their headaches, as well as how often these headaches limited their ability to participate in activities at work, at school, or at home.\n\nThe test was evaluated by the professional journal Neurology in 2001; it was found to be both reliable and valid.\n\nQuestions\nThe MIDAS contains the following questions:\n\n On how many days in the last 3 months did you miss work or school because of your headaches?\n How many days in the last 3 months was your productivity at work or school reduced by half or more because of your headaches? (Do not include days you counted in question 1 where you missed work or school.)\n On how many days in the last 3 months did you not do household work because of your headaches?\n How many days in the last three months was your productivity in household work reduced by half of more because of your headaches? (Do not include days you counted in question 3 where you did not do household work.)\n On how many days in the last 3 months did you miss family, social or leisure activities because of your headaches?\n\nThe patient's score consists of the total of these five questions. Additionally, there is a section for patients to share with their doctors:\n\nWhat your Physician will need to know about your headache:\n\nA. On how many days in the last 3 months did you have a headache?\n(If a headache lasted more than 1 day, count each day.)\t\n\nB. On a scale of 0 - 10, on average how painful were these headaches? \n(where 0 = no pain at all and 10 = pain as bad as it can be.)\n\nScoring\nOnce scored, the test gives the patient an idea of how debilitating his/her migraines are based on this scale:\n\n0 to 5, MIDAS Grade I, Little or no disability \n\n6 to 10, MIDAS Grade II, Mild disability\n\n11 to 20, MIDAS Grade III, Moderate disability\n\n21+, MIDAS Grade IV, Severe disability\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nMigraine Treatment\n\nMigraine",
"Hot Dog was a Saturday morning documentary series for children, seen on NBC from September 12, 1970 to September 4, 1971. Created by Frank Buxton and co-produced by Buxton and Lee Mendelson, the program was notable for its hosts – comedienne Jo Anne Worley, comedian Jonathan Winters and writer and actor Woody Allen. The pilot, televised on March 28, 1970, starred Worley, Allen and Tom Smothers, who was replaced with Winters when the show became a series.\n\nBased on Buxton's travels as a comedian (and later, as host of the ABC series Discovery), which took him on tours to various factories, Hot Dog explained, in a humorous manner, how we do things (such as snore) and how things were made (such as the eponymous hot dogs and their buns, plus condiments like mustard).\n\nSeventy topics were covered during the course of this series, which lasted 13 episodes and was rerun the rest of the season. NBC won a Peabody award for the series in 1970.\n\nSome of the music in this series was performed by The Youngbloods.\n\nSyndication and alternate versions\nReruns of Hot Dog were syndicated during the 1977–1978 television season, at a time when Allen had firmly established himself as a motion picture star, director, and writer. Portions of Hot Dog were also seen on a local KNBC children's program in Los Angeles, That's Cat, which debuted in 1976.\n\nIn 1971, the Individual topic segments were sold to schools on 16mm film.\n\nTopics \n(listed alphabetically)\n \"How does a frog jump?\"\n \"How does a letter get through the mail?\"\n \"How do they get toothpaste in the tube?\"\n \"How do they make a baseball glove?\" \n \"How do they make a hot dog roll?\"\n \"How do they make a surfboard?\"\n \"How do they make baseballs?\"\n “How do they make bicycles?”\n \"How do they make bowling balls?\"\n \"How do they make bubblegum?\"\n \"How do they make cartoons?\"\n \"How do they make chocolate?\"\n \"How do they make playing cards?\" \n \"How do they make pennies?\" \n \"How do they make plywood\"\n \"How do they make spaghetti?\"\n \"How do they make tennis shoes?\"\n \"How do they make toothbrushes?\"\n \"How do they make T-shirts?\"\n \"How money is made\"\n \"Is that really lead in a lead pencil?\"\n \"What makes popcorn pop?\"\n \"What's a compass?\"\n \"Where does honey come from?\"\n \"Where does lumber come from?\"\n \"Where do felt tip pens come from?\"\n \"Who invented the hot dog?\"\n\nReferences\n\n The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television by Wesley Hyatt (Billboard Books 1997)\n\nExternal links\n \n List of productions, including Hot Dog episodes. produced by Lee Mendelson – Frank Buxton Joint Film Productions\n Frank Buxton's web page on the series Hot Dog\n\nScience education television series\n1970s American documentary television series\n1970s American children's television series\n1970s American science fiction television series\n1970 American television series debuts\n1971 American television series endings\nAmerican children's education television series\nNBC original programming\nPeabody Award-winning television programs"
] |
[
"Ted DiBiase",
"All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983-1987, 1993)",
"what were his accomplishments in 1983?",
"He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit.",
"what more followed this victory?",
"Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes.",
"when did he fight again?",
"In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions",
"what was the highlight of this team's performance?",
"DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points.",
"what happened in 1987?",
"On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign",
"what was significant about 1993?",
"In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen.",
"what is the most interesting aspect of this section?",
"DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.",
"did he regain this title?",
"The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship.",
"what followed this?",
"DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League.",
"how did they do in the league?",
"DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers"
] |
C_d87673e836354baf8d079e4fe6cc1af2_0
|
did he fight any one in 1993?
| 11 |
did DiBiase fight any one in 1993?
|
Ted DiBiase
|
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Two months later on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later in March 4, 1984. In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin: Stan Hansen and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody who left for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious finishing in first place with 7 points. On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regain the titles for a second time, but would be stripped of the titles shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF. In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the titles so they could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match on November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him). CANNOTANSWER
|
November 14 where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger
|
Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE, working in their 'Legends' program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling history.
Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He purchased the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Early life
DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Miami, Florida. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase., who married his mother when he was 4 years old.
His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Mid-South Wrestling (1974–1979)
Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.
World Wrestling Federation (1979)
DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.
He was Hulk Hogan's opponent in Hogan's first Madison Square Garden match.
National Wrestling Alliance and return to MSW / Universal Wrestling Federation (1980–1987)
DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.
In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.
While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign up despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1983–1987, 1993)
DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.
In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.
On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.
In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).
Return to the WWF (1987–1993, 1994–1996)
The Million Dollar Man (1987–1991)
DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. Dibiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.
On a June 27 episode of WWF Superstars, DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.
DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera was paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.
His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling, where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of The Main Event I (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.
However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage throughout the summer of 1988, culminating in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.
Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.
At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 The Main Event II. He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 Saturday Night's Main Event XX. After that match, he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan.
DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on WWF Superstars of Wrestling after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII, DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.
In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII, he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." Dibiase then received a shot at the world champion: the Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when Dibiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time Dibiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.]
At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX, DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.
DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of Prime Time Wrestling which was dubbed Survivor Series Showdown. At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.
Money Inc. (1992–1993)
Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.
After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of Wrestling Challenge from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.
DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw. DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.
Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.
After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.
DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.
As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)
DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.
DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of Nitro, he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.
In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".
Second return to WWE (2004–2008, 2009–present)
Backstage roles (2004–2008)
In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at WWE Homecoming, DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.
DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of Raw behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the Raw Family Reunion on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.
DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the Raw 15th Anniversary Special on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."
On the May 19, 2008 edition of Raw, he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following Raw, DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.
WWE Hall of Fame and sporadic appearances (2009–present)
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on Raw the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and an unlockable superstar in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 and WWE 2K14. DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of Raw. DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of NXT, where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of Raw on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on Smackdown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the March 4, 2013 Old School Raw at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 Old School Raw special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.
On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of Raw in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.
On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.
NXT (2021)
On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by LA Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.
Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.
Christian ministry
DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded Heart of David Ministry and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. He also visited a church in Afton, NY, helping many in the crowd to pray, and accept Christ as their Saviour. Ted is also the author of Every Man Has His Price, a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony. In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October of 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries.
Books
DiBiase, Ted. Every Man Has His Price. Multnomah Publishers. 1997.
DiBiase, Ted. The Million Dollar Man. Pocket Books. 2008.
Penholder
Ted DiBiase (Fore-wording Author), William J. Bruce III (Author)
Documentaries
Wrestling with Faith is a documentary film about Ted DiBiase. It went into production in February 2010.
The Price of Fame is a documentary film directed by Peter Ferriero and executive produced by Ferriero, Ted DiBiase Jr. & Engage Media Partners. The film features Ted DiBiase Jr. following his father's story of redemption and faith. It was released on November 7, 2017 in 650 theaters through Fathom Events. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 10, 2018.
Nine Legends is a documentary in which Ted DiBiase is profiled as one of the nine legends.
Personal life
DiBiase's sons, Mike, Ted Jr. and Brett are professional wrestlers.
DiBiase went to West Texas State University, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
In an interview with ESPN.com in 2016, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil booking independent wrestling shows with the two without DiBiase's knowledge and subsequently no-showing the events. DiBiase had to subsequently apologize to the promotions for the unintentional no-shows and had to stress that Virgil doesn't represent him for bookings.
Championships and accomplishments
All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA United National Championship (1 time)
PWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Hansen
World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Stan Hansen
World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1985) – with Stan Hansen
Champion Carnival Technique Award (1980)
Champion Carnival Outstanding Performance Award (1982)
Cauliflower Alley Club
Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2010)
Central States Wrestling
NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Dutch Pro Wrestling
Dutch Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Stan Frazier (1), and Steve Olsonoski (1)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
NWA Tri-State/Mid-South Wrestling Association
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Paul Orndorff (1), Matt Borne (1), Jerry Stubbs (1), Hercules Hernandez (1), and Steve Williams (2)
NWA Western States Sports
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ervin Smith (1) and Tito Santana (1)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1982)
Ranked No. 17 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991
Ranked No. 32 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
Ranked No. 20, No. 24, and No. 61 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, and Irwin R. Schyster, respectively, in 2003
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2007
St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame (2014)
Texas All-Star Wrestling
TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
Million Dollar Championship (2 times)
WWF North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Irwin R. Schyster
King of the Ring (1988)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)
Slammy Award (2 times)
Humanitarian of the Year (1987)
Best Manager (1994)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (1987)
Best Heel (1987, 1988)
Best Technical Wrestler (1979–1981)
Feud of the Year (1982)
Feud of the Year (1985)
Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo
Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
Notes
References
External links
HeartOfDavidMinistry.com (Official Ministry Website)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Profile
Ted Dibiase Interview
Ted DiBiase Article
1954 births
American adoptees
American color commentators
American male professional wrestlers
American male television writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American Protestant ministers and clergy
American television writers
Living people
Million Dollar Champions
People from Willcox, Arizona
Professional wrestling announcers
Professional wrestling executives
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling managers and valets
Professional wrestling trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
The Million Dollar Corporation members
The New World Order (professional wrestling) members
WWE 24/7 Champions
WWE Hall of Fame inductees
WWF/WWE King Crown's Champions/King of the Ring winners
| false |
[
"Evander Holyfield vs. Alex Stewart II, billed as \"Only the Strong Survive\" was a professional boxing match contested on June 26, 1993.\n\nBackground\nIn his previous fight on November 13, 1992, Evander Holyfield had suffered his first professional loss to Riddick Bowe, ending his 2-year reign as undisputed heavyweight champion. Following the loss, Holyfield parted ways with long-time trainers Lou Duva and George Benton and replaced them with Emanuel Steward. Holyfield claimed he made the switch to help \"rekindle his enthusiasm for boxing.\" Steward also made the decision to reduce Holyfield's sparring sessions in an effort to keep Holyfield fresh, stating \"He's got to start a whole new career if he's going to continue boxing\". In the months after the loss, Holyfield mulled a comeback, but in April 1993, he would reach an agreement with Bowe for a rematch later in the year. As part of the contract, both fighters agreed to have one fight before the rematch. Bowe announced that he would defend his heavyweight championship against Jesse Ferguson in May, while Holyfield decided to meet Alex Stewart in a rematch of their 1989 fight in June.\n\nThe fight\nIn contrast to their thrilling 1989 fight, Holyfield controlled almost the entire fight as Stewart offered little offense. A right uppercut landed by Holyfield towards the end of the first round opened a cut beside Stewart's left eye, though it was not as severe as the cut he suffered in the 1989 fight. The fight would go the full 12 rounds with Holyfield winning lopsidedly on all three of the judge's scorecards with 2 scores of 118–110 and one score of 119–109.\n\nEmmanuel Steward blamed the lackluster fight on Stewart, stating \"He acted like he didn't want to fight. I was looking for this great war, I was nervous. Then he comes out and looks like he wants to go to bed.\" Stewart was also critical of his own performance. \"Of course this wasn't one of my better performances, I couldn't throw punches, I couldn't get off. I thought I could fight a defensive fight until about the sixth round and then try to go for the kill, but I couldn't get any combinations or anything at all. I have to apologize to everyone because I did not fight a very good fight.\"\n\nFight card\n\nReferences\n\n1993 in boxing\nBoxing in Atlantic City, New Jersey\nStewart II\nJune 1993 sports events in the United States",
"Mutual combat, a term commonly used in United States courts, occurs when two individuals intentionally and consensually engage in a fair fight, while not hurting bystanders or damaging property. There have been numerous cases where this concept was successfully used in defense of the accused. In some cases, mutual combat may nevertheless result in killings.\n\nNotable examples\nIn 2012, MMA fighter Phoenix Jones hit the headlines for engaging in mutual combat. A video of the fight went viral. The Seattle Police Department later defended their officers for not intervening. The Seattle Municipal Code 12A.06.025 states that \"It is unlawful for any person to intentionally fight with another person in a public place and thereby create a substantial risk of: 1. Injury to a person who is not actively participating in the fight; or 2. Damage to the property of a person who is not actively participating in the fight.\" Thus since the fight did not injure a third party or damage property, it was allowed by this law.\n\nAlso in 2012, Gabriel Aubry and Olivier Martinez engaged in mutual combat and were not charged. In 2014, after Zac Efron had engaged in a fight in Skid Row, law enforcement officials did not make any arrests because they viewed it as mutual combat. Mutual combat has been used to deny damage claims, as a legal defense, and to drop charges against fighting students.\n\nOregon law \nOregon law specifically bans mutual combat, according to subsection three of ORS 161.215: \"a person is not justified in using physical force upon another person if: the physical force involved is the product of a combat by agreement not specifically authorized by law.\"\n\nSee also\n\n Duel\n\n Street fighting\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Supreme Court of Georgia about manslaughter involving mutual combat\nCombat\nLegal terminology\nStreet culture\nViolence"
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"Michael Bloomberg",
"2012 presidential campaign speculation and role"
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C_e975df7eed9f47019327e1f1c042e677_0
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What was the speculation regarding the presidential campaign?
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What was the speculation regarding the 2012 presidential campaign?
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Michael Bloomberg
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In March 2010, Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company. It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election. An individual close to Bloomberg said, "the idea of continuing onward is not far from his [Bloomberg's] mind". In October 2010, The Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg - which had attempted to recruit Bloomberg to run for the presidency in 2008 - announced it was relaunching its effort to persuade Bloomberg to wage a presidential campaign in 2012. The committee members insisted that they would persist in the effort in spite of Bloomberg's repeated denials of interest in seeking the presidency. While on the December 12, 2010, episode of Meet the Press, Bloomberg ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012, stating: "I'm not going to run for president," further adding "I'm not looking at the possibility of running ... no way, no how." On July 24, 2011, in the midst of Democrats' and Republicans' inability to agree on a budget plan and thus an increase in the federal debt limit, the Washington Post published a blog post about groups organizing third party approaches. It focused on Bloomberg as the best hope for a serious third-party presidential candidacy in 2012. During an appearance on The Daily Show in June 2012, London Mayor Boris Johnson told host Jon Stewart that he did not know why Bloomberg had ruled out a bid for the presidency in the upcoming election, declaring that he would be "a great candidate". Bloomberg had privately indicated he believed Mitt Romney would be better at running the country, but could not publicly support him because of Romney's positions on social issues such as abortion and gun control. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change. CANNOTANSWER
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It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election.
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Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States.
Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. In 2020, Forbes ranked him as the twentieth-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $59 billion as of September 15, 2021 and as of September 8, 2020, Bloomberg ranked 14th in Forbes 400 with net worth $55 billion. Since signing The Giving Pledge, Bloomberg has given away $8.2 billion to philanthropic causes.
Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City. First elected in 2001, he held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and 2009. Pursuing socially liberal and fiscally moderate policies, Bloomberg developed a technocratic managerial style.
As mayor of New York, Bloomberg established public charter schools, rebuilt urban infrastructure, and supported gun control, public health initiatives, and environmental protections. He also led a rezoning of large areas of the city, which facilitated massive and widespread new commercial and residential construction after the September 11 attacks. Bloomberg is considered to have had far-reaching influence on the politics, business sector, and culture of New York City during his three terms as mayor. He has also faced significant criticism for his expansion of the city's stop and frisk program, support for which he reversed with an apology before his 2020 presidential run.
After a brief stint as a full-time philanthropist, he re-assumed the position of CEO at Bloomberg L.P. by the end of 2014. In November 2019, Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election. He ended his campaign in March 2020, after having won only 61 delegates. Bloomberg self-funded $935 million for his candidacy, which set the record for the most expensive U.S. presidential primary campaign.
In February 2022, Bloomberg was nominated to chair the Defense Innovation Board.
Early life and education
Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, to William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), a bookkeeper for a dairy company, and Charlotte (née Rubens) Bloomberg (1909–2011). The Bloomberg Center at the Harvard Business School was named in William Henry's honor. Bloomberg's family is Jewish, and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew. Bloomberg's maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus, and his maternal grandmother was born in New York to Lithuanian Jewish parents.
The family lived in Allston until Bloomberg was two years old, followed by Brookline, Massachusetts, for two years, finally settling in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, where he lived until after he graduated from college.
Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout when he was twelve years old. He graduated from Medford High School in 1960. He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. While there, he constructed the blue jay costume for the university's mascot. He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. In 1966, he graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi and Tau Beta Pi. He wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, with help from Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler.
Business career
In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, a large Wall Street investment bank, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development. Phibro Corporation bought Salomon Brothers in 1981, and the new management fired Bloomberg, paying him $10 million for his equity in the firm.
Using this money, Bloomberg, having designed in-house computerized financial systems for Salomon, set up a data services company named Innovative Market Systems (IMS) based on his belief that Wall Street would pay a premium for high-quality business information, delivered instantaneously on computer terminals in a variety of usable formats. The company sold customized computer terminals that delivered real-time market data, financial calculations and other analytics to Wall Street firms. The terminal, first called the Market Master terminal, was released to market in December 1982.
In 1986, the company renamed itself Bloomberg L.P. Over the years, ancillary products including Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Message, and Bloomberg Tradebook were launched. Bloomberg, L.P. had revenues of approximately $10 billion in 2018. As of 2019, the company has more than 325,000 terminal subscribers worldwide and employs 20,000 people in dozens of locations.
The culture of the company in the 1980s and 1990s has been compared to a fraternity, with employees bragging in the company's office about their sexual exploits. The company was sued four times by female employees for sexual harassment, including one incident in which a victim claimed to have been raped. To celebrate Bloomberg's 48th birthday, colleagues published a pamphlet entitled Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg. Among various sayings that were attributed to him, several have subsequently been criticized as sexist or misogynistic.
When he left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg was replaced by Lex Fenwick and later by Daniel L. Doctoroff, after his initial service as deputy mayor under Bloomberg. After completing his final term as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg spent his first eight months out of office as a full-time philanthropist. In fall 2014, he announced that he would return to Bloomberg L.P. as CEO at the end of 2014, succeeding Doctoroff, who had led the company since February 2008. Bloomberg resigned as CEO of Bloomberg L.P. to run for president in 2019.
Wealth
In March 2009, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion over the previous year, the world's biggest increase in wealth from 2008 to 2009. Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years. In the 2019 Forbes list of the world's billionaires, he was the ninth-richest person; his net worth was estimated at $55.5 billion. Currently, Bloomberg's net worth is estimated at $59 billion, ranking him 20th on Forbes''' list of billionaires.
Political career
Mayor of New York City
Bloomberg assumed office as the 108th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. He won re-election in 2005 and again in 2009. As mayor, he initially struggled with approval ratings as low as 24 percent; however, he subsequently developed and maintained high approval ratings. Bloomberg joined Rudy Giuliani, John Lindsay, and Fiorello La Guardia as re-elected Republican mayors in the mostly Democratic city.
Bloomberg stated that he wanted public education reform to be the legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second.
Bloomberg chose to apply a statistical, metrics-based management approach to city government, and granted departmental commissioners broad autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what New York Times political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to a Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility.
Bloomberg accepted a remuneration of $1 annually in lieu of the mayoral salary.
As mayor, Bloomberg turned the city's $6 billion budget deficit into a $3 billion surplus, largely by raising property taxes. Bloomberg increased city funding for the new development of affordable housing through a plan that created and preserved an estimated 160,000 affordable homes in the city. In 2003, he implemented a successful smoking ban in all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, and many other cities and states followed suit. On December 5, 2006, New York City became the first city in the United States to ban trans-fat from all restaurants. This went into effect in July 2008 and has since been adopted in many other cities and countries. Bloomberg created bicycle lanes, required chain restaurants to post calorie counts, and pedestrianized much of Times Square. In 2011, Bloomberg launched the NYC Young Men's Initiative, a $127 million initiative to support programs and policies designed to address disparities between young Black and Latino men and their peers, and personally donated $30 million to the project. In 2010, Bloomberg supported the then-controversial Islamic complex near Ground Zero.
Bloomberg greatly expanded the New York City Police Department's stop and frisk program, with a sixfold increase in documented stops. The policy was challenged in U.S. Federal Court, which ruled that the city's implementation of the policy violated citizens' rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and encouraged racial profiling. Bloomberg's administration appealed the ruling; however, his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, dropped the appeal and allowed the ruling to take effect. After the September 11 attacks, with assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency, Bloomberg's administration oversaw a controversial program that surveilled Muslim communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, and language. The program was discontinued in 2014.
In a January 2014 Quinnipiac poll, 64 percent of voters called Bloomberg's 12 years as mayor "mainly a success."
Mayoral elections
2001 election
In 2001, New York's Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election due to the city's limit of two consecutive terms. Bloomberg, who had been a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor on the Republican ticket. Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day, due to the September 11 attacks. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Democratic congressman, to become the Republican nominee. After a runoff, the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.
Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement to succeed him in the 2001 election. He also had a huge campaign spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the amount of contributions that a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green five to one. One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the World Trade Center attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.
In addition to running on the Republican line, Bloomberg ran on the ticket of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exerted strong influence. Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and combine all the votes received.) Another factor was the vote in Staten Island, which has traditionally been friendlier to Republicans than the rest of the city. Bloomberg received 75 percent of the vote in Staten Island. Overall, he won 50.3 percent to 47.9 percent.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Bloomberg's administration made a successful bid to host the 2004 Republican National Convention. The convention drew thousands of protesters, among them New Yorkers who despised George W. Bush and the Bush administration's pursuit of the Iraq War.
2005 election
Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York City. He spent almost $78 million on his campaign, exceeding the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. In late 2004 or early 2005, Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign.
Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won the Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election. Thomas Ognibene sought to run against Bloomberg in the Republican Party's primary election. The Bloomberg campaign successfully challenged the signatures Ognibene submitted to the Board of Elections to prevent Ognibene from appearing on ballots for the Republican primary. Instead, Ognibene ran on only the Conservative Party ticket. Ognibene accused Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals, a feeling echoed by others.
Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade. In addition to Republican support, Bloomberg obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch; former Democratic governor Hugh Carey; former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, and his son, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.; former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
2009 election
On October 2, 2008, Bloomberg announced he would seek to extend the city's term limits law and run for a third mayoral term in 2009, arguing a leader of his field was needed following the financial crisis of 2007–08. "Handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services ... is a challenge I want to take on," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "So should the City Council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term."
Ronald Lauder, who campaigned for New York City's term limits in 1993 and spent over 4 million dollars of his own money to limit the maximum years a mayor could serve to eight years, sided with Bloomberg and agreed to stay out of future legality issues. In exchange, he was promised a seat on an influential city board by Bloomberg.
Some people and organizations objected and NYPIRG filed a complaint with the City Conflict of Interest Board. On October 23, 2008, the City Council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit to three consecutive four-year terms. After two days of public hearings, Bloomberg signed the bill into law on November 3.
Bloomberg's bid for a third term generated some controversy. Civil libertarians such as former New York Civil Liberties Union Director Norman Siegel and New York Civil Rights Coalition Executive Director Michael Meyers joined with local politicians to protest the process as undermining the democratic process.
Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, who had been New York City Comptroller for the past eight years and before that, president of the New York City Board of Education. Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 51 percent to 46 percent. Bloomberg spent $109.2 million on his 2009 campaign, outspending Thompson by a margin of more than 11 to one.
After the release of Independence Party campaign filings in January 2010, it was reported that Bloomberg had made two $600,000 contributions from his personal account to the Independence Party on October 30 and November 2, 2009. The Independence Party then paid $750,000 of that money to Republican Party political operative John Haggerty Jr.
This prompted an investigation beginning in February 2010 by the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. into possible improprieties. The Independence Party later questioned how Haggerty spent the money, which was to go to poll-watchers. Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws. Haggerty also spent money from a separate $200,000 donation from Bloomberg on office space.
2013 election
On September 13, 2013, Bloomberg announced that he would not endorse any of the candidates to succeed him. On his radio show, he stated, "I don't want to do anything that complicates it for the next mayor. And that's one of the reasons I've decided I'm just not going to make an endorsement in the race." He added, "I want to make sure that person is ready to succeed, to take what we've done and build on that."
Bloomberg praised The New York Times for its endorsement of Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota as their favorite candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively. Quinn came in third in the Democratic primary and Lhota won the Republican primary. Bloomberg criticized Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's campaign methods, which he initially called "racist;" Bloomberg later downplayed and partially retracted those remarks.
On January 1, 2014, de Blasio became New York City's new mayor, succeeding Bloomberg.
Post-mayoral political involvement
Bloomberg was frequently mentioned as a possible centrist candidate for the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012, as well as for governor of New York in 2010 or vice-president in 2008. He eventually declined to seek all of these offices.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change.
2016 elections
On January 23, 2016, it was reported that Bloomberg was again considering a presidential run, as an independent candidate in the 2016 election, if Bernie Sanders got the Democratic party nomination. This was the first time he had officially confirmed he was considering a run. Bloomberg supporters believed that Bloomberg could run as a centrist and capture many voters who were dissatisfied with the likely Democratic and Republican nominees. However, on March 7, Bloomberg announced he would not be running for president.
In July 2016, Bloomberg delivered a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which he called Hillary Clinton "the right choice". Bloomberg warned of the dangers a Donald Trump presidency would pose. He said Trump "wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts." Bloomberg also said Trump's economic plans "would make it harder for small businesses to compete" and would "erode our influence in the world". Trump responded to the speech by condemning Bloomberg in a series of tweets.
2018 elections
In June 2018, Bloomberg pledged $80 million to support Democratic congressional candidates in the 2018 election, with the goal of flipping control of the Republican-controlled House to Democrats. In a statement, Bloomberg said that Republican House leadership were "absolutely feckless" and had failed to govern responsibly. Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson was chosen to lead the effort, which was to target mainly suburban districts. By early October, Bloomberg had committed more than $100 million to returning the House and Senate to Democratic power, fueling speculation about a presidential run in 2020. On October 10, 2018, Bloomberg announced that he had returned to the Democratic party.
2020 presidential campaign
On March 5, 2019, Bloomberg had announced that he would not run for president in 2020. Instead, he encouraged the Democratic Party to "nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump". However, due to his dissatisfaction with the Democratic field, Bloomberg reconsidered. He officially launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination on November 24, 2019.
Bloomberg self-funded his campaign from his personal fortune, and did not accept campaign contributions.
Bloomberg's campaign suffered from his lackluster performance in two televised debates. When Bloomberg participated in his first presidential debate, Elizabeth Warren challenged him to release women from non-disclosure agreements relating to their allegations of sexual harassment at Bloomberg L.P. Two days later, Bloomberg announced that there were three women who had made complaints concerning him, and added that he would release any of the three if they request him to do so. Warren continued her attack in the second debate the next week. Others criticized Bloomberg for his wealth and campaign spending, as well as his former affiliation with the Republican Party.
As a late entrant to the race, Bloomberg skipped the first four state primaries and caucuses. He spent $676 million of his personal fortune on the primary campaign, breaking a record for the most money ever spent on a presidential primary campaign. His campaign blanketed the country with campaign advertisements on broadcast and cable television, the Internet, and radio, as well as direct mail. Bloomberg also spent heavily on campaign operations that grew to 200 field offices and more than 2,400 paid campaign staffers. His support in nationwide opinion polls hovered around 15 percent but stagnated or dropped before Super Tuesday, while former Vice President Joe Biden had become the centrist frontrunner after receiving the support of major candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar shortly before Super Tuesday. Bloomberg suspended his campaign on March 4, 2020, after a disappointing Super Tuesday in which he won only American Samoa, and subsequently endorsed Biden. Bloomberg donated $18 million to the Democratic National Committee and publicly planned a "massive spending blitz" to support Biden's campaign.
When a 60 Minutes correspondent remarked on March 1 that Bloomberg had spent twice what President Trump had raised, he was asked how much he would spend. Bloomberg replied, "I'm making an investment in this country. My investment is I'm going to remove President Trump from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or at least try as hard as I can."
Speaking on the final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Bloomberg took aim at Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the American economy: "Would you rehire or work for someone who ran your business into the ground? Who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company, and whose reckless decisions put you in danger, and who spends more time tweeting than working? If the answer is no, why the hell would we ever rehire Donald Trump for another four years?"
Political positions
Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until 2001, when he switched to the Republican Party to run for Mayor. He switched to an independent in 2007 and registered again as a Democrat in October 2018. In 2004, he endorsed the re-election of George W. Bush and spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention. He endorsed Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
As Mayor of New York, Bloomberg supported government initiatives in public health and welfare. This included tobacco control efforts (including an increase in the legal age to purchase tobacco products, a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces, and an increase in the cigarette tax); the elimination of the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants; and bans on all flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products including menthol flavors. Bloomberg also launched an unsuccessful effort to ban on certain large (more than 16 fluid ounce) sugary sodas at restaurants and food service establishments in the city. These initiatives were supported by public health advocates but were criticized by some as "nanny state" policies.
Over his career, Bloomberg has "mingled support for progressive causes with more conservative positions on law enforcement, business regulation and school choice." Bloomberg supports gun-control measures, abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He advocates for a public health insurance option that he has called "Medicare for all for people that are uncovered" rather than a universal single-payer healthcare system. He is concerned about climate change and has touted his mayoral efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Bloomberg supported the Iraq War and opposed creating a timeline for withdrawing troops. Bloomberg has sometimes embraced the use of surveillance in efforts to deter crime and protect against terrorism.
During and after his tenure, he was a staunch supporter of stop-and-frisk. In November 2019, Bloomberg apologized for supporting it. He advocates reversing many of the Trump tax cuts. His own tax plan includes implementing a 5 percent surtax on incomes above $5 million a year and would raise federal revenue by $5 trillion over a decade. He opposes a wealth tax, saying that it would likely be found unconstitutional. He has also proposed more stringent financial regulations that include tougher oversight for big banks, a financial transactions tax, and stronger consumer protections. He supported decreasing estate-tax threshold to collect more estate taxes and close tax avoidance schemes. According to Propublica investigation he set up multiple GRATs thus shielding parts of his fortune for his heirs.
Bloomberg stated that running as a Democratnot an independentwas the only path he saw to defeating Donald Trump, saying: "In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now."
Philanthropy
In August 2010, Bloomberg signed The Giving Pledge, whereby the wealthy pledge to give away at least half of their wealth. Since then, he has given away $9.5 billion overall including $3.3 billion in 2019. According to Chronicle of Philanthropy, he gave away the most money of any philanthropist in 2019.
According to a profile in Fast Company, his Bloomberg Philanthropies foundation has five areas of focus: public health, the arts, government innovation, the environment, and education. Through the Foundation, he has donated and/or pledged $767 million in 2018.
2011 recipients included the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization. According to The New York Times, Bloomberg was an "anonymous donor" to the Carnegie Corporation from 2001 to 2010, with gifts ranging from $5 million to $20 million each year. The Carnegie Corporation distributed these contributions to hundreds of New York City organizations ranging from the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Gilda's Club, a non-profit organization that provides support to people and families living with cancer. He continues to support the arts through his foundation.
Bloomberg gave $254 million in 2009 to almost 1,400 nonprofit organizations, saying, "I am a big believer in giving it all away and have always said that the best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker."
COVID-19 response
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, Bloomberg through his foundation committed to a wide range of urgent causes including researching treatments and vaccines, leading contact tracing to root out the virus, supporting the World Health Organization, and funding global efforts to fight the spread of the disease and protect vulnerable populations. Action included:
Cofounding a $75 million fund for nonprofits impacted by COVID-19 in New York City
Donating $6 million to World Central Kitchen to serve meals to health care workers in New York City
Partnering with Johns Hopkins University to train COVID-19 contact tracers through its school of public health and search for a treatment of the virus.
Convening mayors through a partnership with Harvard College to learn and discuss their pandemic response, featuring a bipartisan roster of speakers and attendees.
Leading New York's contact tracing effort
Launching an information and action sharing network for cities through the National League of Cities
Supporting international efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prepare regional leaders through the International Rescue Committee, the World Health Organization, Vital Strategies and other partners
Environmental advocacy
Bloomberg is an environmentalist and has advocated policy to fight climate change at least since he became the mayor of New York City. At the national level, Bloomberg has consistently pushed for transitioning the United States' energy mix from fossil fuels to clean energy. In July 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million to Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, allowing the campaign to expand its efforts to shut down coal-fired power plants from 15 states to 45 states. In 2015, Bloomberg announced an additional $30 million contribution to the Beyond Coal initiative, matched with another $30 million by other donors, to help secure the retirement of half of America's fleet of coal plants by 2017. In July 2017, Europe Beyond Coal was established to phase out use of coal on the continent by 2030. Austria closed its final coal-fired plant in April 2020. In early June 2019, Bloomberg pledged $500 million to reduce climate impacts and shut remaining coal-fired power plants by 2030 via the new Beyond Carbon initiative.
Bloomberg Philanthropies awarded a $6 million grant to the Environmental Defense Fund in support of strict regulations on fracking in the 14 states with the heaviest natural gas production.
In 2013, Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the Risky Business initiative with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer. The joint effort worked to convince the business community of the need for more sustainable energy and development policies, by quantifying and publicizing the economic risks the United States faces from the impact of climate change. In January 2015, Bloomberg led Bloomberg Philanthropies in a $48-million partnership with the Heising-Simons family to launch the Clean Energy Initiative. The initiative supports state-based solutions aimed at ensuring America has a clean, reliable, and affordable energy system.
Since 2010, Bloomberg has taken an increasingly global role on environmental issues. From 2010 to 2013, he served as the chairman of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of the world's biggest cities working together to reduce carbon emissions. During his tenure, Bloomberg worked with President Bill Clinton to merge C40 with the Clinton Climate Initiative, with the goal of amplifying their efforts in the global fight against climate change worldwide. He serves as the president of the board of C40 Cities. In January 2014, Bloomberg began a five-year commitment totaling $53 million through Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Vibrant Oceans Initiative. The initiative partners Bloomberg Philanthropies with Oceana, Rare, and Encourage Capital to help reform fisheries and increase sustainable populations worldwide. In 2018, Bloomberg joined Ray Dalio in announcing a commitment of $185 million towards protecting the oceans.
In 2014, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Bloomberg as his first Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change to help the United Nations work with cities to prevent climate change. In September 2014, Bloomberg convened with Ban and global leaders at the UN Climate Summit to announce definite action to fight climate change in 2015. In 2018, Ban's successor António Guterres appointed Bloomberg as UN envoy for climate action. He resigned in November 2019, in the run-up to his presidential campaign. On 5 February 2021, however, he was re-appointed by Guterres as his Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions in the lead-up to the climate conference in Scotland scheduled for November 2021.
In late 2014, Bloomberg, Ban Ki-moon, and global city networks ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), with support from UN-Habitat, launched the Compact of Mayors, a global coalition of mayors and city officials pledging to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate resilience, and track their progress transparently. To date, over 250 cities representing more than 300 million people worldwide and 4.1 percent of the total global population, have committed to the Compact of Mayors, which was merged with the Covenant of Mayors in June 2016.
In 2015, Bloomberg and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo created the Climate Summit for Local Leaders. which convened assembled hundreds of city leaders from around the world at Paris City Hall to discuss fighting climate change. The Summit concluded with the presentation of the Paris Declaration, a pledge by leaders from assembled global cities to cut carbon emissions by 3.7 gigatons annually by 2030.
During the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and chair of the Financial Stability Board, announced that Bloomberg would lead a new global task force designed to help industry and financial markets understand the growing risks of climate change.
Following President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. government would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Bloomberg outlined a coalition of cities, states, universities and businesses that had come together to honor America's commitment under the agreement through 'America's Pledge.' Bloomberg offered up to $15 million to the UNFCCC, the UN body that assists countries with climate change efforts. About a month later, Bloomberg and California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the America's Pledge coalition would work to "quantify the actions taken by U.S. states, cities and business to drive down greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement." In announcing the initiative, Bloomberg said "the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but American society remains committed to it." Two think tanks, World Resource Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute, will work with America's Pledge to analyze the work cities, states and businesses do to meet the U.S. commitment to the Paris agreement.
In May 2019, Bloomberg announced a 2020 Midwestern Collegiate Climate Summit in Washington University in St. Louis with the aim to bring together leaders from Midwestern universities, local government and the private sector to reduce climate impacts in the region.
Johns Hopkins University philanthropy
As of 2019, Bloomberg has given more than $3.3 billion to Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater, making him "the most generous living donor to any education institution in the United States." His first contribution, in 1965, had been $5. He made his first $1 million commitment to JHU in 1984, and subsequently became the first individual to exceed $1 billion in lifetime donations to a single U.S. institution of higher education.
Bloomberg's contributions to Johns Hopkins "fueled major improvements in the university's reputation and rankings, its competitiveness for faculty and students, and the appearance of its campus," and included construction of a children's hospital (the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center Building, named after Bloomberg's mother); a physics building, a school of public health (the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), libraries, and biomedical research facilities, including the Institute for Cell Engineering, a stem-cell research institute within the School of Medicine, and the Malaria Research Institute within the School of Public Health. In 2013, Bloomberg committed $350 million to Johns Hopkins, five-sevenths of which were allocated to the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships, endowing 50 Bloomberg Distinguished Professors (BDPs) whose interdisciplinary expertise crosses traditional academic disciplines. In 2016, on the School of Public Health's centennial, Bloomberg Philanthropies contributed $300 million to establish the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Bloomberg also funded the launch of the Bloomberg–Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy within the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in East Baltimore, with a $50 million gift; an additional $50 million was given by philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, and $25 million by other donors. It will support cancer therapy research, technology and infrastructure development, and private sector partnerships. In 2016, Bloomberg joined Vice President Joe Biden for the institute's formal launch, embracing Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, which seeks to find a cure for cancer through national coordination of government and private sector resources. In 2018, Bloomberg contributed a further gift of $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins, allowing the university to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.
Other educational and research philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg established the American Talent Initiative in 2016 which is committed to increasing the number of lower-income high-achieving students attending elite colleges. Bloomberg Philanthropies also supports CollegePoint which has provided advising to lower- and moderate-income high school students since 2014.
In 2016, the Museum of Science, Boston announced a $50 million gift from Bloomberg. The donation marks Bloomberg's fourth gift to the museum, which he credits with sparking his intellectual curiosity as a patron and student during his youth in Medford, Massachusetts. The endowment supported the museum's education division, named the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center in honor of Bloomberg's parents. It is the largest donation in the museum's 186-year history.
In 2015, Bloomberg donated $100 million to Cornell Tech, the applied sciences graduate school of Cornell University, to construct the first academic building, "The Bloomberg Center", on the school's Roosevelt Island campus.
In 1996, Bloomberg endowed the William Henry Bloomberg Professorship at Harvard University with a $3 million gift in honor of his father, who died in 1963, saying, "throughout his life, he recognized the importance of reaching out to the nonprofit sector to help better the welfare of the entire community."
Urban innovation philanthropy
In July 2011, Bloomberg launched a $24 million initiative to fund "Innovation Delivery Teams" in five cities. The teams are one of Bloomberg Philanthropies' key goals: advancing government innovation. In December 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a partnership with online ticket search engine SeatGeek to connect artists with new audiences. Called the Discover New York Arts Project, the project includes organizations HERE, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Kaufman Center.
In 2013, Bloomberg announced the Mayors Challenge competition to drive innovation in American cities. The program was later expanded to competitions in Latin America and Europe.
In 2016, Bloomberg gave Harvard $32 million to create the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative within Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation; the initiative provides training to mayors and their aides on innovative municipal leadership and challenges facing cities.
In March 2021, Bloomberg gave Harvard $150 million to create the Bloomberg Center for Cities to support mayors.
Tobacco, guns and public health
Bloomberg has been a longtime donor to global tobacco control efforts. Bloomberg has donated close to $1 billion to the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote anti-smoking efforts, including $125 million in 2006, $250 million in 2008, and $360 million, making Bloomberg Philanthropies the developing world's biggest funder of tobacco-control initiatives. In 2013, it was reported that Bloomberg had donated $109.24 million in 556 grants and 61 countries to campaigns against tobacco. Bloomberg's contributions are aimed at "getting countries to monitor tobacco use, introduce strong tobacco-control laws, and create mass media campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use."
In September 2019 Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a new $160 Million Program to "End the Youth E-Cigarette Epidemic". This was widely criticized by people who consider that e-cigarettes are less harmful than vaping and can help smokers to quit, who suggested that the campaign would do more harm than good. Bloomberg was accused of distributing anti-vaping propaganda. A group of 24 experienced tobacco control experts warned him that his policies "would do more harm than good". A Canadian anesthesiologist attempted to use the occasion of Mr. Bloomberg's 80th birthday to encourage him to review the data on the use of e-cigarettes and vaping for tobacco harm reduction.
Bloomberg is the co-founder of Everytown for Gun Safety (formerly Mayors Against Illegal Guns), a gun control advocacy group.
In August 2016, the World Health Organization appointed Bloomberg as its Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases. In this role, Bloomberg will mobilize private sector and political leaders to help the WHO reduce deaths from preventable diseases, traffic accidents, tobacco, obesity, and alcohol. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan cited Bloomberg's ongoing support for WHO anti-smoking, drowning prevention, and road safety programs in her announcement of his new role.
Other philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg supported the Fresh Air Fund's creation of 'Open Spaces in the City' in summer 2020 to provide socially-distant areas for kids to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as jobs for local teens.
The public library in Bloomberg's hometown of Medford announced in August 2020 that Bloomberg had donated $3 million to the construction of a new facility, citing his family's long-standing ties to the library.
In 2017, Bloomberg donated $75 million for The Shed, a new arts and cultural center in Hudson Yards, Manhattan.
Bloomberg also endowed his hometown synagogue, Temple Shalom, which was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.
Bloomberg hosted the Global Business Forum in September 2017, during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly; the gathering featured international CEOs, heads of state, and other prominent speakers.
In 2009 Bloomberg met with other billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey to address issues ranging from the environment, health care and concerns over population growth. Although no formal organization was established, the effort was understood to be designed to help bring various philanthropic projects of the mega-donors into a more unified effort to address various problems on our planet.
Electoral history
Personal life
Family and relationships
In 1975, Bloomberg married Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown, a British national from Yorkshire, United Kingdom. They have two daughters: Emma (born c. 1979) and Georgina (born 1983), who were featured on Born Rich, a 2003 documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Bloomberg divorced Brown in 1993, but he has said she remains his "best friend." Since 2000, Bloomberg has lived with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.
Bloomberg's younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, has been Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, since February 2002.
Religion
Although he attended Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, and his family kept a kosher kitchen, Bloomberg today is relatively secular, attending synagogue mainly during the High Holidays and a Passover Seder with his sister, Marjorie Tiven. Neither of his daughters had bat mitzvahs.
Public image and lifestyle
Throughout his business career, Bloomberg has made numerous statements which have been considered by some to be insulting, derogatory, sexist or misogynistic. When working on Wall Street in the 1960s and 1970s, Bloomberg claimed in his 1997 autobiography, he had "a girlfriend in every city".In a 1996 interview with The Guardian about being a newly-divorced bachelor, Bloomberg said, "I like theater, dining and chasing women. Let me put it this way: I am a single, straight billionaire in Manhattan. What do you think? It's a wet dream." On various occasions, Bloomberg allegedly commented "I'd do her", regarding certain women, some of whom were coworkers or employees. Bloomberg later said that by "do", he meant that he would have a personal relationship with the woman. Bloomberg's staff told the New York Times that he now regrets having made "disrespectful" remarks concerning women.
During his term as mayor, he lived at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. In 2013, he owned 13 properties in various countries around the world, including a $20 million Georgian mansion in Southampton, New York. In 2015, he acquired 4 Cheyne Walk, a historical property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, which once belonged to writer George Eliot. Bloomberg and his daughters own houses in Bermuda and stay there frequently.
Bloomberg stated that during his mayoralty, he rode the New York City Subway on a daily basis, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in The New York Times stated that he was often seen chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. He supported the construction of the 7 Subway Extension and the Second Avenue Subway; in December 2013, Bloomberg took a ceremonial ride on a train to the new 34th Street station to celebrate a part of his legacy as mayor.
During his tenure as mayor, Bloomberg made cameos playing himself in the films The Adjustment Bureau and New Year's Eve, as well as in episodes of 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, and two episodes of Law & Order.
Bloomberg is a private pilot. He owns six airplanes: three Dassault Falcon 900s, a Beechcraft B300, a Pilatus PC-24, and a Cessna 182 Skylane. Bloomberg also owns two helicopters: an AW109 and an Airbus helicopter and as of 2012 was near the top of the waiting list for an AW609 tiltrotor aircraft. In his youth he was a licensed amateur radio operator, was proficient in Morse code, and built ham radios.
Awards and honors
Bloomberg has received honorary degrees from Tufts University (2007), Bard College (2007), Rockefeller University (2007), the University of Pennsylvania (2008), Fordham University (2009), Williams College (2014), Harvard University (2014), the University of Michigan (2016), Villanova University (2017) and Washington University in St. Louis (2019). Bloomberg was the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.
On May 27, 2010, Bloomberg delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he was invited to and delivered guest remarks for the Johns Hopkins Class of 2020. Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and Commencement speaker Alexis Ohanian; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force; and senior class president Pavan Patel
Bloomberg has received the Yale School of Management's Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets (2003); Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Ehud Barak (2004); Barnard College's Barnard Medal of Distinction (2008); the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Leadership for Healthy Communities' Healthy Communities Leadership Award (2009); and the Jefferson Awards Foundation's U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official (2010). He was the inaugural laureate of the annual Genesis Prize for Jewish values in 2013, and donated the $1 million prize money to a global competition, the Genesis Generation Challenge, to identify young adults' big ideas to better the world.
Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 and 2008 Time 100. In 2010, Vanity Fair ranked him #7 in its "Vanity Fair 100" list of influential figures.
In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Bloomberg an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his "prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, and the many ways in which they have benefited the United Kingdom and the U.K.-U.S. special relationship."
Books and other works
Bloomberg, with Matthew Winkler, wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, published in 1997 by Wiley. A second edition was released in 2019, ahead of Bloomberg's presidential run.Aaron Timms, Michael Bloomberg Earned $48 Billion and Eternal Adoration From Wall Street. But Does Anyone Else Want Him to Be President?, Institutional Investor (February 1, 2019). Bloomberg and former Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope co-authored Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet (2017), published by St. Martin's Press; the book appeared on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list. Bloomberg has written a number of op-eds in the New York Times'' about various issues, including an op-ed supporting state and local efforts to fight climate change (2017), an op-ed about his donation of $1.8 billion in financial aid for college students and support for need-blind admission policies (2018); an op-ed supporting a ban on flavored e-cigarettes (2019); and an op-ed supporting policies to reduce economic inequality (2020).
See also
List of Harvard University people
List of Johns Hopkins University people
List of people from Boston
List of philanthropists
List of richest American politicians
Timeline of New York City, 2000s–2010s
References
Further reading
Uses anthropology and geography to examine the mayor's corporate-style governance, with particular attention to the Hudson Yards plan, which aims to transform the far West Side into a high-end district.
External links
Mike Bloomberg official website
Mike Blomberg biography at Bloomberg Philanthropies
Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
Office of the Mayor of New York City (Archived November 23, 2013)
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1942 births
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American essayists
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21st-century American essayists
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American aviators
American billionaires
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American chief executives of financial services companies
American financial businesspeople
American financial company founders
American gun control activists
American health activists
American male non-fiction writers
American mass media owners
American memoirists
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American political writers
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
Anti-obesity activists
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Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Businesspeople from New York City
Businesspeople in software
Candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election
Commercial aviators
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Harvard Business School alumni
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Jewish American philanthropists
Jewish American writers
Jewish mayors of places in the United States
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins University alumni
Living people
Massachusetts Democrats
Massachusetts Republicans
Mayors of New York City
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
New York (state) Democrats
New York (state) Independents
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People from the Upper East Side
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Writers from Boston
Writers from Manhattan
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Jewish American people in New York (state) politics
Jewish American candidates for President of the United States
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[
"The 2008 presidential campaign of Dmitry Medvedev was the successful campaign of Dmitry Medvedev in the 2008 Russian presidential election.\n\nBackground\nVladimir Putin was constitutionally ineligible to run for a third-consecutive term in 2008. A popular figure in Russia, speculation rested on whom Putin might tap to be his \"chosen successor\".\n\nIn September 2007 Putin dismissed Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, who had previously been speculated as a potential successor to him. He then appointed Viktor Zubkov to replace Fradkov as Prime Minister, igniting immediate speculation that Putin was grooming Zubkov to serve as his presidential successor.\n\nOn October 1, 2007, Putin announced that he would run for parliament at the head of United Russia's ticket in the 2007 legislative election.\n\nCampaign\nOn December 10, 2007, roughly a week after United Russia handily won the legislative election, Putin announced that his hand-picked candidate to succeed him as president would be Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The following day Medvedev announced that, if elected president, he would nominate Putin to serve as his Prime Minister.\n\nSoon after Putin tapped Medvedev as his chosen successor, the leaders of United Russia, A Just Russia, Civic Force, and the Agrarian Party of Russia all affirmed their support of Medvedev's candidacy.\n\nMedvedev ultimately prevailed in the election facing no strong challenge.\n\nReferences\n\ncampaign 2012\n Medvedev",
"The Vladimir Zhirinovsky presidential campaign, 2000 was the election campaign of Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the 2000 election.\n\nBackground\nIn the lead up to the preceding 1999 Russian legislative election Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic party encountered issues regarding its registration. The party instead competed under the temporary name of the Zhirinovsky Bloc. The party outperformed the polls, capturing 6% of the vote. This demonstrated the party's ability to retain strong loyalty amongst its base of fervent supporters.\n\nZhirinovsky was not regarded to be a serious competitor in the 2000 presidential election. He was largely regarded to be a political \"clown\". Zhirinovsky nevertheless retained the support of dedicated followers, who were estimated to comprise between one and three percent of the Russian electorate. His appeal beyond that was hardly existent.\n\nCampaigning\nAs a candidate Zhirinovsky stirred up support through wild antics as well as by appealing to commoners, and by using nationalistic rhetoric.\n\nZhirinovsky had acquired a broad reputation for corruption by 2000.\n\nZhirinovsky's campaign demonstrated a coziness between him an Putin, having become a favorite \"opposition\" candidate of Putin's administration. He was seen as, arguably, the most pro-Putin opponent of Putin in the 2000 presidential election. He had become a loyal ally of Putin in the Duma. He avoided criticizing Putin. Zhirinovsky instead focused attacks on others, such as Grigory Yavlinsky, who he accused of having been \"bought\" by wealthy supporters.\n\nPlatform\n\nZhirinovsky ran as a nationalist \"law and order\" candidate.\n\nSee also\nVladimir Zhirinovsky 1991 presidential campaign\nVladimir Zhirinovsky 1996 presidential campaign\nVladimir Zhirinovsky 2008 presidential campaign\nVladimir Zhirinovsky 2012 presidential campaign\nVladimir Zhirinovsky 2018 presidential campaign\n\nReferences\n\npresidential campaign, 2000\nZhirinovsky"
] |
[
"Michael Bloomberg",
"2012 presidential campaign speculation and role",
"What was the speculation regarding the presidential campaign?",
"It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election."
] |
C_e975df7eed9f47019327e1f1c042e677_0
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What was significant about this?
| 2 |
What was significant about the move that allowed Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign?
|
Michael Bloomberg
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In March 2010, Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company. It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election. An individual close to Bloomberg said, "the idea of continuing onward is not far from his [Bloomberg's] mind". In October 2010, The Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg - which had attempted to recruit Bloomberg to run for the presidency in 2008 - announced it was relaunching its effort to persuade Bloomberg to wage a presidential campaign in 2012. The committee members insisted that they would persist in the effort in spite of Bloomberg's repeated denials of interest in seeking the presidency. While on the December 12, 2010, episode of Meet the Press, Bloomberg ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012, stating: "I'm not going to run for president," further adding "I'm not looking at the possibility of running ... no way, no how." On July 24, 2011, in the midst of Democrats' and Republicans' inability to agree on a budget plan and thus an increase in the federal debt limit, the Washington Post published a blog post about groups organizing third party approaches. It focused on Bloomberg as the best hope for a serious third-party presidential candidacy in 2012. During an appearance on The Daily Show in June 2012, London Mayor Boris Johnson told host Jon Stewart that he did not know why Bloomberg had ruled out a bid for the presidency in the upcoming election, declaring that he would be "a great candidate". Bloomberg had privately indicated he believed Mitt Romney would be better at running the country, but could not publicly support him because of Romney's positions on social issues such as abortion and gun control. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change. CANNOTANSWER
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Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company.
|
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States.
Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. In 2020, Forbes ranked him as the twentieth-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $59 billion as of September 15, 2021 and as of September 8, 2020, Bloomberg ranked 14th in Forbes 400 with net worth $55 billion. Since signing The Giving Pledge, Bloomberg has given away $8.2 billion to philanthropic causes.
Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City. First elected in 2001, he held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and 2009. Pursuing socially liberal and fiscally moderate policies, Bloomberg developed a technocratic managerial style.
As mayor of New York, Bloomberg established public charter schools, rebuilt urban infrastructure, and supported gun control, public health initiatives, and environmental protections. He also led a rezoning of large areas of the city, which facilitated massive and widespread new commercial and residential construction after the September 11 attacks. Bloomberg is considered to have had far-reaching influence on the politics, business sector, and culture of New York City during his three terms as mayor. He has also faced significant criticism for his expansion of the city's stop and frisk program, support for which he reversed with an apology before his 2020 presidential run.
After a brief stint as a full-time philanthropist, he re-assumed the position of CEO at Bloomberg L.P. by the end of 2014. In November 2019, Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election. He ended his campaign in March 2020, after having won only 61 delegates. Bloomberg self-funded $935 million for his candidacy, which set the record for the most expensive U.S. presidential primary campaign.
In February 2022, Bloomberg was nominated to chair the Defense Innovation Board.
Early life and education
Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, to William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), a bookkeeper for a dairy company, and Charlotte (née Rubens) Bloomberg (1909–2011). The Bloomberg Center at the Harvard Business School was named in William Henry's honor. Bloomberg's family is Jewish, and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew. Bloomberg's maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus, and his maternal grandmother was born in New York to Lithuanian Jewish parents.
The family lived in Allston until Bloomberg was two years old, followed by Brookline, Massachusetts, for two years, finally settling in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, where he lived until after he graduated from college.
Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout when he was twelve years old. He graduated from Medford High School in 1960. He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. While there, he constructed the blue jay costume for the university's mascot. He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. In 1966, he graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi and Tau Beta Pi. He wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, with help from Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler.
Business career
In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, a large Wall Street investment bank, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development. Phibro Corporation bought Salomon Brothers in 1981, and the new management fired Bloomberg, paying him $10 million for his equity in the firm.
Using this money, Bloomberg, having designed in-house computerized financial systems for Salomon, set up a data services company named Innovative Market Systems (IMS) based on his belief that Wall Street would pay a premium for high-quality business information, delivered instantaneously on computer terminals in a variety of usable formats. The company sold customized computer terminals that delivered real-time market data, financial calculations and other analytics to Wall Street firms. The terminal, first called the Market Master terminal, was released to market in December 1982.
In 1986, the company renamed itself Bloomberg L.P. Over the years, ancillary products including Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Message, and Bloomberg Tradebook were launched. Bloomberg, L.P. had revenues of approximately $10 billion in 2018. As of 2019, the company has more than 325,000 terminal subscribers worldwide and employs 20,000 people in dozens of locations.
The culture of the company in the 1980s and 1990s has been compared to a fraternity, with employees bragging in the company's office about their sexual exploits. The company was sued four times by female employees for sexual harassment, including one incident in which a victim claimed to have been raped. To celebrate Bloomberg's 48th birthday, colleagues published a pamphlet entitled Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg. Among various sayings that were attributed to him, several have subsequently been criticized as sexist or misogynistic.
When he left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg was replaced by Lex Fenwick and later by Daniel L. Doctoroff, after his initial service as deputy mayor under Bloomberg. After completing his final term as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg spent his first eight months out of office as a full-time philanthropist. In fall 2014, he announced that he would return to Bloomberg L.P. as CEO at the end of 2014, succeeding Doctoroff, who had led the company since February 2008. Bloomberg resigned as CEO of Bloomberg L.P. to run for president in 2019.
Wealth
In March 2009, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion over the previous year, the world's biggest increase in wealth from 2008 to 2009. Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years. In the 2019 Forbes list of the world's billionaires, he was the ninth-richest person; his net worth was estimated at $55.5 billion. Currently, Bloomberg's net worth is estimated at $59 billion, ranking him 20th on Forbes''' list of billionaires.
Political career
Mayor of New York City
Bloomberg assumed office as the 108th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. He won re-election in 2005 and again in 2009. As mayor, he initially struggled with approval ratings as low as 24 percent; however, he subsequently developed and maintained high approval ratings. Bloomberg joined Rudy Giuliani, John Lindsay, and Fiorello La Guardia as re-elected Republican mayors in the mostly Democratic city.
Bloomberg stated that he wanted public education reform to be the legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second.
Bloomberg chose to apply a statistical, metrics-based management approach to city government, and granted departmental commissioners broad autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what New York Times political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to a Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility.
Bloomberg accepted a remuneration of $1 annually in lieu of the mayoral salary.
As mayor, Bloomberg turned the city's $6 billion budget deficit into a $3 billion surplus, largely by raising property taxes. Bloomberg increased city funding for the new development of affordable housing through a plan that created and preserved an estimated 160,000 affordable homes in the city. In 2003, he implemented a successful smoking ban in all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, and many other cities and states followed suit. On December 5, 2006, New York City became the first city in the United States to ban trans-fat from all restaurants. This went into effect in July 2008 and has since been adopted in many other cities and countries. Bloomberg created bicycle lanes, required chain restaurants to post calorie counts, and pedestrianized much of Times Square. In 2011, Bloomberg launched the NYC Young Men's Initiative, a $127 million initiative to support programs and policies designed to address disparities between young Black and Latino men and their peers, and personally donated $30 million to the project. In 2010, Bloomberg supported the then-controversial Islamic complex near Ground Zero.
Bloomberg greatly expanded the New York City Police Department's stop and frisk program, with a sixfold increase in documented stops. The policy was challenged in U.S. Federal Court, which ruled that the city's implementation of the policy violated citizens' rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and encouraged racial profiling. Bloomberg's administration appealed the ruling; however, his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, dropped the appeal and allowed the ruling to take effect. After the September 11 attacks, with assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency, Bloomberg's administration oversaw a controversial program that surveilled Muslim communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, and language. The program was discontinued in 2014.
In a January 2014 Quinnipiac poll, 64 percent of voters called Bloomberg's 12 years as mayor "mainly a success."
Mayoral elections
2001 election
In 2001, New York's Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election due to the city's limit of two consecutive terms. Bloomberg, who had been a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor on the Republican ticket. Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day, due to the September 11 attacks. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Democratic congressman, to become the Republican nominee. After a runoff, the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.
Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement to succeed him in the 2001 election. He also had a huge campaign spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the amount of contributions that a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green five to one. One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the World Trade Center attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.
In addition to running on the Republican line, Bloomberg ran on the ticket of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exerted strong influence. Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and combine all the votes received.) Another factor was the vote in Staten Island, which has traditionally been friendlier to Republicans than the rest of the city. Bloomberg received 75 percent of the vote in Staten Island. Overall, he won 50.3 percent to 47.9 percent.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Bloomberg's administration made a successful bid to host the 2004 Republican National Convention. The convention drew thousands of protesters, among them New Yorkers who despised George W. Bush and the Bush administration's pursuit of the Iraq War.
2005 election
Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York City. He spent almost $78 million on his campaign, exceeding the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. In late 2004 or early 2005, Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign.
Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won the Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election. Thomas Ognibene sought to run against Bloomberg in the Republican Party's primary election. The Bloomberg campaign successfully challenged the signatures Ognibene submitted to the Board of Elections to prevent Ognibene from appearing on ballots for the Republican primary. Instead, Ognibene ran on only the Conservative Party ticket. Ognibene accused Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals, a feeling echoed by others.
Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade. In addition to Republican support, Bloomberg obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch; former Democratic governor Hugh Carey; former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, and his son, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.; former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
2009 election
On October 2, 2008, Bloomberg announced he would seek to extend the city's term limits law and run for a third mayoral term in 2009, arguing a leader of his field was needed following the financial crisis of 2007–08. "Handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services ... is a challenge I want to take on," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "So should the City Council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term."
Ronald Lauder, who campaigned for New York City's term limits in 1993 and spent over 4 million dollars of his own money to limit the maximum years a mayor could serve to eight years, sided with Bloomberg and agreed to stay out of future legality issues. In exchange, he was promised a seat on an influential city board by Bloomberg.
Some people and organizations objected and NYPIRG filed a complaint with the City Conflict of Interest Board. On October 23, 2008, the City Council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit to three consecutive four-year terms. After two days of public hearings, Bloomberg signed the bill into law on November 3.
Bloomberg's bid for a third term generated some controversy. Civil libertarians such as former New York Civil Liberties Union Director Norman Siegel and New York Civil Rights Coalition Executive Director Michael Meyers joined with local politicians to protest the process as undermining the democratic process.
Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, who had been New York City Comptroller for the past eight years and before that, president of the New York City Board of Education. Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 51 percent to 46 percent. Bloomberg spent $109.2 million on his 2009 campaign, outspending Thompson by a margin of more than 11 to one.
After the release of Independence Party campaign filings in January 2010, it was reported that Bloomberg had made two $600,000 contributions from his personal account to the Independence Party on October 30 and November 2, 2009. The Independence Party then paid $750,000 of that money to Republican Party political operative John Haggerty Jr.
This prompted an investigation beginning in February 2010 by the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. into possible improprieties. The Independence Party later questioned how Haggerty spent the money, which was to go to poll-watchers. Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws. Haggerty also spent money from a separate $200,000 donation from Bloomberg on office space.
2013 election
On September 13, 2013, Bloomberg announced that he would not endorse any of the candidates to succeed him. On his radio show, he stated, "I don't want to do anything that complicates it for the next mayor. And that's one of the reasons I've decided I'm just not going to make an endorsement in the race." He added, "I want to make sure that person is ready to succeed, to take what we've done and build on that."
Bloomberg praised The New York Times for its endorsement of Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota as their favorite candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively. Quinn came in third in the Democratic primary and Lhota won the Republican primary. Bloomberg criticized Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's campaign methods, which he initially called "racist;" Bloomberg later downplayed and partially retracted those remarks.
On January 1, 2014, de Blasio became New York City's new mayor, succeeding Bloomberg.
Post-mayoral political involvement
Bloomberg was frequently mentioned as a possible centrist candidate for the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012, as well as for governor of New York in 2010 or vice-president in 2008. He eventually declined to seek all of these offices.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change.
2016 elections
On January 23, 2016, it was reported that Bloomberg was again considering a presidential run, as an independent candidate in the 2016 election, if Bernie Sanders got the Democratic party nomination. This was the first time he had officially confirmed he was considering a run. Bloomberg supporters believed that Bloomberg could run as a centrist and capture many voters who were dissatisfied with the likely Democratic and Republican nominees. However, on March 7, Bloomberg announced he would not be running for president.
In July 2016, Bloomberg delivered a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which he called Hillary Clinton "the right choice". Bloomberg warned of the dangers a Donald Trump presidency would pose. He said Trump "wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts." Bloomberg also said Trump's economic plans "would make it harder for small businesses to compete" and would "erode our influence in the world". Trump responded to the speech by condemning Bloomberg in a series of tweets.
2018 elections
In June 2018, Bloomberg pledged $80 million to support Democratic congressional candidates in the 2018 election, with the goal of flipping control of the Republican-controlled House to Democrats. In a statement, Bloomberg said that Republican House leadership were "absolutely feckless" and had failed to govern responsibly. Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson was chosen to lead the effort, which was to target mainly suburban districts. By early October, Bloomberg had committed more than $100 million to returning the House and Senate to Democratic power, fueling speculation about a presidential run in 2020. On October 10, 2018, Bloomberg announced that he had returned to the Democratic party.
2020 presidential campaign
On March 5, 2019, Bloomberg had announced that he would not run for president in 2020. Instead, he encouraged the Democratic Party to "nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump". However, due to his dissatisfaction with the Democratic field, Bloomberg reconsidered. He officially launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination on November 24, 2019.
Bloomberg self-funded his campaign from his personal fortune, and did not accept campaign contributions.
Bloomberg's campaign suffered from his lackluster performance in two televised debates. When Bloomberg participated in his first presidential debate, Elizabeth Warren challenged him to release women from non-disclosure agreements relating to their allegations of sexual harassment at Bloomberg L.P. Two days later, Bloomberg announced that there were three women who had made complaints concerning him, and added that he would release any of the three if they request him to do so. Warren continued her attack in the second debate the next week. Others criticized Bloomberg for his wealth and campaign spending, as well as his former affiliation with the Republican Party.
As a late entrant to the race, Bloomberg skipped the first four state primaries and caucuses. He spent $676 million of his personal fortune on the primary campaign, breaking a record for the most money ever spent on a presidential primary campaign. His campaign blanketed the country with campaign advertisements on broadcast and cable television, the Internet, and radio, as well as direct mail. Bloomberg also spent heavily on campaign operations that grew to 200 field offices and more than 2,400 paid campaign staffers. His support in nationwide opinion polls hovered around 15 percent but stagnated or dropped before Super Tuesday, while former Vice President Joe Biden had become the centrist frontrunner after receiving the support of major candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar shortly before Super Tuesday. Bloomberg suspended his campaign on March 4, 2020, after a disappointing Super Tuesday in which he won only American Samoa, and subsequently endorsed Biden. Bloomberg donated $18 million to the Democratic National Committee and publicly planned a "massive spending blitz" to support Biden's campaign.
When a 60 Minutes correspondent remarked on March 1 that Bloomberg had spent twice what President Trump had raised, he was asked how much he would spend. Bloomberg replied, "I'm making an investment in this country. My investment is I'm going to remove President Trump from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or at least try as hard as I can."
Speaking on the final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Bloomberg took aim at Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the American economy: "Would you rehire or work for someone who ran your business into the ground? Who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company, and whose reckless decisions put you in danger, and who spends more time tweeting than working? If the answer is no, why the hell would we ever rehire Donald Trump for another four years?"
Political positions
Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until 2001, when he switched to the Republican Party to run for Mayor. He switched to an independent in 2007 and registered again as a Democrat in October 2018. In 2004, he endorsed the re-election of George W. Bush and spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention. He endorsed Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
As Mayor of New York, Bloomberg supported government initiatives in public health and welfare. This included tobacco control efforts (including an increase in the legal age to purchase tobacco products, a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces, and an increase in the cigarette tax); the elimination of the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants; and bans on all flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products including menthol flavors. Bloomberg also launched an unsuccessful effort to ban on certain large (more than 16 fluid ounce) sugary sodas at restaurants and food service establishments in the city. These initiatives were supported by public health advocates but were criticized by some as "nanny state" policies.
Over his career, Bloomberg has "mingled support for progressive causes with more conservative positions on law enforcement, business regulation and school choice." Bloomberg supports gun-control measures, abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He advocates for a public health insurance option that he has called "Medicare for all for people that are uncovered" rather than a universal single-payer healthcare system. He is concerned about climate change and has touted his mayoral efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Bloomberg supported the Iraq War and opposed creating a timeline for withdrawing troops. Bloomberg has sometimes embraced the use of surveillance in efforts to deter crime and protect against terrorism.
During and after his tenure, he was a staunch supporter of stop-and-frisk. In November 2019, Bloomberg apologized for supporting it. He advocates reversing many of the Trump tax cuts. His own tax plan includes implementing a 5 percent surtax on incomes above $5 million a year and would raise federal revenue by $5 trillion over a decade. He opposes a wealth tax, saying that it would likely be found unconstitutional. He has also proposed more stringent financial regulations that include tougher oversight for big banks, a financial transactions tax, and stronger consumer protections. He supported decreasing estate-tax threshold to collect more estate taxes and close tax avoidance schemes. According to Propublica investigation he set up multiple GRATs thus shielding parts of his fortune for his heirs.
Bloomberg stated that running as a Democratnot an independentwas the only path he saw to defeating Donald Trump, saying: "In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now."
Philanthropy
In August 2010, Bloomberg signed The Giving Pledge, whereby the wealthy pledge to give away at least half of their wealth. Since then, he has given away $9.5 billion overall including $3.3 billion in 2019. According to Chronicle of Philanthropy, he gave away the most money of any philanthropist in 2019.
According to a profile in Fast Company, his Bloomberg Philanthropies foundation has five areas of focus: public health, the arts, government innovation, the environment, and education. Through the Foundation, he has donated and/or pledged $767 million in 2018.
2011 recipients included the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization. According to The New York Times, Bloomberg was an "anonymous donor" to the Carnegie Corporation from 2001 to 2010, with gifts ranging from $5 million to $20 million each year. The Carnegie Corporation distributed these contributions to hundreds of New York City organizations ranging from the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Gilda's Club, a non-profit organization that provides support to people and families living with cancer. He continues to support the arts through his foundation.
Bloomberg gave $254 million in 2009 to almost 1,400 nonprofit organizations, saying, "I am a big believer in giving it all away and have always said that the best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker."
COVID-19 response
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, Bloomberg through his foundation committed to a wide range of urgent causes including researching treatments and vaccines, leading contact tracing to root out the virus, supporting the World Health Organization, and funding global efforts to fight the spread of the disease and protect vulnerable populations. Action included:
Cofounding a $75 million fund for nonprofits impacted by COVID-19 in New York City
Donating $6 million to World Central Kitchen to serve meals to health care workers in New York City
Partnering with Johns Hopkins University to train COVID-19 contact tracers through its school of public health and search for a treatment of the virus.
Convening mayors through a partnership with Harvard College to learn and discuss their pandemic response, featuring a bipartisan roster of speakers and attendees.
Leading New York's contact tracing effort
Launching an information and action sharing network for cities through the National League of Cities
Supporting international efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prepare regional leaders through the International Rescue Committee, the World Health Organization, Vital Strategies and other partners
Environmental advocacy
Bloomberg is an environmentalist and has advocated policy to fight climate change at least since he became the mayor of New York City. At the national level, Bloomberg has consistently pushed for transitioning the United States' energy mix from fossil fuels to clean energy. In July 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million to Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, allowing the campaign to expand its efforts to shut down coal-fired power plants from 15 states to 45 states. In 2015, Bloomberg announced an additional $30 million contribution to the Beyond Coal initiative, matched with another $30 million by other donors, to help secure the retirement of half of America's fleet of coal plants by 2017. In July 2017, Europe Beyond Coal was established to phase out use of coal on the continent by 2030. Austria closed its final coal-fired plant in April 2020. In early June 2019, Bloomberg pledged $500 million to reduce climate impacts and shut remaining coal-fired power plants by 2030 via the new Beyond Carbon initiative.
Bloomberg Philanthropies awarded a $6 million grant to the Environmental Defense Fund in support of strict regulations on fracking in the 14 states with the heaviest natural gas production.
In 2013, Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the Risky Business initiative with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer. The joint effort worked to convince the business community of the need for more sustainable energy and development policies, by quantifying and publicizing the economic risks the United States faces from the impact of climate change. In January 2015, Bloomberg led Bloomberg Philanthropies in a $48-million partnership with the Heising-Simons family to launch the Clean Energy Initiative. The initiative supports state-based solutions aimed at ensuring America has a clean, reliable, and affordable energy system.
Since 2010, Bloomberg has taken an increasingly global role on environmental issues. From 2010 to 2013, he served as the chairman of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of the world's biggest cities working together to reduce carbon emissions. During his tenure, Bloomberg worked with President Bill Clinton to merge C40 with the Clinton Climate Initiative, with the goal of amplifying their efforts in the global fight against climate change worldwide. He serves as the president of the board of C40 Cities. In January 2014, Bloomberg began a five-year commitment totaling $53 million through Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Vibrant Oceans Initiative. The initiative partners Bloomberg Philanthropies with Oceana, Rare, and Encourage Capital to help reform fisheries and increase sustainable populations worldwide. In 2018, Bloomberg joined Ray Dalio in announcing a commitment of $185 million towards protecting the oceans.
In 2014, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Bloomberg as his first Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change to help the United Nations work with cities to prevent climate change. In September 2014, Bloomberg convened with Ban and global leaders at the UN Climate Summit to announce definite action to fight climate change in 2015. In 2018, Ban's successor António Guterres appointed Bloomberg as UN envoy for climate action. He resigned in November 2019, in the run-up to his presidential campaign. On 5 February 2021, however, he was re-appointed by Guterres as his Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions in the lead-up to the climate conference in Scotland scheduled for November 2021.
In late 2014, Bloomberg, Ban Ki-moon, and global city networks ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), with support from UN-Habitat, launched the Compact of Mayors, a global coalition of mayors and city officials pledging to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate resilience, and track their progress transparently. To date, over 250 cities representing more than 300 million people worldwide and 4.1 percent of the total global population, have committed to the Compact of Mayors, which was merged with the Covenant of Mayors in June 2016.
In 2015, Bloomberg and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo created the Climate Summit for Local Leaders. which convened assembled hundreds of city leaders from around the world at Paris City Hall to discuss fighting climate change. The Summit concluded with the presentation of the Paris Declaration, a pledge by leaders from assembled global cities to cut carbon emissions by 3.7 gigatons annually by 2030.
During the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and chair of the Financial Stability Board, announced that Bloomberg would lead a new global task force designed to help industry and financial markets understand the growing risks of climate change.
Following President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. government would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Bloomberg outlined a coalition of cities, states, universities and businesses that had come together to honor America's commitment under the agreement through 'America's Pledge.' Bloomberg offered up to $15 million to the UNFCCC, the UN body that assists countries with climate change efforts. About a month later, Bloomberg and California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the America's Pledge coalition would work to "quantify the actions taken by U.S. states, cities and business to drive down greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement." In announcing the initiative, Bloomberg said "the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but American society remains committed to it." Two think tanks, World Resource Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute, will work with America's Pledge to analyze the work cities, states and businesses do to meet the U.S. commitment to the Paris agreement.
In May 2019, Bloomberg announced a 2020 Midwestern Collegiate Climate Summit in Washington University in St. Louis with the aim to bring together leaders from Midwestern universities, local government and the private sector to reduce climate impacts in the region.
Johns Hopkins University philanthropy
As of 2019, Bloomberg has given more than $3.3 billion to Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater, making him "the most generous living donor to any education institution in the United States." His first contribution, in 1965, had been $5. He made his first $1 million commitment to JHU in 1984, and subsequently became the first individual to exceed $1 billion in lifetime donations to a single U.S. institution of higher education.
Bloomberg's contributions to Johns Hopkins "fueled major improvements in the university's reputation and rankings, its competitiveness for faculty and students, and the appearance of its campus," and included construction of a children's hospital (the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center Building, named after Bloomberg's mother); a physics building, a school of public health (the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), libraries, and biomedical research facilities, including the Institute for Cell Engineering, a stem-cell research institute within the School of Medicine, and the Malaria Research Institute within the School of Public Health. In 2013, Bloomberg committed $350 million to Johns Hopkins, five-sevenths of which were allocated to the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships, endowing 50 Bloomberg Distinguished Professors (BDPs) whose interdisciplinary expertise crosses traditional academic disciplines. In 2016, on the School of Public Health's centennial, Bloomberg Philanthropies contributed $300 million to establish the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Bloomberg also funded the launch of the Bloomberg–Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy within the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in East Baltimore, with a $50 million gift; an additional $50 million was given by philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, and $25 million by other donors. It will support cancer therapy research, technology and infrastructure development, and private sector partnerships. In 2016, Bloomberg joined Vice President Joe Biden for the institute's formal launch, embracing Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, which seeks to find a cure for cancer through national coordination of government and private sector resources. In 2018, Bloomberg contributed a further gift of $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins, allowing the university to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.
Other educational and research philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg established the American Talent Initiative in 2016 which is committed to increasing the number of lower-income high-achieving students attending elite colleges. Bloomberg Philanthropies also supports CollegePoint which has provided advising to lower- and moderate-income high school students since 2014.
In 2016, the Museum of Science, Boston announced a $50 million gift from Bloomberg. The donation marks Bloomberg's fourth gift to the museum, which he credits with sparking his intellectual curiosity as a patron and student during his youth in Medford, Massachusetts. The endowment supported the museum's education division, named the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center in honor of Bloomberg's parents. It is the largest donation in the museum's 186-year history.
In 2015, Bloomberg donated $100 million to Cornell Tech, the applied sciences graduate school of Cornell University, to construct the first academic building, "The Bloomberg Center", on the school's Roosevelt Island campus.
In 1996, Bloomberg endowed the William Henry Bloomberg Professorship at Harvard University with a $3 million gift in honor of his father, who died in 1963, saying, "throughout his life, he recognized the importance of reaching out to the nonprofit sector to help better the welfare of the entire community."
Urban innovation philanthropy
In July 2011, Bloomberg launched a $24 million initiative to fund "Innovation Delivery Teams" in five cities. The teams are one of Bloomberg Philanthropies' key goals: advancing government innovation. In December 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a partnership with online ticket search engine SeatGeek to connect artists with new audiences. Called the Discover New York Arts Project, the project includes organizations HERE, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Kaufman Center.
In 2013, Bloomberg announced the Mayors Challenge competition to drive innovation in American cities. The program was later expanded to competitions in Latin America and Europe.
In 2016, Bloomberg gave Harvard $32 million to create the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative within Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation; the initiative provides training to mayors and their aides on innovative municipal leadership and challenges facing cities.
In March 2021, Bloomberg gave Harvard $150 million to create the Bloomberg Center for Cities to support mayors.
Tobacco, guns and public health
Bloomberg has been a longtime donor to global tobacco control efforts. Bloomberg has donated close to $1 billion to the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote anti-smoking efforts, including $125 million in 2006, $250 million in 2008, and $360 million, making Bloomberg Philanthropies the developing world's biggest funder of tobacco-control initiatives. In 2013, it was reported that Bloomberg had donated $109.24 million in 556 grants and 61 countries to campaigns against tobacco. Bloomberg's contributions are aimed at "getting countries to monitor tobacco use, introduce strong tobacco-control laws, and create mass media campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use."
In September 2019 Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a new $160 Million Program to "End the Youth E-Cigarette Epidemic". This was widely criticized by people who consider that e-cigarettes are less harmful than vaping and can help smokers to quit, who suggested that the campaign would do more harm than good. Bloomberg was accused of distributing anti-vaping propaganda. A group of 24 experienced tobacco control experts warned him that his policies "would do more harm than good". A Canadian anesthesiologist attempted to use the occasion of Mr. Bloomberg's 80th birthday to encourage him to review the data on the use of e-cigarettes and vaping for tobacco harm reduction.
Bloomberg is the co-founder of Everytown for Gun Safety (formerly Mayors Against Illegal Guns), a gun control advocacy group.
In August 2016, the World Health Organization appointed Bloomberg as its Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases. In this role, Bloomberg will mobilize private sector and political leaders to help the WHO reduce deaths from preventable diseases, traffic accidents, tobacco, obesity, and alcohol. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan cited Bloomberg's ongoing support for WHO anti-smoking, drowning prevention, and road safety programs in her announcement of his new role.
Other philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg supported the Fresh Air Fund's creation of 'Open Spaces in the City' in summer 2020 to provide socially-distant areas for kids to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as jobs for local teens.
The public library in Bloomberg's hometown of Medford announced in August 2020 that Bloomberg had donated $3 million to the construction of a new facility, citing his family's long-standing ties to the library.
In 2017, Bloomberg donated $75 million for The Shed, a new arts and cultural center in Hudson Yards, Manhattan.
Bloomberg also endowed his hometown synagogue, Temple Shalom, which was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.
Bloomberg hosted the Global Business Forum in September 2017, during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly; the gathering featured international CEOs, heads of state, and other prominent speakers.
In 2009 Bloomberg met with other billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey to address issues ranging from the environment, health care and concerns over population growth. Although no formal organization was established, the effort was understood to be designed to help bring various philanthropic projects of the mega-donors into a more unified effort to address various problems on our planet.
Electoral history
Personal life
Family and relationships
In 1975, Bloomberg married Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown, a British national from Yorkshire, United Kingdom. They have two daughters: Emma (born c. 1979) and Georgina (born 1983), who were featured on Born Rich, a 2003 documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Bloomberg divorced Brown in 1993, but he has said she remains his "best friend." Since 2000, Bloomberg has lived with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.
Bloomberg's younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, has been Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, since February 2002.
Religion
Although he attended Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, and his family kept a kosher kitchen, Bloomberg today is relatively secular, attending synagogue mainly during the High Holidays and a Passover Seder with his sister, Marjorie Tiven. Neither of his daughters had bat mitzvahs.
Public image and lifestyle
Throughout his business career, Bloomberg has made numerous statements which have been considered by some to be insulting, derogatory, sexist or misogynistic. When working on Wall Street in the 1960s and 1970s, Bloomberg claimed in his 1997 autobiography, he had "a girlfriend in every city".In a 1996 interview with The Guardian about being a newly-divorced bachelor, Bloomberg said, "I like theater, dining and chasing women. Let me put it this way: I am a single, straight billionaire in Manhattan. What do you think? It's a wet dream." On various occasions, Bloomberg allegedly commented "I'd do her", regarding certain women, some of whom were coworkers or employees. Bloomberg later said that by "do", he meant that he would have a personal relationship with the woman. Bloomberg's staff told the New York Times that he now regrets having made "disrespectful" remarks concerning women.
During his term as mayor, he lived at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. In 2013, he owned 13 properties in various countries around the world, including a $20 million Georgian mansion in Southampton, New York. In 2015, he acquired 4 Cheyne Walk, a historical property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, which once belonged to writer George Eliot. Bloomberg and his daughters own houses in Bermuda and stay there frequently.
Bloomberg stated that during his mayoralty, he rode the New York City Subway on a daily basis, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in The New York Times stated that he was often seen chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. He supported the construction of the 7 Subway Extension and the Second Avenue Subway; in December 2013, Bloomberg took a ceremonial ride on a train to the new 34th Street station to celebrate a part of his legacy as mayor.
During his tenure as mayor, Bloomberg made cameos playing himself in the films The Adjustment Bureau and New Year's Eve, as well as in episodes of 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, and two episodes of Law & Order.
Bloomberg is a private pilot. He owns six airplanes: three Dassault Falcon 900s, a Beechcraft B300, a Pilatus PC-24, and a Cessna 182 Skylane. Bloomberg also owns two helicopters: an AW109 and an Airbus helicopter and as of 2012 was near the top of the waiting list for an AW609 tiltrotor aircraft. In his youth he was a licensed amateur radio operator, was proficient in Morse code, and built ham radios.
Awards and honors
Bloomberg has received honorary degrees from Tufts University (2007), Bard College (2007), Rockefeller University (2007), the University of Pennsylvania (2008), Fordham University (2009), Williams College (2014), Harvard University (2014), the University of Michigan (2016), Villanova University (2017) and Washington University in St. Louis (2019). Bloomberg was the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.
On May 27, 2010, Bloomberg delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he was invited to and delivered guest remarks for the Johns Hopkins Class of 2020. Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and Commencement speaker Alexis Ohanian; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force; and senior class president Pavan Patel
Bloomberg has received the Yale School of Management's Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets (2003); Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Ehud Barak (2004); Barnard College's Barnard Medal of Distinction (2008); the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Leadership for Healthy Communities' Healthy Communities Leadership Award (2009); and the Jefferson Awards Foundation's U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official (2010). He was the inaugural laureate of the annual Genesis Prize for Jewish values in 2013, and donated the $1 million prize money to a global competition, the Genesis Generation Challenge, to identify young adults' big ideas to better the world.
Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 and 2008 Time 100. In 2010, Vanity Fair ranked him #7 in its "Vanity Fair 100" list of influential figures.
In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Bloomberg an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his "prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, and the many ways in which they have benefited the United Kingdom and the U.K.-U.S. special relationship."
Books and other works
Bloomberg, with Matthew Winkler, wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, published in 1997 by Wiley. A second edition was released in 2019, ahead of Bloomberg's presidential run.Aaron Timms, Michael Bloomberg Earned $48 Billion and Eternal Adoration From Wall Street. But Does Anyone Else Want Him to Be President?, Institutional Investor (February 1, 2019). Bloomberg and former Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope co-authored Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet (2017), published by St. Martin's Press; the book appeared on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list. Bloomberg has written a number of op-eds in the New York Times'' about various issues, including an op-ed supporting state and local efforts to fight climate change (2017), an op-ed about his donation of $1.8 billion in financial aid for college students and support for need-blind admission policies (2018); an op-ed supporting a ban on flavored e-cigarettes (2019); and an op-ed supporting policies to reduce economic inequality (2020).
See also
List of Harvard University people
List of Johns Hopkins University people
List of people from Boston
List of philanthropists
List of richest American politicians
Timeline of New York City, 2000s–2010s
References
Further reading
Uses anthropology and geography to examine the mayor's corporate-style governance, with particular attention to the Hudson Yards plan, which aims to transform the far West Side into a high-end district.
External links
Mike Bloomberg official website
Mike Blomberg biography at Bloomberg Philanthropies
Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
Office of the Mayor of New York City (Archived November 23, 2013)
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1942 births
20th-century American businesspeople
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American mass media owners
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American political writers
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American technology company founders
Anti-obesity activists
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Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Businesspeople from New York City
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Candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election
Commercial aviators
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Living people
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People from the Upper East Side
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Writers from Boston
Writers from Manhattan
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Jewish American people in New York (state) politics
Jewish American candidates for President of the United States
Anti-smoking activists
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[
"Pity About the Abbey is a 1965 BBC television drama written by Stewart Farrar and John Betjeman, and directed by Ian Curteis. Pity About the Abbey is a 90-minute play written for a strand of programmes titled Londoners.\n\nThe play imagines that Westminster Abbey, one of the most significant religious sites in the United Kingdom, was demolished to make way for a by-pass. They play satirised what the two writers saw as the current trend to demolish significant or beautiful structures under the pretext of necessity, for example the Euston Arch. It was recorded for television by the BBC and broadcast on 29 July 1965, and later repeated as part of The Wednesday Play slot in 1966.\n\nThe programme still exists.\n\nReferences\n\n1965 television plays\nBBC television dramas\nWestminster Abbey",
"\"That's Good\" is a song by the American new wave band Devo, written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale. It appears on their fifth studio album Oh, No! It's Devo. According to Casale, \"the lyrics deal with the ambiguity that if everybody wants what you want, how can everybody have it if everybody wants it and what happens when everybody tries to get it, and maybe you should change what you want.\"\n\nPromotional music video\nThe music video for \"That's Good\" eschewed Devo's previous narrative style for a basic performance against a bluescreen background displaying related visuals to the song. This was intended to replicate the band's intentions for the forthcoming tour for those who would be unable to attend. The video for \"That's Good\" was one of the first videos that ran into censorship troubles on MTV. The juxtaposition of the image in a cartoon of a french fry penetrating the hole of a doughnut and then quickly cut to a writhing, smiling nude woman, shot from the neck up, was considered too risqué for airplay. In an interview with band member and video director Gerald Casale for the book Devo's Freedom of Choice, \n\"We got this call from [MTV co-founder] Les Garland, He was like, 'Look, we know what you're trying to do here.' I go, What do you mean? He goes, 'Ya know, when that cartoon French fry glides through that cartoon donut and then it's with the girl looking happy. You can have the French fry, or you can have the donut, but you can't have the French fry and the donut, Otherwise, you can't cut to the girl.' And I go, 'But what about when the French fry hits the donut and breaks in half and she's sad?' And he goes 'Alright you little smart ass.' It was horrible. Then I go, 'What about that Billy Idol video you have and the girls are in skin-tight pants and their asses are full on in the screen and his head is between her legs and then somebody slaps her ass? What about that?' He goes, 'we're talking about you, we're not talking about them.\" \nCasale eventually relented and made significant cuts to the video, which he regrets because by then, \"the song was going down in the charts, not up.\"\n\nTrack listing\n 12\" Single\n\"That's Good\" – 3:23\n\"Speed Racer (Long Edit)\" – 3:42\n\n 7\" Single\n\"That's Good\" – 2:59\n\"What I Must Do\" – 2:34\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1982 singles\n1982 songs\nDevo songs\nSongs written by Mark Mothersbaugh\nSongs written by Gerald Casale\nWarner Records singles"
] |
[
"Michael Bloomberg",
"2012 presidential campaign speculation and role",
"What was the speculation regarding the presidential campaign?",
"It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election.",
"What was significant about this?",
"Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company."
] |
C_e975df7eed9f47019327e1f1c042e677_0
|
Did he run for president?
| 3 |
Did Kevin Sheekey run for president?
|
Michael Bloomberg
|
In March 2010, Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company. It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election. An individual close to Bloomberg said, "the idea of continuing onward is not far from his [Bloomberg's] mind". In October 2010, The Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg - which had attempted to recruit Bloomberg to run for the presidency in 2008 - announced it was relaunching its effort to persuade Bloomberg to wage a presidential campaign in 2012. The committee members insisted that they would persist in the effort in spite of Bloomberg's repeated denials of interest in seeking the presidency. While on the December 12, 2010, episode of Meet the Press, Bloomberg ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012, stating: "I'm not going to run for president," further adding "I'm not looking at the possibility of running ... no way, no how." On July 24, 2011, in the midst of Democrats' and Republicans' inability to agree on a budget plan and thus an increase in the federal debt limit, the Washington Post published a blog post about groups organizing third party approaches. It focused on Bloomberg as the best hope for a serious third-party presidential candidacy in 2012. During an appearance on The Daily Show in June 2012, London Mayor Boris Johnson told host Jon Stewart that he did not know why Bloomberg had ruled out a bid for the presidency in the upcoming election, declaring that he would be "a great candidate". Bloomberg had privately indicated he believed Mitt Romney would be better at running the country, but could not publicly support him because of Romney's positions on social issues such as abortion and gun control. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change. CANNOTANSWER
|
Bloomberg ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012, stating: "I'm not going to run for president," further adding "I'm not looking at the possibility of running
|
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States.
Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. In 2020, Forbes ranked him as the twentieth-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $59 billion as of September 15, 2021 and as of September 8, 2020, Bloomberg ranked 14th in Forbes 400 with net worth $55 billion. Since signing The Giving Pledge, Bloomberg has given away $8.2 billion to philanthropic causes.
Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City. First elected in 2001, he held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and 2009. Pursuing socially liberal and fiscally moderate policies, Bloomberg developed a technocratic managerial style.
As mayor of New York, Bloomberg established public charter schools, rebuilt urban infrastructure, and supported gun control, public health initiatives, and environmental protections. He also led a rezoning of large areas of the city, which facilitated massive and widespread new commercial and residential construction after the September 11 attacks. Bloomberg is considered to have had far-reaching influence on the politics, business sector, and culture of New York City during his three terms as mayor. He has also faced significant criticism for his expansion of the city's stop and frisk program, support for which he reversed with an apology before his 2020 presidential run.
After a brief stint as a full-time philanthropist, he re-assumed the position of CEO at Bloomberg L.P. by the end of 2014. In November 2019, Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election. He ended his campaign in March 2020, after having won only 61 delegates. Bloomberg self-funded $935 million for his candidacy, which set the record for the most expensive U.S. presidential primary campaign.
In February 2022, Bloomberg was nominated to chair the Defense Innovation Board.
Early life and education
Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, to William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), a bookkeeper for a dairy company, and Charlotte (née Rubens) Bloomberg (1909–2011). The Bloomberg Center at the Harvard Business School was named in William Henry's honor. Bloomberg's family is Jewish, and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew. Bloomberg's maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus, and his maternal grandmother was born in New York to Lithuanian Jewish parents.
The family lived in Allston until Bloomberg was two years old, followed by Brookline, Massachusetts, for two years, finally settling in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, where he lived until after he graduated from college.
Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout when he was twelve years old. He graduated from Medford High School in 1960. He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. While there, he constructed the blue jay costume for the university's mascot. He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. In 1966, he graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi and Tau Beta Pi. He wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, with help from Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler.
Business career
In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, a large Wall Street investment bank, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development. Phibro Corporation bought Salomon Brothers in 1981, and the new management fired Bloomberg, paying him $10 million for his equity in the firm.
Using this money, Bloomberg, having designed in-house computerized financial systems for Salomon, set up a data services company named Innovative Market Systems (IMS) based on his belief that Wall Street would pay a premium for high-quality business information, delivered instantaneously on computer terminals in a variety of usable formats. The company sold customized computer terminals that delivered real-time market data, financial calculations and other analytics to Wall Street firms. The terminal, first called the Market Master terminal, was released to market in December 1982.
In 1986, the company renamed itself Bloomberg L.P. Over the years, ancillary products including Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Message, and Bloomberg Tradebook were launched. Bloomberg, L.P. had revenues of approximately $10 billion in 2018. As of 2019, the company has more than 325,000 terminal subscribers worldwide and employs 20,000 people in dozens of locations.
The culture of the company in the 1980s and 1990s has been compared to a fraternity, with employees bragging in the company's office about their sexual exploits. The company was sued four times by female employees for sexual harassment, including one incident in which a victim claimed to have been raped. To celebrate Bloomberg's 48th birthday, colleagues published a pamphlet entitled Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg. Among various sayings that were attributed to him, several have subsequently been criticized as sexist or misogynistic.
When he left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg was replaced by Lex Fenwick and later by Daniel L. Doctoroff, after his initial service as deputy mayor under Bloomberg. After completing his final term as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg spent his first eight months out of office as a full-time philanthropist. In fall 2014, he announced that he would return to Bloomberg L.P. as CEO at the end of 2014, succeeding Doctoroff, who had led the company since February 2008. Bloomberg resigned as CEO of Bloomberg L.P. to run for president in 2019.
Wealth
In March 2009, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion over the previous year, the world's biggest increase in wealth from 2008 to 2009. Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years. In the 2019 Forbes list of the world's billionaires, he was the ninth-richest person; his net worth was estimated at $55.5 billion. Currently, Bloomberg's net worth is estimated at $59 billion, ranking him 20th on Forbes''' list of billionaires.
Political career
Mayor of New York City
Bloomberg assumed office as the 108th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. He won re-election in 2005 and again in 2009. As mayor, he initially struggled with approval ratings as low as 24 percent; however, he subsequently developed and maintained high approval ratings. Bloomberg joined Rudy Giuliani, John Lindsay, and Fiorello La Guardia as re-elected Republican mayors in the mostly Democratic city.
Bloomberg stated that he wanted public education reform to be the legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second.
Bloomberg chose to apply a statistical, metrics-based management approach to city government, and granted departmental commissioners broad autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what New York Times political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to a Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility.
Bloomberg accepted a remuneration of $1 annually in lieu of the mayoral salary.
As mayor, Bloomberg turned the city's $6 billion budget deficit into a $3 billion surplus, largely by raising property taxes. Bloomberg increased city funding for the new development of affordable housing through a plan that created and preserved an estimated 160,000 affordable homes in the city. In 2003, he implemented a successful smoking ban in all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, and many other cities and states followed suit. On December 5, 2006, New York City became the first city in the United States to ban trans-fat from all restaurants. This went into effect in July 2008 and has since been adopted in many other cities and countries. Bloomberg created bicycle lanes, required chain restaurants to post calorie counts, and pedestrianized much of Times Square. In 2011, Bloomberg launched the NYC Young Men's Initiative, a $127 million initiative to support programs and policies designed to address disparities between young Black and Latino men and their peers, and personally donated $30 million to the project. In 2010, Bloomberg supported the then-controversial Islamic complex near Ground Zero.
Bloomberg greatly expanded the New York City Police Department's stop and frisk program, with a sixfold increase in documented stops. The policy was challenged in U.S. Federal Court, which ruled that the city's implementation of the policy violated citizens' rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and encouraged racial profiling. Bloomberg's administration appealed the ruling; however, his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, dropped the appeal and allowed the ruling to take effect. After the September 11 attacks, with assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency, Bloomberg's administration oversaw a controversial program that surveilled Muslim communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, and language. The program was discontinued in 2014.
In a January 2014 Quinnipiac poll, 64 percent of voters called Bloomberg's 12 years as mayor "mainly a success."
Mayoral elections
2001 election
In 2001, New York's Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election due to the city's limit of two consecutive terms. Bloomberg, who had been a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor on the Republican ticket. Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day, due to the September 11 attacks. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Democratic congressman, to become the Republican nominee. After a runoff, the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.
Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement to succeed him in the 2001 election. He also had a huge campaign spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the amount of contributions that a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green five to one. One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the World Trade Center attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.
In addition to running on the Republican line, Bloomberg ran on the ticket of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exerted strong influence. Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and combine all the votes received.) Another factor was the vote in Staten Island, which has traditionally been friendlier to Republicans than the rest of the city. Bloomberg received 75 percent of the vote in Staten Island. Overall, he won 50.3 percent to 47.9 percent.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Bloomberg's administration made a successful bid to host the 2004 Republican National Convention. The convention drew thousands of protesters, among them New Yorkers who despised George W. Bush and the Bush administration's pursuit of the Iraq War.
2005 election
Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York City. He spent almost $78 million on his campaign, exceeding the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. In late 2004 or early 2005, Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign.
Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won the Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election. Thomas Ognibene sought to run against Bloomberg in the Republican Party's primary election. The Bloomberg campaign successfully challenged the signatures Ognibene submitted to the Board of Elections to prevent Ognibene from appearing on ballots for the Republican primary. Instead, Ognibene ran on only the Conservative Party ticket. Ognibene accused Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals, a feeling echoed by others.
Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade. In addition to Republican support, Bloomberg obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch; former Democratic governor Hugh Carey; former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, and his son, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.; former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
2009 election
On October 2, 2008, Bloomberg announced he would seek to extend the city's term limits law and run for a third mayoral term in 2009, arguing a leader of his field was needed following the financial crisis of 2007–08. "Handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services ... is a challenge I want to take on," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "So should the City Council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term."
Ronald Lauder, who campaigned for New York City's term limits in 1993 and spent over 4 million dollars of his own money to limit the maximum years a mayor could serve to eight years, sided with Bloomberg and agreed to stay out of future legality issues. In exchange, he was promised a seat on an influential city board by Bloomberg.
Some people and organizations objected and NYPIRG filed a complaint with the City Conflict of Interest Board. On October 23, 2008, the City Council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit to three consecutive four-year terms. After two days of public hearings, Bloomberg signed the bill into law on November 3.
Bloomberg's bid for a third term generated some controversy. Civil libertarians such as former New York Civil Liberties Union Director Norman Siegel and New York Civil Rights Coalition Executive Director Michael Meyers joined with local politicians to protest the process as undermining the democratic process.
Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, who had been New York City Comptroller for the past eight years and before that, president of the New York City Board of Education. Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 51 percent to 46 percent. Bloomberg spent $109.2 million on his 2009 campaign, outspending Thompson by a margin of more than 11 to one.
After the release of Independence Party campaign filings in January 2010, it was reported that Bloomberg had made two $600,000 contributions from his personal account to the Independence Party on October 30 and November 2, 2009. The Independence Party then paid $750,000 of that money to Republican Party political operative John Haggerty Jr.
This prompted an investigation beginning in February 2010 by the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. into possible improprieties. The Independence Party later questioned how Haggerty spent the money, which was to go to poll-watchers. Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws. Haggerty also spent money from a separate $200,000 donation from Bloomberg on office space.
2013 election
On September 13, 2013, Bloomberg announced that he would not endorse any of the candidates to succeed him. On his radio show, he stated, "I don't want to do anything that complicates it for the next mayor. And that's one of the reasons I've decided I'm just not going to make an endorsement in the race." He added, "I want to make sure that person is ready to succeed, to take what we've done and build on that."
Bloomberg praised The New York Times for its endorsement of Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota as their favorite candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively. Quinn came in third in the Democratic primary and Lhota won the Republican primary. Bloomberg criticized Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's campaign methods, which he initially called "racist;" Bloomberg later downplayed and partially retracted those remarks.
On January 1, 2014, de Blasio became New York City's new mayor, succeeding Bloomberg.
Post-mayoral political involvement
Bloomberg was frequently mentioned as a possible centrist candidate for the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012, as well as for governor of New York in 2010 or vice-president in 2008. He eventually declined to seek all of these offices.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change.
2016 elections
On January 23, 2016, it was reported that Bloomberg was again considering a presidential run, as an independent candidate in the 2016 election, if Bernie Sanders got the Democratic party nomination. This was the first time he had officially confirmed he was considering a run. Bloomberg supporters believed that Bloomberg could run as a centrist and capture many voters who were dissatisfied with the likely Democratic and Republican nominees. However, on March 7, Bloomberg announced he would not be running for president.
In July 2016, Bloomberg delivered a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which he called Hillary Clinton "the right choice". Bloomberg warned of the dangers a Donald Trump presidency would pose. He said Trump "wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts." Bloomberg also said Trump's economic plans "would make it harder for small businesses to compete" and would "erode our influence in the world". Trump responded to the speech by condemning Bloomberg in a series of tweets.
2018 elections
In June 2018, Bloomberg pledged $80 million to support Democratic congressional candidates in the 2018 election, with the goal of flipping control of the Republican-controlled House to Democrats. In a statement, Bloomberg said that Republican House leadership were "absolutely feckless" and had failed to govern responsibly. Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson was chosen to lead the effort, which was to target mainly suburban districts. By early October, Bloomberg had committed more than $100 million to returning the House and Senate to Democratic power, fueling speculation about a presidential run in 2020. On October 10, 2018, Bloomberg announced that he had returned to the Democratic party.
2020 presidential campaign
On March 5, 2019, Bloomberg had announced that he would not run for president in 2020. Instead, he encouraged the Democratic Party to "nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump". However, due to his dissatisfaction with the Democratic field, Bloomberg reconsidered. He officially launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination on November 24, 2019.
Bloomberg self-funded his campaign from his personal fortune, and did not accept campaign contributions.
Bloomberg's campaign suffered from his lackluster performance in two televised debates. When Bloomberg participated in his first presidential debate, Elizabeth Warren challenged him to release women from non-disclosure agreements relating to their allegations of sexual harassment at Bloomberg L.P. Two days later, Bloomberg announced that there were three women who had made complaints concerning him, and added that he would release any of the three if they request him to do so. Warren continued her attack in the second debate the next week. Others criticized Bloomberg for his wealth and campaign spending, as well as his former affiliation with the Republican Party.
As a late entrant to the race, Bloomberg skipped the first four state primaries and caucuses. He spent $676 million of his personal fortune on the primary campaign, breaking a record for the most money ever spent on a presidential primary campaign. His campaign blanketed the country with campaign advertisements on broadcast and cable television, the Internet, and radio, as well as direct mail. Bloomberg also spent heavily on campaign operations that grew to 200 field offices and more than 2,400 paid campaign staffers. His support in nationwide opinion polls hovered around 15 percent but stagnated or dropped before Super Tuesday, while former Vice President Joe Biden had become the centrist frontrunner after receiving the support of major candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar shortly before Super Tuesday. Bloomberg suspended his campaign on March 4, 2020, after a disappointing Super Tuesday in which he won only American Samoa, and subsequently endorsed Biden. Bloomberg donated $18 million to the Democratic National Committee and publicly planned a "massive spending blitz" to support Biden's campaign.
When a 60 Minutes correspondent remarked on March 1 that Bloomberg had spent twice what President Trump had raised, he was asked how much he would spend. Bloomberg replied, "I'm making an investment in this country. My investment is I'm going to remove President Trump from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or at least try as hard as I can."
Speaking on the final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Bloomberg took aim at Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the American economy: "Would you rehire or work for someone who ran your business into the ground? Who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company, and whose reckless decisions put you in danger, and who spends more time tweeting than working? If the answer is no, why the hell would we ever rehire Donald Trump for another four years?"
Political positions
Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until 2001, when he switched to the Republican Party to run for Mayor. He switched to an independent in 2007 and registered again as a Democrat in October 2018. In 2004, he endorsed the re-election of George W. Bush and spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention. He endorsed Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
As Mayor of New York, Bloomberg supported government initiatives in public health and welfare. This included tobacco control efforts (including an increase in the legal age to purchase tobacco products, a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces, and an increase in the cigarette tax); the elimination of the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants; and bans on all flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products including menthol flavors. Bloomberg also launched an unsuccessful effort to ban on certain large (more than 16 fluid ounce) sugary sodas at restaurants and food service establishments in the city. These initiatives were supported by public health advocates but were criticized by some as "nanny state" policies.
Over his career, Bloomberg has "mingled support for progressive causes with more conservative positions on law enforcement, business regulation and school choice." Bloomberg supports gun-control measures, abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He advocates for a public health insurance option that he has called "Medicare for all for people that are uncovered" rather than a universal single-payer healthcare system. He is concerned about climate change and has touted his mayoral efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Bloomberg supported the Iraq War and opposed creating a timeline for withdrawing troops. Bloomberg has sometimes embraced the use of surveillance in efforts to deter crime and protect against terrorism.
During and after his tenure, he was a staunch supporter of stop-and-frisk. In November 2019, Bloomberg apologized for supporting it. He advocates reversing many of the Trump tax cuts. His own tax plan includes implementing a 5 percent surtax on incomes above $5 million a year and would raise federal revenue by $5 trillion over a decade. He opposes a wealth tax, saying that it would likely be found unconstitutional. He has also proposed more stringent financial regulations that include tougher oversight for big banks, a financial transactions tax, and stronger consumer protections. He supported decreasing estate-tax threshold to collect more estate taxes and close tax avoidance schemes. According to Propublica investigation he set up multiple GRATs thus shielding parts of his fortune for his heirs.
Bloomberg stated that running as a Democratnot an independentwas the only path he saw to defeating Donald Trump, saying: "In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now."
Philanthropy
In August 2010, Bloomberg signed The Giving Pledge, whereby the wealthy pledge to give away at least half of their wealth. Since then, he has given away $9.5 billion overall including $3.3 billion in 2019. According to Chronicle of Philanthropy, he gave away the most money of any philanthropist in 2019.
According to a profile in Fast Company, his Bloomberg Philanthropies foundation has five areas of focus: public health, the arts, government innovation, the environment, and education. Through the Foundation, he has donated and/or pledged $767 million in 2018.
2011 recipients included the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization. According to The New York Times, Bloomberg was an "anonymous donor" to the Carnegie Corporation from 2001 to 2010, with gifts ranging from $5 million to $20 million each year. The Carnegie Corporation distributed these contributions to hundreds of New York City organizations ranging from the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Gilda's Club, a non-profit organization that provides support to people and families living with cancer. He continues to support the arts through his foundation.
Bloomberg gave $254 million in 2009 to almost 1,400 nonprofit organizations, saying, "I am a big believer in giving it all away and have always said that the best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker."
COVID-19 response
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, Bloomberg through his foundation committed to a wide range of urgent causes including researching treatments and vaccines, leading contact tracing to root out the virus, supporting the World Health Organization, and funding global efforts to fight the spread of the disease and protect vulnerable populations. Action included:
Cofounding a $75 million fund for nonprofits impacted by COVID-19 in New York City
Donating $6 million to World Central Kitchen to serve meals to health care workers in New York City
Partnering with Johns Hopkins University to train COVID-19 contact tracers through its school of public health and search for a treatment of the virus.
Convening mayors through a partnership with Harvard College to learn and discuss their pandemic response, featuring a bipartisan roster of speakers and attendees.
Leading New York's contact tracing effort
Launching an information and action sharing network for cities through the National League of Cities
Supporting international efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prepare regional leaders through the International Rescue Committee, the World Health Organization, Vital Strategies and other partners
Environmental advocacy
Bloomberg is an environmentalist and has advocated policy to fight climate change at least since he became the mayor of New York City. At the national level, Bloomberg has consistently pushed for transitioning the United States' energy mix from fossil fuels to clean energy. In July 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million to Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, allowing the campaign to expand its efforts to shut down coal-fired power plants from 15 states to 45 states. In 2015, Bloomberg announced an additional $30 million contribution to the Beyond Coal initiative, matched with another $30 million by other donors, to help secure the retirement of half of America's fleet of coal plants by 2017. In July 2017, Europe Beyond Coal was established to phase out use of coal on the continent by 2030. Austria closed its final coal-fired plant in April 2020. In early June 2019, Bloomberg pledged $500 million to reduce climate impacts and shut remaining coal-fired power plants by 2030 via the new Beyond Carbon initiative.
Bloomberg Philanthropies awarded a $6 million grant to the Environmental Defense Fund in support of strict regulations on fracking in the 14 states with the heaviest natural gas production.
In 2013, Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the Risky Business initiative with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer. The joint effort worked to convince the business community of the need for more sustainable energy and development policies, by quantifying and publicizing the economic risks the United States faces from the impact of climate change. In January 2015, Bloomberg led Bloomberg Philanthropies in a $48-million partnership with the Heising-Simons family to launch the Clean Energy Initiative. The initiative supports state-based solutions aimed at ensuring America has a clean, reliable, and affordable energy system.
Since 2010, Bloomberg has taken an increasingly global role on environmental issues. From 2010 to 2013, he served as the chairman of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of the world's biggest cities working together to reduce carbon emissions. During his tenure, Bloomberg worked with President Bill Clinton to merge C40 with the Clinton Climate Initiative, with the goal of amplifying their efforts in the global fight against climate change worldwide. He serves as the president of the board of C40 Cities. In January 2014, Bloomberg began a five-year commitment totaling $53 million through Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Vibrant Oceans Initiative. The initiative partners Bloomberg Philanthropies with Oceana, Rare, and Encourage Capital to help reform fisheries and increase sustainable populations worldwide. In 2018, Bloomberg joined Ray Dalio in announcing a commitment of $185 million towards protecting the oceans.
In 2014, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Bloomberg as his first Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change to help the United Nations work with cities to prevent climate change. In September 2014, Bloomberg convened with Ban and global leaders at the UN Climate Summit to announce definite action to fight climate change in 2015. In 2018, Ban's successor António Guterres appointed Bloomberg as UN envoy for climate action. He resigned in November 2019, in the run-up to his presidential campaign. On 5 February 2021, however, he was re-appointed by Guterres as his Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions in the lead-up to the climate conference in Scotland scheduled for November 2021.
In late 2014, Bloomberg, Ban Ki-moon, and global city networks ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), with support from UN-Habitat, launched the Compact of Mayors, a global coalition of mayors and city officials pledging to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate resilience, and track their progress transparently. To date, over 250 cities representing more than 300 million people worldwide and 4.1 percent of the total global population, have committed to the Compact of Mayors, which was merged with the Covenant of Mayors in June 2016.
In 2015, Bloomberg and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo created the Climate Summit for Local Leaders. which convened assembled hundreds of city leaders from around the world at Paris City Hall to discuss fighting climate change. The Summit concluded with the presentation of the Paris Declaration, a pledge by leaders from assembled global cities to cut carbon emissions by 3.7 gigatons annually by 2030.
During the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and chair of the Financial Stability Board, announced that Bloomberg would lead a new global task force designed to help industry and financial markets understand the growing risks of climate change.
Following President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. government would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Bloomberg outlined a coalition of cities, states, universities and businesses that had come together to honor America's commitment under the agreement through 'America's Pledge.' Bloomberg offered up to $15 million to the UNFCCC, the UN body that assists countries with climate change efforts. About a month later, Bloomberg and California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the America's Pledge coalition would work to "quantify the actions taken by U.S. states, cities and business to drive down greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement." In announcing the initiative, Bloomberg said "the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but American society remains committed to it." Two think tanks, World Resource Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute, will work with America's Pledge to analyze the work cities, states and businesses do to meet the U.S. commitment to the Paris agreement.
In May 2019, Bloomberg announced a 2020 Midwestern Collegiate Climate Summit in Washington University in St. Louis with the aim to bring together leaders from Midwestern universities, local government and the private sector to reduce climate impacts in the region.
Johns Hopkins University philanthropy
As of 2019, Bloomberg has given more than $3.3 billion to Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater, making him "the most generous living donor to any education institution in the United States." His first contribution, in 1965, had been $5. He made his first $1 million commitment to JHU in 1984, and subsequently became the first individual to exceed $1 billion in lifetime donations to a single U.S. institution of higher education.
Bloomberg's contributions to Johns Hopkins "fueled major improvements in the university's reputation and rankings, its competitiveness for faculty and students, and the appearance of its campus," and included construction of a children's hospital (the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center Building, named after Bloomberg's mother); a physics building, a school of public health (the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), libraries, and biomedical research facilities, including the Institute for Cell Engineering, a stem-cell research institute within the School of Medicine, and the Malaria Research Institute within the School of Public Health. In 2013, Bloomberg committed $350 million to Johns Hopkins, five-sevenths of which were allocated to the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships, endowing 50 Bloomberg Distinguished Professors (BDPs) whose interdisciplinary expertise crosses traditional academic disciplines. In 2016, on the School of Public Health's centennial, Bloomberg Philanthropies contributed $300 million to establish the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Bloomberg also funded the launch of the Bloomberg–Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy within the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in East Baltimore, with a $50 million gift; an additional $50 million was given by philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, and $25 million by other donors. It will support cancer therapy research, technology and infrastructure development, and private sector partnerships. In 2016, Bloomberg joined Vice President Joe Biden for the institute's formal launch, embracing Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, which seeks to find a cure for cancer through national coordination of government and private sector resources. In 2018, Bloomberg contributed a further gift of $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins, allowing the university to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.
Other educational and research philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg established the American Talent Initiative in 2016 which is committed to increasing the number of lower-income high-achieving students attending elite colleges. Bloomberg Philanthropies also supports CollegePoint which has provided advising to lower- and moderate-income high school students since 2014.
In 2016, the Museum of Science, Boston announced a $50 million gift from Bloomberg. The donation marks Bloomberg's fourth gift to the museum, which he credits with sparking his intellectual curiosity as a patron and student during his youth in Medford, Massachusetts. The endowment supported the museum's education division, named the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center in honor of Bloomberg's parents. It is the largest donation in the museum's 186-year history.
In 2015, Bloomberg donated $100 million to Cornell Tech, the applied sciences graduate school of Cornell University, to construct the first academic building, "The Bloomberg Center", on the school's Roosevelt Island campus.
In 1996, Bloomberg endowed the William Henry Bloomberg Professorship at Harvard University with a $3 million gift in honor of his father, who died in 1963, saying, "throughout his life, he recognized the importance of reaching out to the nonprofit sector to help better the welfare of the entire community."
Urban innovation philanthropy
In July 2011, Bloomberg launched a $24 million initiative to fund "Innovation Delivery Teams" in five cities. The teams are one of Bloomberg Philanthropies' key goals: advancing government innovation. In December 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a partnership with online ticket search engine SeatGeek to connect artists with new audiences. Called the Discover New York Arts Project, the project includes organizations HERE, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Kaufman Center.
In 2013, Bloomberg announced the Mayors Challenge competition to drive innovation in American cities. The program was later expanded to competitions in Latin America and Europe.
In 2016, Bloomberg gave Harvard $32 million to create the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative within Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation; the initiative provides training to mayors and their aides on innovative municipal leadership and challenges facing cities.
In March 2021, Bloomberg gave Harvard $150 million to create the Bloomberg Center for Cities to support mayors.
Tobacco, guns and public health
Bloomberg has been a longtime donor to global tobacco control efforts. Bloomberg has donated close to $1 billion to the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote anti-smoking efforts, including $125 million in 2006, $250 million in 2008, and $360 million, making Bloomberg Philanthropies the developing world's biggest funder of tobacco-control initiatives. In 2013, it was reported that Bloomberg had donated $109.24 million in 556 grants and 61 countries to campaigns against tobacco. Bloomberg's contributions are aimed at "getting countries to monitor tobacco use, introduce strong tobacco-control laws, and create mass media campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use."
In September 2019 Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a new $160 Million Program to "End the Youth E-Cigarette Epidemic". This was widely criticized by people who consider that e-cigarettes are less harmful than vaping and can help smokers to quit, who suggested that the campaign would do more harm than good. Bloomberg was accused of distributing anti-vaping propaganda. A group of 24 experienced tobacco control experts warned him that his policies "would do more harm than good". A Canadian anesthesiologist attempted to use the occasion of Mr. Bloomberg's 80th birthday to encourage him to review the data on the use of e-cigarettes and vaping for tobacco harm reduction.
Bloomberg is the co-founder of Everytown for Gun Safety (formerly Mayors Against Illegal Guns), a gun control advocacy group.
In August 2016, the World Health Organization appointed Bloomberg as its Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases. In this role, Bloomberg will mobilize private sector and political leaders to help the WHO reduce deaths from preventable diseases, traffic accidents, tobacco, obesity, and alcohol. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan cited Bloomberg's ongoing support for WHO anti-smoking, drowning prevention, and road safety programs in her announcement of his new role.
Other philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg supported the Fresh Air Fund's creation of 'Open Spaces in the City' in summer 2020 to provide socially-distant areas for kids to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as jobs for local teens.
The public library in Bloomberg's hometown of Medford announced in August 2020 that Bloomberg had donated $3 million to the construction of a new facility, citing his family's long-standing ties to the library.
In 2017, Bloomberg donated $75 million for The Shed, a new arts and cultural center in Hudson Yards, Manhattan.
Bloomberg also endowed his hometown synagogue, Temple Shalom, which was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.
Bloomberg hosted the Global Business Forum in September 2017, during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly; the gathering featured international CEOs, heads of state, and other prominent speakers.
In 2009 Bloomberg met with other billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey to address issues ranging from the environment, health care and concerns over population growth. Although no formal organization was established, the effort was understood to be designed to help bring various philanthropic projects of the mega-donors into a more unified effort to address various problems on our planet.
Electoral history
Personal life
Family and relationships
In 1975, Bloomberg married Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown, a British national from Yorkshire, United Kingdom. They have two daughters: Emma (born c. 1979) and Georgina (born 1983), who were featured on Born Rich, a 2003 documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Bloomberg divorced Brown in 1993, but he has said she remains his "best friend." Since 2000, Bloomberg has lived with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.
Bloomberg's younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, has been Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, since February 2002.
Religion
Although he attended Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, and his family kept a kosher kitchen, Bloomberg today is relatively secular, attending synagogue mainly during the High Holidays and a Passover Seder with his sister, Marjorie Tiven. Neither of his daughters had bat mitzvahs.
Public image and lifestyle
Throughout his business career, Bloomberg has made numerous statements which have been considered by some to be insulting, derogatory, sexist or misogynistic. When working on Wall Street in the 1960s and 1970s, Bloomberg claimed in his 1997 autobiography, he had "a girlfriend in every city".In a 1996 interview with The Guardian about being a newly-divorced bachelor, Bloomberg said, "I like theater, dining and chasing women. Let me put it this way: I am a single, straight billionaire in Manhattan. What do you think? It's a wet dream." On various occasions, Bloomberg allegedly commented "I'd do her", regarding certain women, some of whom were coworkers or employees. Bloomberg later said that by "do", he meant that he would have a personal relationship with the woman. Bloomberg's staff told the New York Times that he now regrets having made "disrespectful" remarks concerning women.
During his term as mayor, he lived at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. In 2013, he owned 13 properties in various countries around the world, including a $20 million Georgian mansion in Southampton, New York. In 2015, he acquired 4 Cheyne Walk, a historical property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, which once belonged to writer George Eliot. Bloomberg and his daughters own houses in Bermuda and stay there frequently.
Bloomberg stated that during his mayoralty, he rode the New York City Subway on a daily basis, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in The New York Times stated that he was often seen chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. He supported the construction of the 7 Subway Extension and the Second Avenue Subway; in December 2013, Bloomberg took a ceremonial ride on a train to the new 34th Street station to celebrate a part of his legacy as mayor.
During his tenure as mayor, Bloomberg made cameos playing himself in the films The Adjustment Bureau and New Year's Eve, as well as in episodes of 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, and two episodes of Law & Order.
Bloomberg is a private pilot. He owns six airplanes: three Dassault Falcon 900s, a Beechcraft B300, a Pilatus PC-24, and a Cessna 182 Skylane. Bloomberg also owns two helicopters: an AW109 and an Airbus helicopter and as of 2012 was near the top of the waiting list for an AW609 tiltrotor aircraft. In his youth he was a licensed amateur radio operator, was proficient in Morse code, and built ham radios.
Awards and honors
Bloomberg has received honorary degrees from Tufts University (2007), Bard College (2007), Rockefeller University (2007), the University of Pennsylvania (2008), Fordham University (2009), Williams College (2014), Harvard University (2014), the University of Michigan (2016), Villanova University (2017) and Washington University in St. Louis (2019). Bloomberg was the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.
On May 27, 2010, Bloomberg delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he was invited to and delivered guest remarks for the Johns Hopkins Class of 2020. Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and Commencement speaker Alexis Ohanian; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force; and senior class president Pavan Patel
Bloomberg has received the Yale School of Management's Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets (2003); Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Ehud Barak (2004); Barnard College's Barnard Medal of Distinction (2008); the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Leadership for Healthy Communities' Healthy Communities Leadership Award (2009); and the Jefferson Awards Foundation's U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official (2010). He was the inaugural laureate of the annual Genesis Prize for Jewish values in 2013, and donated the $1 million prize money to a global competition, the Genesis Generation Challenge, to identify young adults' big ideas to better the world.
Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 and 2008 Time 100. In 2010, Vanity Fair ranked him #7 in its "Vanity Fair 100" list of influential figures.
In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Bloomberg an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his "prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, and the many ways in which they have benefited the United Kingdom and the U.K.-U.S. special relationship."
Books and other works
Bloomberg, with Matthew Winkler, wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, published in 1997 by Wiley. A second edition was released in 2019, ahead of Bloomberg's presidential run.Aaron Timms, Michael Bloomberg Earned $48 Billion and Eternal Adoration From Wall Street. But Does Anyone Else Want Him to Be President?, Institutional Investor (February 1, 2019). Bloomberg and former Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope co-authored Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet (2017), published by St. Martin's Press; the book appeared on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list. Bloomberg has written a number of op-eds in the New York Times'' about various issues, including an op-ed supporting state and local efforts to fight climate change (2017), an op-ed about his donation of $1.8 billion in financial aid for college students and support for need-blind admission policies (2018); an op-ed supporting a ban on flavored e-cigarettes (2019); and an op-ed supporting policies to reduce economic inequality (2020).
See also
List of Harvard University people
List of Johns Hopkins University people
List of people from Boston
List of philanthropists
List of richest American politicians
Timeline of New York City, 2000s–2010s
References
Further reading
Uses anthropology and geography to examine the mayor's corporate-style governance, with particular attention to the Hudson Yards plan, which aims to transform the far West Side into a high-end district.
External links
Mike Bloomberg official website
Mike Blomberg biography at Bloomberg Philanthropies
Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
Office of the Mayor of New York City (Archived November 23, 2013)
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[
"This is a list of candidates in the 2022 Philippine presidential and vice presidential elections.\n\nCandidates for president \n\n Ernesto Abella (Independent), former undersecretary of Foreign Affairs and presidential spokesperson\nLeody de Guzman (PLM), current chairman of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino and founding member of Partido ng Manggagawa\nNorberto Gonzales (PDSP), former Secretary of National Defense\n On September 30, 2021, the Philippine Democratic Socialist Party announced the candidacy of their party chairman, Gonzales in the 2022 elections.\nPanfilo Lacson (Reporma), incumbent senator\nIn July 2021, Senate President Tito Sotto confirmed that Lacson will run for president in a tandem with him. On September 8, the duo announced their candidacies for the upcoming election.\nFaisal Mangondato (Katipunan ng Kamalayang Kayumanggi)\nBongbong Marcos (PFP), former senator\nBy January 2020, Marcos confirmed that he is running \"for a national position\" in 2022, although he did not specify which position. By September 2020, Marcos's sister Imee said that her brother was still noncommittal to which position he'd run for. A year later, Marcos himself confirmed that \"The presidency is not taken off the table.\" On September 21, the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP; ) nominated Marcos to run for president. If Marcos accepts, he will be inducted as a member of the party and be made its chairman. During the national convention of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL; ) in Binangonan, the party founded by his father, he was nominated as the party's candidate for president. Marcos, who remained a member of the Nacionalista Party, thanked KBL for the nomination, but said that he will announce his plans \"when the time comes.\" On October 5, Marcos announced his presidential candidacy. Marcos then resigned from the Nacionalistas and was sworn in at the PFP chairman. Marcos ultimately filed his presidential candidacy under the PFP.\nJose Montemayor (DPP)\nIsko Moreno (Aksyon), incumbent mayor of Manila\nAt the start of 2021, pollster Pulse Asia published an opinion poll showing Moreno in second place for president, and statistically tied for first with President Duterte in the vice presidential race. The 1Sambayan convenors group then included Moreno as one of the people they are choosing to run for president. Moreno begged off, as he was concentrating on his mayoral duties. By June, Moreno informed them that they are declining their offer. On September, Moreno was named president of Aksyon Demokratiko, the party founded by the late Raul Roco. Moreno announced his candidacy on September 22; his running mate will be Dr. Willie Ong.\nManny Pacquiao (PROMDI), incumbent senator\n Boxing promoter Bob Arum said in June 2020 that Pacquiao told him that he'd run for president instead of defending his Senate seat in 2022. A few days later, Pacquiao denied talking to Arum about politics. A year after that, sports official and former Bacolod mayor and representative Monico Puentebella said that Pacquiao is running for president, and that he was authorized by the latter to talk about politics. In September 2021, Pacquiao said that he only have three options in politics: run for president, run for reelection in the Senate, or retire from politics altogether. On September 19, he accepted the nomination of the PDP-Laban faction led by senator Koko Pimentel. On October 1, 2021, Pacquiao filed his certificate of candidacy for the presidency under PROMDI, the party founded by the late Cebu governor Lito Osmeña.\nLeni Robredo (Independent), the current Vice President of the Philippines\nOn September 30, 2021, 1Sambayan coalition (the coalition of the opposition), nominated Robredo for as their standard bearer. According to Armin Luistro, one of the conveyor of 1Sambayan, Robredo accepted the nomination and will file her candidacy on October 5. Robredo's spokesman clarified that she hasn't accepted a decision yet, but will make a decision on this before October 8. On October 7, Robredo accepted the nomination and announced she will run for president. She later filed her certificate of candidacy on the same day as an independent. Robredo explained that she is running as an independent to show that she is open to making alliances.\n\nCandidates for vice president \n\nLito Atienza (PROMDI), incumbent House representative for Buhay and House deputy speaker\nWalden Bello (PLM)\nThe Laban ng Masa () coalition launched a campaign to collect 300,000 signatures to urge activist and former party-list lawmaker Walden Bello to run for president in the 2022 elections. In a statement, Laban ng Masa said it wants to \"push for an ambitious platform that focuses on the poor, prioritizes the neglected, and fights for the rights of ordinary Filipinos.\" Bello's group sought talks with Vice President Robredo's backers for three months but were ignored. This caused them to support Leody de Guzman's presidential candidacy, instead. On October 20, Bello decided to run for the vice-presidency, substituting Raquel Castillo who is supposed to be de Guzman's running mate.\n Rizalito David (DPP)\nSara Duterte (Lakas), incumbent mayor of Davao City\n On July 9, 2021, Duterte said that she is open to run for president. However, there was no final decision yet. On September 9, 2021, she said that she is not running for president since her father, President Duterte was running for vice president, and they agreed that only one of them will run on a national position. On November 11, she resigned from Hugpong ng Pagbabago and later joined Lakas–CMD on the same day. She filed her candidacy on November 13, 2021, substituting Lyle Fernando Uy.\n Manny SD Lopez (WPP)\nWillie Ong (Aksyon), public health advocate and former Department of Health consultant\nOng will be the running-mate of Moreno; their ticket was officially announced on September 22, 2021.\nFrancis Pangilinan (Liberal), incumbent senator\nIn June 2021, Pangilinan announced that he was seeking reelection to the Senate. After Vice President Robredo announced her presidential candidacy, several sources from the Liberal Party indicated that the senator would be her running mate for her presidential bid. Pangilinan did file his candidacy for vice president a day after Robredo.\nCarlos Serapio (Katipunan ng Kamalayang Kayumanggi)\nTito Sotto (NPC), incumbent president of the Senate of the Philippines\nIn July 2021, Sotto announced that he will be Lacson's eventual running mate in the presidential race; this was followed by an official campaign announcement on September 8, 2021.\n\nDisallowed candidacies \nA total of 97 individuals manifested their intention to run for president, while 29 did so for vice president.\n\nThe following have filed certificates of candidacies, formally notifying the commission that they are running, did not withdraw, and were not included in the tentative list of candidates released on December 24. These were either declared as nuisance candidates, were disqualified, or their candidacies cancelled.\n\nFor president\n\nOctober 1\nThese people filed on October 1.\nDave Aguila (Independent)\nLey Ordenes (Independent)\nEdmundo Rubi (Independent)\nLaurencio Yulaga (Green Republican)\n\nOctober 2\nThese people filed on October 2.\nVictoriano Inte (Independent)\n\nOctober 3\nThese people filed on October 3.\nTiburcio Marcos (Independent)\n\nOctober 4\nThese people filed on October 4.\nSonny Boy Andrade (Independent)\nDelia Aniñon (Independent)\nLeo Cadion (PGRP)\nWinston Kayanan (Independent)\nGabriela Larot (Independent)\nMaria Mercedes Pesigan (Independent)\nMelchor Puno (Independent)\nAlfredo Respuesto (Independent)\nJuanita Trocenio (Independent)\nRenato Jose Valera (Independent)\n\nOctober 5\nThese people filed on October 5\nArnel David (Independent)\nLeonardo Fernandez (Independent)\nMarsden Luyahan (Independent)\nMaria Aurora \"Maria\" Marcos (Independent)\nEdgar Niez (Independent)\nValeriano Nocon III (Independent)\nJanelle Prado (Independent)\n\nOctober 6\nThese people filed on October 6.\nRamon Asuelo (Independent)\nRudy Flores (Independent)\nEdencio Fronda (Independent)\nHappy Lubarbio (Independent)\nDante Martirez (Federal Eastern Maharlika)\nDolores Quirao (Independent)\nLuzviminda Raval (Independent)\nBenjamin Rivera (Independent)\nSahiron Salim (Independent)\nJimmy Torres (KBL)\nDanilo Villanueva (Independent)\n\nOctober 7\nThese filed on October 7.\nSalic Arap (Independent)\nMa. Antonia Aquino (Independent)\nDatu Rodulfo Basadre Jr. (Independent)\nRolly Casino (Independent)\nRodel de Vera (Independent)\nEphraim Defiño (Independent)\nAlexander Encarnacion (Independent)\nCorina Joyce Felix (Independent)\nNancy Megio (Independent)\nDomingo \"Bro. Dingo\" Mejia (Independent)\nJose Romel Murio (Independent)\nJuan Juan Ollesca (Independent)\nJeffrey Roden (Independent)\nRoosevelt Sta. Maria (Independent)\n\nOctober 8\nThese people filed on October 8.\nEvelia Abarrondo (Independent)\nLoreto \"MrLoy\" Agcaoili (Independent)\nJuan Aguilar Jr. (Independent)\nHilario Andes (Independent)\nArsenio Antiporda Jr. (Independent)\nGerald Arcega (Independent)\nReysal Bahian (Independent)\nBonifacio Bravo (Independent)\nDiosdada Dacillo (Independent)\nOrlando de Guzman (Partido Pederal ng Maharlika)\nPercival Kevin de Guzman (Independent)\nDiane de Leon (Independent)\nRamon Raco Diaz (Independent)\nArsenio Dimaya (Independent)\nRicardo Domingo (Independent)\nAntero Fabito (Independent)\nAnthony Fajardo (HOPE)\nEdmundo Fuerte (Independent)\nKamadhenu Gaa (Independent)\nAlejo Katigbak (Independent)\nDanilo Lihaylihay (Independent)\nEdgardo Los Baños (Independent)\nErazo Lucio (Independent)\nJosephine Murillo (Independent)\nFelix Natnat (Independent)\nRobert Navarro (Independent)\nEric Negapatan (Independent)\nVladimir Ocampo (Independent)\nFerdinand Jose Pijao (Independent)\nDeogracias Porio (Independent)\nDanilo Roble (Independent)\nCesar Roca (Independent)\nCornelio Seño (Independent)\nApolonia Soguilon (Maharlika People's Party)\nPedrito Tagle (Independent)\nNestor Talion (Independent)\n\nSubstitutes\nAntonio Parlade Jr., former spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed ConflictThe following were in the list of tentative candidates on December 24, but did not make it to the official ballot:\n\n Hilario Andes (Independent)\n Gerald Arcega (Independent)\n Danilo Lihaylihay (Independent)\n Maria Aurora Marcos (Independent)\n Edgar Niez (Independent)\n\nFor vice president\n\nOctober 1\nThese people filed on October 1.\nRochelle David (Independent)\nAlexander Lague (PGRP)\nKurtney Love Bendana (Independent)\n\nOctober 2\nOne person filed on October 2.\n\nOctober 4\nNo one filed for vice president on October 3. These people filed on October 4.\nPrincess Sunshine Amirah Magdangal (PGRP)\n\nOctober 5\nThere was one person who filed on October 5.\nMelodino Villanueva (Independent)\n\nOctober 6\nThere was one person who filed on October 6.\n\nOctober 7\nThese people filed on October 7.\nWilson Amad (Independent)\nAeric Bernardino (Independent)\nNathaniel Jayoma (Independent)\nFerdinand Lagondino (Independent)\nBienvenido Lorque (KDP)\nLourdes Tolentino (Independent)\nLeandro Verceles Jr. (Independent)\n\nOctober 8\nThese people filed on October 8.\nArlene Josephine Butay (Independent)\nAbdullatief Pumbaya (Independent)\nElpidio Rosales Jr. (Maharlika People's Party)\nRey Anthony Bereber (Independent)\nNerrisa Navarro (KBL)\nBenedicto Jose (PDDS)\nDiego Palomares Jr. (Independent)\nJoel Sison (KBL)\n\nCandidates who withdrew \nThese are the candidates who have filed candidacies, but later withdrew:\n\nFor president \nGrepor Belgica (PDDS), incumbent presidential adviser on religious affairs\nWithdrew in November 13; substituted by Bong Go.\nAnna Capella Velasco (Lakas)\nWithdrew on November 13.\nRonald dela Rosa (PDP–Laban), incumbent senator\nOn October 8, 2021, the last day of filing of candidacies, dela Rosa filed his candidacy, saying that PDP–Laban fielded him as no one else can continue the policies of the Duterte administration. When asked if he is mocking the election for serving as a placeholder for Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, dela Rosa said \"I won as a senator, number 5,\" who did win in 2019 for senator. Dela Rosa later said that this has long been planned, but they were hiding it because it would've been criticized if it was revealed earlier. Days later, Dela Rosa revealed that he received a call from Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi that they have chosen him as the standard bearer two hours before the deadline as he is the only one who can continue the president's legacy. Dela Rosa also said that he can give way if Mayor Duterte decides to run. Two days before the deadline for substitution, dela Rosa withdrew from the presidential race, in favor of his erstwhile vice presidential running mate Bong Go. Dela Rosa explained that it was a party decision for him to withdraw.\nBong Go (PDDS), incumbent senator\nOn August 30, 2021, Go officially declined the endorsement of PDP–Laban to run for president. Over a week later, The PDP–Laban faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi formally nominated Go to run for president on their convention anyway. Cusi said that Go did not close the door on himself running for president, but told him that \"make him the last option.\" On October 2, Go filed his candidacy for vice president. Go subsequently substituted Grepor Belgica to run for president under the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan. Go then announced his withdrawal from the presidential race on November 30. He then formally withdrew on December 14.\nAntonio Valdes (KDP)\nWithdrew on November 13; substituted by Antonio Parlade Jr.\n\nFor vice president \nAlex Lacson (Ang Kapatiran), lawyer and author\nAng Kapatiran announced at its party convention on September 25, 2021, that it would field Lacson as its vice presidential candidate. On October 7, Alex Lacson filed to run for vice president. On October 8, Lacson withdrew in favor of Francis Pangilinan and filed to run for senator, instead.\n\nRaquel Castillo (PLM)\nShe was substituted by Walden Bello in October 20.\n\nBong Go (PDP–Laban), incumbent senator\nOn October 2, Go filed his candidacy for vice president. On November 13, 2021, Go withdrew his candidacy for vice president under PDP–Laban and filed his candidacy for president under PDDS after its presidential candidate Grepor Belgica withdrew on the same day.\n\nLyle Fernando Uy (Lakas–CMD)\nWithdrew in November 13; substituted by Sara Duterte.\n\nDeclined to be candidates\nListed below are the personalities who, while have been suggested or speculated to run for either president or vice president but have since personally ruled out or denied the idea of running for either positions. Among these personalities include:\n\nFor president\nFranklin Drilon (Liberal), incumbent Senate minority floor leader\nIn an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel on July 22, 2020, Drilon declined running for president.\nImee Marcos (Nacionalista), incumbent senator\nIn May 2019, Marcos said she was not thinking of running for president.\nEddie Villanueva (CIBAC), incumbent House Deputy Speaker and House representative for CIBAC\nOn June 12, 2021, Villanueva was among the list that was released by the opposition coalition. He appreciates the trust and confidence by the coalition; however, he is \"not interested\" to run for president, according to his son Joel.\nCynthia Villar (Nacionalista), incumbent senator\nAfter topping the 2019 Senate election, Villar said that she \"won't exert any effort\" to run in 2022.\nManuel Villar (Nacionalista), former senator and president of the Senate of the Philippines\nWhile campaigning for senator in 2019, Villar's wife Cynthia said that he has no plans of running for president in 2022.\n\nFor vice president\nWin Gatchalian (NPC), incumbent senator\nGatchialian confirmed in August 2021 that he was considering a run for the vice presidency, if he will be the running mate of Sara Duterte. Gatchalian ultimately filed to defend his Senate seat.\nGrace Poe (Independent), incumbent senator\nPoe was initially sought as a potential vice presidential running mate of Isko Moreno and Manny Pacquiao. Poe ultimately did not file to run in 2022.\nMartin Romualdez (Lakas), incumbent majority floor leader of the House of Representatives and House representative from Leyte's 1st district\nPresident Duterte originally eyed Romualdez as the ruling coalition's vice presidential candidate. Romualdez ultimately sought to defend his House seat, instead.\nGilbert Teodoro (Lakas), former Secretary of National Defense\nTeodoro eventually ran for senator.\n\nFor both positions\nRamon S. Ang, president and chief operating officer of San Miguel Corporation\nAng has repeatedly declined to seek public office, saying in August 2020 that \"It is not in my best interest to run for office\".\nSonny Angara (LDP), incumbent senator\nAngara was seen as potential presidential candidate. Angara ultimately did not file to run in 2022.\nNancy Binay (UNA), incumbent senator\nAntonio Carpio (Independent), former associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines\nAlan Peter Cayetano (Nacionalista), former speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, incumbent House representative from Taguig-Pateros 1st district\nWhile handling the Philippines's hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Cayetano said that he had no plans of running in 2022. A few months later, Cayetano reneged on a gentleman's agreement between him and Lord Allan Jay Velasco for the speakership, a move that Edcel Lagman says that he has plans in running in 2022. By September 2021, he said that he is seriously considering either to run for president, or to defend his congressional seat. On October 1, Cayetano confirmed that he won't be running for president in 2022. Later that week, he filed to run for senator.\nRodrigo Duterte (PDP–Laban), incumbent president of the Philippines\nDuterte initially announced that he will support Martin Romualdez's vice presidential bid. Addressing the nation Monday, June 28, Duterte later admitted that running for vice president was \"not a bad idea\" but this would depend if there would be \"space\" for him in the polls. On July 17, 2021, Duterte announced his plans to run as vice president to be immune from possible cases against him.\" On August 24, 2021, Duterte accepted the endorsement by PDP-Laban to run for vice president citing his agreement to \"make the sacrifice and heed the clamor of the people.\" A couple of weeks later, the PDP-Laban faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi formally nominated Duterte for vice president. On October 2, Duterte backed down from his vice presidential nomination, announcing that he is retiring from politics. Duterte then filed his candidacy for senator. However, he withdrew on December 14.\nFrancis Escudero (NPC), incumbent governor of Sorsogon\nRichard Gordon (Bagumbayan-VNP), incumbent senator\nIn 2017, President Duterte referred to Gordon as the country's next president. Gordon ultimately sought to defend his Senate seat.\nVilma Santos (Nacionalista), incumbent House deputy speaker and House representative from Batangas' 6th district\nShe stated that she sincerely thank 1Sambayan for consideration to nominating her. However, she stressed that she has no plans for 2022. She wants to concentrate in serving her congressional district. Also she wishes to continue to do her legislative works in Congress.\nAntonio Trillanes (Magdalo), former senator\nOn May 12, 2021, Trillanes formally declared his intention to run for president, changing his status from being an alternate candidate to Vice President Leni Robredo \"to being a principal candidate for President to vie for 1Sambayan coalition's nomination.\" However, he is open to give way to Robredo if she decides to run for president. He previously said in February 2020 that the highest position he'd run for was senator and that he'd support Robredo for president instead. With Robredo confirming her plans to run for president, Trillanes said that he will run for senator under her slate.\n\nReferences \n\n2022 Philippine presidential election",
"Pete Rios was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives and the Arizona Senate, serving two stretches in the Senate and a single term in the House. He first ran, unsuccessfully, for the House in 1980. In 1982 he ran for the State Senate, winning the seat from Arizona's 7th District. He won re-election in 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, and 1992. He served as the Senate President during the 40th Legislature from 1991–1992. In 1994, he did not run for re-election to the Senate, instead choosing to run for the Arizona Secretary of State, a bid for which he was unsuccessful. In 1996 Rios once again ran for the Senate, regaining his seat in District 7. He won election three times, the first two in 1998 and 2000 to District, and then to District 23 in 2002, after re-districting. In 2004, due to Arizona's term limit laws, Rios was unable to run again for the Senate, and chose to run for the House seat from District 23, which he won. He won re-election in 2006. He did not run for re-election in 2008.\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nArizona Democrats\nMembers of the Arizona House of Representatives\nArizona state senators\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nPresidents of the Arizona State Senate"
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"Michael Bloomberg",
"2012 presidential campaign speculation and role",
"What was the speculation regarding the presidential campaign?",
"It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election.",
"What was significant about this?",
"Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company.",
"Did he run for president?",
"Bloomberg ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012, stating: \"I'm not going to run for president,\" further adding \"I'm not looking at the possibility of running"
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C_e975df7eed9f47019327e1f1c042e677_0
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Who was speculating?
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Who was speculating that Bloomberg was not running for president?
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Michael Bloomberg
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In March 2010, Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company. It was speculated that the move would allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election. An individual close to Bloomberg said, "the idea of continuing onward is not far from his [Bloomberg's] mind". In October 2010, The Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg - which had attempted to recruit Bloomberg to run for the presidency in 2008 - announced it was relaunching its effort to persuade Bloomberg to wage a presidential campaign in 2012. The committee members insisted that they would persist in the effort in spite of Bloomberg's repeated denials of interest in seeking the presidency. While on the December 12, 2010, episode of Meet the Press, Bloomberg ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012, stating: "I'm not going to run for president," further adding "I'm not looking at the possibility of running ... no way, no how." On July 24, 2011, in the midst of Democrats' and Republicans' inability to agree on a budget plan and thus an increase in the federal debt limit, the Washington Post published a blog post about groups organizing third party approaches. It focused on Bloomberg as the best hope for a serious third-party presidential candidacy in 2012. During an appearance on The Daily Show in June 2012, London Mayor Boris Johnson told host Jon Stewart that he did not know why Bloomberg had ruled out a bid for the presidency in the upcoming election, declaring that he would be "a great candidate". Bloomberg had privately indicated he believed Mitt Romney would be better at running the country, but could not publicly support him because of Romney's positions on social issues such as abortion and gun control. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States.
Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. In 2020, Forbes ranked him as the twentieth-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $59 billion as of September 15, 2021 and as of September 8, 2020, Bloomberg ranked 14th in Forbes 400 with net worth $55 billion. Since signing The Giving Pledge, Bloomberg has given away $8.2 billion to philanthropic causes.
Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City. First elected in 2001, he held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and 2009. Pursuing socially liberal and fiscally moderate policies, Bloomberg developed a technocratic managerial style.
As mayor of New York, Bloomberg established public charter schools, rebuilt urban infrastructure, and supported gun control, public health initiatives, and environmental protections. He also led a rezoning of large areas of the city, which facilitated massive and widespread new commercial and residential construction after the September 11 attacks. Bloomberg is considered to have had far-reaching influence on the politics, business sector, and culture of New York City during his three terms as mayor. He has also faced significant criticism for his expansion of the city's stop and frisk program, support for which he reversed with an apology before his 2020 presidential run.
After a brief stint as a full-time philanthropist, he re-assumed the position of CEO at Bloomberg L.P. by the end of 2014. In November 2019, Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election. He ended his campaign in March 2020, after having won only 61 delegates. Bloomberg self-funded $935 million for his candidacy, which set the record for the most expensive U.S. presidential primary campaign.
In February 2022, Bloomberg was nominated to chair the Defense Innovation Board.
Early life and education
Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, to William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), a bookkeeper for a dairy company, and Charlotte (née Rubens) Bloomberg (1909–2011). The Bloomberg Center at the Harvard Business School was named in William Henry's honor. Bloomberg's family is Jewish, and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew. Bloomberg's maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus, and his maternal grandmother was born in New York to Lithuanian Jewish parents.
The family lived in Allston until Bloomberg was two years old, followed by Brookline, Massachusetts, for two years, finally settling in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, where he lived until after he graduated from college.
Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout when he was twelve years old. He graduated from Medford High School in 1960. He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. While there, he constructed the blue jay costume for the university's mascot. He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. In 1966, he graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi and Tau Beta Pi. He wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, with help from Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler.
Business career
In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, a large Wall Street investment bank, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development. Phibro Corporation bought Salomon Brothers in 1981, and the new management fired Bloomberg, paying him $10 million for his equity in the firm.
Using this money, Bloomberg, having designed in-house computerized financial systems for Salomon, set up a data services company named Innovative Market Systems (IMS) based on his belief that Wall Street would pay a premium for high-quality business information, delivered instantaneously on computer terminals in a variety of usable formats. The company sold customized computer terminals that delivered real-time market data, financial calculations and other analytics to Wall Street firms. The terminal, first called the Market Master terminal, was released to market in December 1982.
In 1986, the company renamed itself Bloomberg L.P. Over the years, ancillary products including Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Message, and Bloomberg Tradebook were launched. Bloomberg, L.P. had revenues of approximately $10 billion in 2018. As of 2019, the company has more than 325,000 terminal subscribers worldwide and employs 20,000 people in dozens of locations.
The culture of the company in the 1980s and 1990s has been compared to a fraternity, with employees bragging in the company's office about their sexual exploits. The company was sued four times by female employees for sexual harassment, including one incident in which a victim claimed to have been raped. To celebrate Bloomberg's 48th birthday, colleagues published a pamphlet entitled Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg. Among various sayings that were attributed to him, several have subsequently been criticized as sexist or misogynistic.
When he left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg was replaced by Lex Fenwick and later by Daniel L. Doctoroff, after his initial service as deputy mayor under Bloomberg. After completing his final term as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg spent his first eight months out of office as a full-time philanthropist. In fall 2014, he announced that he would return to Bloomberg L.P. as CEO at the end of 2014, succeeding Doctoroff, who had led the company since February 2008. Bloomberg resigned as CEO of Bloomberg L.P. to run for president in 2019.
Wealth
In March 2009, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion over the previous year, the world's biggest increase in wealth from 2008 to 2009. Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years. In the 2019 Forbes list of the world's billionaires, he was the ninth-richest person; his net worth was estimated at $55.5 billion. Currently, Bloomberg's net worth is estimated at $59 billion, ranking him 20th on Forbes''' list of billionaires.
Political career
Mayor of New York City
Bloomberg assumed office as the 108th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. He won re-election in 2005 and again in 2009. As mayor, he initially struggled with approval ratings as low as 24 percent; however, he subsequently developed and maintained high approval ratings. Bloomberg joined Rudy Giuliani, John Lindsay, and Fiorello La Guardia as re-elected Republican mayors in the mostly Democratic city.
Bloomberg stated that he wanted public education reform to be the legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second.
Bloomberg chose to apply a statistical, metrics-based management approach to city government, and granted departmental commissioners broad autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what New York Times political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to a Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility.
Bloomberg accepted a remuneration of $1 annually in lieu of the mayoral salary.
As mayor, Bloomberg turned the city's $6 billion budget deficit into a $3 billion surplus, largely by raising property taxes. Bloomberg increased city funding for the new development of affordable housing through a plan that created and preserved an estimated 160,000 affordable homes in the city. In 2003, he implemented a successful smoking ban in all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, and many other cities and states followed suit. On December 5, 2006, New York City became the first city in the United States to ban trans-fat from all restaurants. This went into effect in July 2008 and has since been adopted in many other cities and countries. Bloomberg created bicycle lanes, required chain restaurants to post calorie counts, and pedestrianized much of Times Square. In 2011, Bloomberg launched the NYC Young Men's Initiative, a $127 million initiative to support programs and policies designed to address disparities between young Black and Latino men and their peers, and personally donated $30 million to the project. In 2010, Bloomberg supported the then-controversial Islamic complex near Ground Zero.
Bloomberg greatly expanded the New York City Police Department's stop and frisk program, with a sixfold increase in documented stops. The policy was challenged in U.S. Federal Court, which ruled that the city's implementation of the policy violated citizens' rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and encouraged racial profiling. Bloomberg's administration appealed the ruling; however, his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, dropped the appeal and allowed the ruling to take effect. After the September 11 attacks, with assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency, Bloomberg's administration oversaw a controversial program that surveilled Muslim communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, and language. The program was discontinued in 2014.
In a January 2014 Quinnipiac poll, 64 percent of voters called Bloomberg's 12 years as mayor "mainly a success."
Mayoral elections
2001 election
In 2001, New York's Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election due to the city's limit of two consecutive terms. Bloomberg, who had been a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor on the Republican ticket. Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day, due to the September 11 attacks. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Democratic congressman, to become the Republican nominee. After a runoff, the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.
Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement to succeed him in the 2001 election. He also had a huge campaign spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the amount of contributions that a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green five to one. One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the World Trade Center attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.
In addition to running on the Republican line, Bloomberg ran on the ticket of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exerted strong influence. Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and combine all the votes received.) Another factor was the vote in Staten Island, which has traditionally been friendlier to Republicans than the rest of the city. Bloomberg received 75 percent of the vote in Staten Island. Overall, he won 50.3 percent to 47.9 percent.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Bloomberg's administration made a successful bid to host the 2004 Republican National Convention. The convention drew thousands of protesters, among them New Yorkers who despised George W. Bush and the Bush administration's pursuit of the Iraq War.
2005 election
Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York City. He spent almost $78 million on his campaign, exceeding the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. In late 2004 or early 2005, Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign.
Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won the Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election. Thomas Ognibene sought to run against Bloomberg in the Republican Party's primary election. The Bloomberg campaign successfully challenged the signatures Ognibene submitted to the Board of Elections to prevent Ognibene from appearing on ballots for the Republican primary. Instead, Ognibene ran on only the Conservative Party ticket. Ognibene accused Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals, a feeling echoed by others.
Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade. In addition to Republican support, Bloomberg obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch; former Democratic governor Hugh Carey; former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, and his son, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.; former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
2009 election
On October 2, 2008, Bloomberg announced he would seek to extend the city's term limits law and run for a third mayoral term in 2009, arguing a leader of his field was needed following the financial crisis of 2007–08. "Handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services ... is a challenge I want to take on," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "So should the City Council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term."
Ronald Lauder, who campaigned for New York City's term limits in 1993 and spent over 4 million dollars of his own money to limit the maximum years a mayor could serve to eight years, sided with Bloomberg and agreed to stay out of future legality issues. In exchange, he was promised a seat on an influential city board by Bloomberg.
Some people and organizations objected and NYPIRG filed a complaint with the City Conflict of Interest Board. On October 23, 2008, the City Council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit to three consecutive four-year terms. After two days of public hearings, Bloomberg signed the bill into law on November 3.
Bloomberg's bid for a third term generated some controversy. Civil libertarians such as former New York Civil Liberties Union Director Norman Siegel and New York Civil Rights Coalition Executive Director Michael Meyers joined with local politicians to protest the process as undermining the democratic process.
Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, who had been New York City Comptroller for the past eight years and before that, president of the New York City Board of Education. Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 51 percent to 46 percent. Bloomberg spent $109.2 million on his 2009 campaign, outspending Thompson by a margin of more than 11 to one.
After the release of Independence Party campaign filings in January 2010, it was reported that Bloomberg had made two $600,000 contributions from his personal account to the Independence Party on October 30 and November 2, 2009. The Independence Party then paid $750,000 of that money to Republican Party political operative John Haggerty Jr.
This prompted an investigation beginning in February 2010 by the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. into possible improprieties. The Independence Party later questioned how Haggerty spent the money, which was to go to poll-watchers. Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws. Haggerty also spent money from a separate $200,000 donation from Bloomberg on office space.
2013 election
On September 13, 2013, Bloomberg announced that he would not endorse any of the candidates to succeed him. On his radio show, he stated, "I don't want to do anything that complicates it for the next mayor. And that's one of the reasons I've decided I'm just not going to make an endorsement in the race." He added, "I want to make sure that person is ready to succeed, to take what we've done and build on that."
Bloomberg praised The New York Times for its endorsement of Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota as their favorite candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively. Quinn came in third in the Democratic primary and Lhota won the Republican primary. Bloomberg criticized Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's campaign methods, which he initially called "racist;" Bloomberg later downplayed and partially retracted those remarks.
On January 1, 2014, de Blasio became New York City's new mayor, succeeding Bloomberg.
Post-mayoral political involvement
Bloomberg was frequently mentioned as a possible centrist candidate for the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012, as well as for governor of New York in 2010 or vice-president in 2008. He eventually declined to seek all of these offices.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change.
2016 elections
On January 23, 2016, it was reported that Bloomberg was again considering a presidential run, as an independent candidate in the 2016 election, if Bernie Sanders got the Democratic party nomination. This was the first time he had officially confirmed he was considering a run. Bloomberg supporters believed that Bloomberg could run as a centrist and capture many voters who were dissatisfied with the likely Democratic and Republican nominees. However, on March 7, Bloomberg announced he would not be running for president.
In July 2016, Bloomberg delivered a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which he called Hillary Clinton "the right choice". Bloomberg warned of the dangers a Donald Trump presidency would pose. He said Trump "wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts." Bloomberg also said Trump's economic plans "would make it harder for small businesses to compete" and would "erode our influence in the world". Trump responded to the speech by condemning Bloomberg in a series of tweets.
2018 elections
In June 2018, Bloomberg pledged $80 million to support Democratic congressional candidates in the 2018 election, with the goal of flipping control of the Republican-controlled House to Democrats. In a statement, Bloomberg said that Republican House leadership were "absolutely feckless" and had failed to govern responsibly. Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson was chosen to lead the effort, which was to target mainly suburban districts. By early October, Bloomberg had committed more than $100 million to returning the House and Senate to Democratic power, fueling speculation about a presidential run in 2020. On October 10, 2018, Bloomberg announced that he had returned to the Democratic party.
2020 presidential campaign
On March 5, 2019, Bloomberg had announced that he would not run for president in 2020. Instead, he encouraged the Democratic Party to "nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump". However, due to his dissatisfaction with the Democratic field, Bloomberg reconsidered. He officially launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination on November 24, 2019.
Bloomberg self-funded his campaign from his personal fortune, and did not accept campaign contributions.
Bloomberg's campaign suffered from his lackluster performance in two televised debates. When Bloomberg participated in his first presidential debate, Elizabeth Warren challenged him to release women from non-disclosure agreements relating to their allegations of sexual harassment at Bloomberg L.P. Two days later, Bloomberg announced that there were three women who had made complaints concerning him, and added that he would release any of the three if they request him to do so. Warren continued her attack in the second debate the next week. Others criticized Bloomberg for his wealth and campaign spending, as well as his former affiliation with the Republican Party.
As a late entrant to the race, Bloomberg skipped the first four state primaries and caucuses. He spent $676 million of his personal fortune on the primary campaign, breaking a record for the most money ever spent on a presidential primary campaign. His campaign blanketed the country with campaign advertisements on broadcast and cable television, the Internet, and radio, as well as direct mail. Bloomberg also spent heavily on campaign operations that grew to 200 field offices and more than 2,400 paid campaign staffers. His support in nationwide opinion polls hovered around 15 percent but stagnated or dropped before Super Tuesday, while former Vice President Joe Biden had become the centrist frontrunner after receiving the support of major candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar shortly before Super Tuesday. Bloomberg suspended his campaign on March 4, 2020, after a disappointing Super Tuesday in which he won only American Samoa, and subsequently endorsed Biden. Bloomberg donated $18 million to the Democratic National Committee and publicly planned a "massive spending blitz" to support Biden's campaign.
When a 60 Minutes correspondent remarked on March 1 that Bloomberg had spent twice what President Trump had raised, he was asked how much he would spend. Bloomberg replied, "I'm making an investment in this country. My investment is I'm going to remove President Trump from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or at least try as hard as I can."
Speaking on the final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Bloomberg took aim at Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the American economy: "Would you rehire or work for someone who ran your business into the ground? Who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company, and whose reckless decisions put you in danger, and who spends more time tweeting than working? If the answer is no, why the hell would we ever rehire Donald Trump for another four years?"
Political positions
Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until 2001, when he switched to the Republican Party to run for Mayor. He switched to an independent in 2007 and registered again as a Democrat in October 2018. In 2004, he endorsed the re-election of George W. Bush and spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention. He endorsed Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
As Mayor of New York, Bloomberg supported government initiatives in public health and welfare. This included tobacco control efforts (including an increase in the legal age to purchase tobacco products, a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces, and an increase in the cigarette tax); the elimination of the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants; and bans on all flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products including menthol flavors. Bloomberg also launched an unsuccessful effort to ban on certain large (more than 16 fluid ounce) sugary sodas at restaurants and food service establishments in the city. These initiatives were supported by public health advocates but were criticized by some as "nanny state" policies.
Over his career, Bloomberg has "mingled support for progressive causes with more conservative positions on law enforcement, business regulation and school choice." Bloomberg supports gun-control measures, abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He advocates for a public health insurance option that he has called "Medicare for all for people that are uncovered" rather than a universal single-payer healthcare system. He is concerned about climate change and has touted his mayoral efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Bloomberg supported the Iraq War and opposed creating a timeline for withdrawing troops. Bloomberg has sometimes embraced the use of surveillance in efforts to deter crime and protect against terrorism.
During and after his tenure, he was a staunch supporter of stop-and-frisk. In November 2019, Bloomberg apologized for supporting it. He advocates reversing many of the Trump tax cuts. His own tax plan includes implementing a 5 percent surtax on incomes above $5 million a year and would raise federal revenue by $5 trillion over a decade. He opposes a wealth tax, saying that it would likely be found unconstitutional. He has also proposed more stringent financial regulations that include tougher oversight for big banks, a financial transactions tax, and stronger consumer protections. He supported decreasing estate-tax threshold to collect more estate taxes and close tax avoidance schemes. According to Propublica investigation he set up multiple GRATs thus shielding parts of his fortune for his heirs.
Bloomberg stated that running as a Democratnot an independentwas the only path he saw to defeating Donald Trump, saying: "In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now."
Philanthropy
In August 2010, Bloomberg signed The Giving Pledge, whereby the wealthy pledge to give away at least half of their wealth. Since then, he has given away $9.5 billion overall including $3.3 billion in 2019. According to Chronicle of Philanthropy, he gave away the most money of any philanthropist in 2019.
According to a profile in Fast Company, his Bloomberg Philanthropies foundation has five areas of focus: public health, the arts, government innovation, the environment, and education. Through the Foundation, he has donated and/or pledged $767 million in 2018.
2011 recipients included the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization. According to The New York Times, Bloomberg was an "anonymous donor" to the Carnegie Corporation from 2001 to 2010, with gifts ranging from $5 million to $20 million each year. The Carnegie Corporation distributed these contributions to hundreds of New York City organizations ranging from the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Gilda's Club, a non-profit organization that provides support to people and families living with cancer. He continues to support the arts through his foundation.
Bloomberg gave $254 million in 2009 to almost 1,400 nonprofit organizations, saying, "I am a big believer in giving it all away and have always said that the best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker."
COVID-19 response
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, Bloomberg through his foundation committed to a wide range of urgent causes including researching treatments and vaccines, leading contact tracing to root out the virus, supporting the World Health Organization, and funding global efforts to fight the spread of the disease and protect vulnerable populations. Action included:
Cofounding a $75 million fund for nonprofits impacted by COVID-19 in New York City
Donating $6 million to World Central Kitchen to serve meals to health care workers in New York City
Partnering with Johns Hopkins University to train COVID-19 contact tracers through its school of public health and search for a treatment of the virus.
Convening mayors through a partnership with Harvard College to learn and discuss their pandemic response, featuring a bipartisan roster of speakers and attendees.
Leading New York's contact tracing effort
Launching an information and action sharing network for cities through the National League of Cities
Supporting international efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prepare regional leaders through the International Rescue Committee, the World Health Organization, Vital Strategies and other partners
Environmental advocacy
Bloomberg is an environmentalist and has advocated policy to fight climate change at least since he became the mayor of New York City. At the national level, Bloomberg has consistently pushed for transitioning the United States' energy mix from fossil fuels to clean energy. In July 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million to Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, allowing the campaign to expand its efforts to shut down coal-fired power plants from 15 states to 45 states. In 2015, Bloomberg announced an additional $30 million contribution to the Beyond Coal initiative, matched with another $30 million by other donors, to help secure the retirement of half of America's fleet of coal plants by 2017. In July 2017, Europe Beyond Coal was established to phase out use of coal on the continent by 2030. Austria closed its final coal-fired plant in April 2020. In early June 2019, Bloomberg pledged $500 million to reduce climate impacts and shut remaining coal-fired power plants by 2030 via the new Beyond Carbon initiative.
Bloomberg Philanthropies awarded a $6 million grant to the Environmental Defense Fund in support of strict regulations on fracking in the 14 states with the heaviest natural gas production.
In 2013, Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the Risky Business initiative with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer. The joint effort worked to convince the business community of the need for more sustainable energy and development policies, by quantifying and publicizing the economic risks the United States faces from the impact of climate change. In January 2015, Bloomberg led Bloomberg Philanthropies in a $48-million partnership with the Heising-Simons family to launch the Clean Energy Initiative. The initiative supports state-based solutions aimed at ensuring America has a clean, reliable, and affordable energy system.
Since 2010, Bloomberg has taken an increasingly global role on environmental issues. From 2010 to 2013, he served as the chairman of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of the world's biggest cities working together to reduce carbon emissions. During his tenure, Bloomberg worked with President Bill Clinton to merge C40 with the Clinton Climate Initiative, with the goal of amplifying their efforts in the global fight against climate change worldwide. He serves as the president of the board of C40 Cities. In January 2014, Bloomberg began a five-year commitment totaling $53 million through Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Vibrant Oceans Initiative. The initiative partners Bloomberg Philanthropies with Oceana, Rare, and Encourage Capital to help reform fisheries and increase sustainable populations worldwide. In 2018, Bloomberg joined Ray Dalio in announcing a commitment of $185 million towards protecting the oceans.
In 2014, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Bloomberg as his first Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change to help the United Nations work with cities to prevent climate change. In September 2014, Bloomberg convened with Ban and global leaders at the UN Climate Summit to announce definite action to fight climate change in 2015. In 2018, Ban's successor António Guterres appointed Bloomberg as UN envoy for climate action. He resigned in November 2019, in the run-up to his presidential campaign. On 5 February 2021, however, he was re-appointed by Guterres as his Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions in the lead-up to the climate conference in Scotland scheduled for November 2021.
In late 2014, Bloomberg, Ban Ki-moon, and global city networks ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), with support from UN-Habitat, launched the Compact of Mayors, a global coalition of mayors and city officials pledging to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate resilience, and track their progress transparently. To date, over 250 cities representing more than 300 million people worldwide and 4.1 percent of the total global population, have committed to the Compact of Mayors, which was merged with the Covenant of Mayors in June 2016.
In 2015, Bloomberg and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo created the Climate Summit for Local Leaders. which convened assembled hundreds of city leaders from around the world at Paris City Hall to discuss fighting climate change. The Summit concluded with the presentation of the Paris Declaration, a pledge by leaders from assembled global cities to cut carbon emissions by 3.7 gigatons annually by 2030.
During the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and chair of the Financial Stability Board, announced that Bloomberg would lead a new global task force designed to help industry and financial markets understand the growing risks of climate change.
Following President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. government would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Bloomberg outlined a coalition of cities, states, universities and businesses that had come together to honor America's commitment under the agreement through 'America's Pledge.' Bloomberg offered up to $15 million to the UNFCCC, the UN body that assists countries with climate change efforts. About a month later, Bloomberg and California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the America's Pledge coalition would work to "quantify the actions taken by U.S. states, cities and business to drive down greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement." In announcing the initiative, Bloomberg said "the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but American society remains committed to it." Two think tanks, World Resource Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute, will work with America's Pledge to analyze the work cities, states and businesses do to meet the U.S. commitment to the Paris agreement.
In May 2019, Bloomberg announced a 2020 Midwestern Collegiate Climate Summit in Washington University in St. Louis with the aim to bring together leaders from Midwestern universities, local government and the private sector to reduce climate impacts in the region.
Johns Hopkins University philanthropy
As of 2019, Bloomberg has given more than $3.3 billion to Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater, making him "the most generous living donor to any education institution in the United States." His first contribution, in 1965, had been $5. He made his first $1 million commitment to JHU in 1984, and subsequently became the first individual to exceed $1 billion in lifetime donations to a single U.S. institution of higher education.
Bloomberg's contributions to Johns Hopkins "fueled major improvements in the university's reputation and rankings, its competitiveness for faculty and students, and the appearance of its campus," and included construction of a children's hospital (the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center Building, named after Bloomberg's mother); a physics building, a school of public health (the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), libraries, and biomedical research facilities, including the Institute for Cell Engineering, a stem-cell research institute within the School of Medicine, and the Malaria Research Institute within the School of Public Health. In 2013, Bloomberg committed $350 million to Johns Hopkins, five-sevenths of which were allocated to the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships, endowing 50 Bloomberg Distinguished Professors (BDPs) whose interdisciplinary expertise crosses traditional academic disciplines. In 2016, on the School of Public Health's centennial, Bloomberg Philanthropies contributed $300 million to establish the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Bloomberg also funded the launch of the Bloomberg–Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy within the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in East Baltimore, with a $50 million gift; an additional $50 million was given by philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, and $25 million by other donors. It will support cancer therapy research, technology and infrastructure development, and private sector partnerships. In 2016, Bloomberg joined Vice President Joe Biden for the institute's formal launch, embracing Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, which seeks to find a cure for cancer through national coordination of government and private sector resources. In 2018, Bloomberg contributed a further gift of $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins, allowing the university to practice need-blind admission and meet the full financial need of admitted students.
Other educational and research philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg established the American Talent Initiative in 2016 which is committed to increasing the number of lower-income high-achieving students attending elite colleges. Bloomberg Philanthropies also supports CollegePoint which has provided advising to lower- and moderate-income high school students since 2014.
In 2016, the Museum of Science, Boston announced a $50 million gift from Bloomberg. The donation marks Bloomberg's fourth gift to the museum, which he credits with sparking his intellectual curiosity as a patron and student during his youth in Medford, Massachusetts. The endowment supported the museum's education division, named the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center in honor of Bloomberg's parents. It is the largest donation in the museum's 186-year history.
In 2015, Bloomberg donated $100 million to Cornell Tech, the applied sciences graduate school of Cornell University, to construct the first academic building, "The Bloomberg Center", on the school's Roosevelt Island campus.
In 1996, Bloomberg endowed the William Henry Bloomberg Professorship at Harvard University with a $3 million gift in honor of his father, who died in 1963, saying, "throughout his life, he recognized the importance of reaching out to the nonprofit sector to help better the welfare of the entire community."
Urban innovation philanthropy
In July 2011, Bloomberg launched a $24 million initiative to fund "Innovation Delivery Teams" in five cities. The teams are one of Bloomberg Philanthropies' key goals: advancing government innovation. In December 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a partnership with online ticket search engine SeatGeek to connect artists with new audiences. Called the Discover New York Arts Project, the project includes organizations HERE, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Kaufman Center.
In 2013, Bloomberg announced the Mayors Challenge competition to drive innovation in American cities. The program was later expanded to competitions in Latin America and Europe.
In 2016, Bloomberg gave Harvard $32 million to create the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative within Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation; the initiative provides training to mayors and their aides on innovative municipal leadership and challenges facing cities.
In March 2021, Bloomberg gave Harvard $150 million to create the Bloomberg Center for Cities to support mayors.
Tobacco, guns and public health
Bloomberg has been a longtime donor to global tobacco control efforts. Bloomberg has donated close to $1 billion to the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote anti-smoking efforts, including $125 million in 2006, $250 million in 2008, and $360 million, making Bloomberg Philanthropies the developing world's biggest funder of tobacco-control initiatives. In 2013, it was reported that Bloomberg had donated $109.24 million in 556 grants and 61 countries to campaigns against tobacco. Bloomberg's contributions are aimed at "getting countries to monitor tobacco use, introduce strong tobacco-control laws, and create mass media campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use."
In September 2019 Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a new $160 Million Program to "End the Youth E-Cigarette Epidemic". This was widely criticized by people who consider that e-cigarettes are less harmful than vaping and can help smokers to quit, who suggested that the campaign would do more harm than good. Bloomberg was accused of distributing anti-vaping propaganda. A group of 24 experienced tobacco control experts warned him that his policies "would do more harm than good". A Canadian anesthesiologist attempted to use the occasion of Mr. Bloomberg's 80th birthday to encourage him to review the data on the use of e-cigarettes and vaping for tobacco harm reduction.
Bloomberg is the co-founder of Everytown for Gun Safety (formerly Mayors Against Illegal Guns), a gun control advocacy group.
In August 2016, the World Health Organization appointed Bloomberg as its Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases. In this role, Bloomberg will mobilize private sector and political leaders to help the WHO reduce deaths from preventable diseases, traffic accidents, tobacco, obesity, and alcohol. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan cited Bloomberg's ongoing support for WHO anti-smoking, drowning prevention, and road safety programs in her announcement of his new role.
Other philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg supported the Fresh Air Fund's creation of 'Open Spaces in the City' in summer 2020 to provide socially-distant areas for kids to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as jobs for local teens.
The public library in Bloomberg's hometown of Medford announced in August 2020 that Bloomberg had donated $3 million to the construction of a new facility, citing his family's long-standing ties to the library.
In 2017, Bloomberg donated $75 million for The Shed, a new arts and cultural center in Hudson Yards, Manhattan.
Bloomberg also endowed his hometown synagogue, Temple Shalom, which was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.
Bloomberg hosted the Global Business Forum in September 2017, during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly; the gathering featured international CEOs, heads of state, and other prominent speakers.
In 2009 Bloomberg met with other billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey to address issues ranging from the environment, health care and concerns over population growth. Although no formal organization was established, the effort was understood to be designed to help bring various philanthropic projects of the mega-donors into a more unified effort to address various problems on our planet.
Electoral history
Personal life
Family and relationships
In 1975, Bloomberg married Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown, a British national from Yorkshire, United Kingdom. They have two daughters: Emma (born c. 1979) and Georgina (born 1983), who were featured on Born Rich, a 2003 documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Bloomberg divorced Brown in 1993, but he has said she remains his "best friend." Since 2000, Bloomberg has lived with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.
Bloomberg's younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, has been Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, since February 2002.
Religion
Although he attended Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, and his family kept a kosher kitchen, Bloomberg today is relatively secular, attending synagogue mainly during the High Holidays and a Passover Seder with his sister, Marjorie Tiven. Neither of his daughters had bat mitzvahs.
Public image and lifestyle
Throughout his business career, Bloomberg has made numerous statements which have been considered by some to be insulting, derogatory, sexist or misogynistic. When working on Wall Street in the 1960s and 1970s, Bloomberg claimed in his 1997 autobiography, he had "a girlfriend in every city".In a 1996 interview with The Guardian about being a newly-divorced bachelor, Bloomberg said, "I like theater, dining and chasing women. Let me put it this way: I am a single, straight billionaire in Manhattan. What do you think? It's a wet dream." On various occasions, Bloomberg allegedly commented "I'd do her", regarding certain women, some of whom were coworkers or employees. Bloomberg later said that by "do", he meant that he would have a personal relationship with the woman. Bloomberg's staff told the New York Times that he now regrets having made "disrespectful" remarks concerning women.
During his term as mayor, he lived at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. In 2013, he owned 13 properties in various countries around the world, including a $20 million Georgian mansion in Southampton, New York. In 2015, he acquired 4 Cheyne Walk, a historical property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, which once belonged to writer George Eliot. Bloomberg and his daughters own houses in Bermuda and stay there frequently.
Bloomberg stated that during his mayoralty, he rode the New York City Subway on a daily basis, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in The New York Times stated that he was often seen chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. He supported the construction of the 7 Subway Extension and the Second Avenue Subway; in December 2013, Bloomberg took a ceremonial ride on a train to the new 34th Street station to celebrate a part of his legacy as mayor.
During his tenure as mayor, Bloomberg made cameos playing himself in the films The Adjustment Bureau and New Year's Eve, as well as in episodes of 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, and two episodes of Law & Order.
Bloomberg is a private pilot. He owns six airplanes: three Dassault Falcon 900s, a Beechcraft B300, a Pilatus PC-24, and a Cessna 182 Skylane. Bloomberg also owns two helicopters: an AW109 and an Airbus helicopter and as of 2012 was near the top of the waiting list for an AW609 tiltrotor aircraft. In his youth he was a licensed amateur radio operator, was proficient in Morse code, and built ham radios.
Awards and honors
Bloomberg has received honorary degrees from Tufts University (2007), Bard College (2007), Rockefeller University (2007), the University of Pennsylvania (2008), Fordham University (2009), Williams College (2014), Harvard University (2014), the University of Michigan (2016), Villanova University (2017) and Washington University in St. Louis (2019). Bloomberg was the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.
On May 27, 2010, Bloomberg delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he was invited to and delivered guest remarks for the Johns Hopkins Class of 2020. Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and Commencement speaker Alexis Ohanian; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force; and senior class president Pavan Patel
Bloomberg has received the Yale School of Management's Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets (2003); Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Ehud Barak (2004); Barnard College's Barnard Medal of Distinction (2008); the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Leadership for Healthy Communities' Healthy Communities Leadership Award (2009); and the Jefferson Awards Foundation's U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official (2010). He was the inaugural laureate of the annual Genesis Prize for Jewish values in 2013, and donated the $1 million prize money to a global competition, the Genesis Generation Challenge, to identify young adults' big ideas to better the world.
Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 and 2008 Time 100. In 2010, Vanity Fair ranked him #7 in its "Vanity Fair 100" list of influential figures.
In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Bloomberg an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his "prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, and the many ways in which they have benefited the United Kingdom and the U.K.-U.S. special relationship."
Books and other works
Bloomberg, with Matthew Winkler, wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, published in 1997 by Wiley. A second edition was released in 2019, ahead of Bloomberg's presidential run.Aaron Timms, Michael Bloomberg Earned $48 Billion and Eternal Adoration From Wall Street. But Does Anyone Else Want Him to Be President?, Institutional Investor (February 1, 2019). Bloomberg and former Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope co-authored Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet (2017), published by St. Martin's Press; the book appeared on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list. Bloomberg has written a number of op-eds in the New York Times'' about various issues, including an op-ed supporting state and local efforts to fight climate change (2017), an op-ed about his donation of $1.8 billion in financial aid for college students and support for need-blind admission policies (2018); an op-ed supporting a ban on flavored e-cigarettes (2019); and an op-ed supporting policies to reduce economic inequality (2020).
See also
List of Harvard University people
List of Johns Hopkins University people
List of people from Boston
List of philanthropists
List of richest American politicians
Timeline of New York City, 2000s–2010s
References
Further reading
Uses anthropology and geography to examine the mayor's corporate-style governance, with particular attention to the Hudson Yards plan, which aims to transform the far West Side into a high-end district.
External links
Mike Bloomberg official website
Mike Blomberg biography at Bloomberg Philanthropies
Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
Office of the Mayor of New York City (Archived November 23, 2013)
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1942 births
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American essayists
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American politicians
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American essayists
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Amateur radio people
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American aviators
American billionaires
American chief executives in the media industry
American chief executives of financial services companies
American financial businesspeople
American financial company founders
American gun control activists
American health activists
American male non-fiction writers
American mass media owners
American memoirists
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American political writers
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
Anti-obesity activists
.
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Businesspeople from New York City
Businesspeople in software
Candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election
Commercial aviators
Giving Pledgers
Harvard Business School alumni
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Jewish American philanthropists
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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
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Living people
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Writers from Boston
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Anti-smoking activists
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[
"The Chilean Blob was a large mass of tissue found on Pinuno Beach in Los Muermos, Chile in July 2003. It weighed and measured across. The Chilean Blob made headlines around the world because biologists were initially unable to identify it, and were speculating that it was the remains of some species of giant octopus previously unknown to science.\n\nIn June 2004, DNA found in the blob was found to match that of a sperm whale: the blob was a large mass of adipose tissue, the partial remains of a dead sperm whale.\n\nReferences\n\nGlobsters\nNatural history of Chile\nLos Lagos Region\n2003 in Chile\nCoasts of Los Lagos Region",
"The 1971 Tour de France started with the following 13 teams, each with 10 cyclists:\n\nEddy Merckx, who had won the 1969 and 1970 Tours, was the big favourite. Pre-race predictions were certain that if he would not become ill or crash, Merckx would be the winner, and were speculating whether he would be able to lead the race from start to end.\n\nWith fewer flat stages, fewer time trials and more mountain stages, it was thought that climbers would have an advantage.\n\nTeams\n\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n (riders)\n\nCyclists\n\nBy starting number\n\nBy team\n\nBy nationality\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n1971 Tour de France\n1971"
] |
[
"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In",
"Seasons 4 and 5"
] |
C_27ac7339278942ffa055ed743d3947d3_1
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When did season 4 come out
| 1 |
When did season 4 come out for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In?
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
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The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, and Johnny Brown. Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson left the show after the 1970-71 season. Henry Gibson also departed after the 1970-71 season. Johnson and he were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona. The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968. CANNOTANSWER
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The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky,
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
The title of the show was a play on the 1960s hippie culture "love-ins" or the counterculture "be-ins", terms that were derived from "sit-ins" that were common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of That Was The Week That Was. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight man (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) act which they had established as nightclub comics. The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen announcer and permanent castmember Ruth Buzzi; longer-tenured cast members included Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Johnny Brown, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson.
Episodes
Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. The show started after the intro and a batch of shorts skits that served as cold open with a short dialogue between Rowan and Martin. Shortly afterward, Rowan would intone: "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party, You're all invited!". This live to tape segment comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing before a 1960s "mod" party backdrop, delivering one- and two-line jokes interspersed with a few bars of dance music (later adopted on The Muppet Show, which had a recurring segment that was similar to "The Cocktail Party" with absurd moments from characters). This was similar in format to the "Word Dance" segments of A Thurber Carnival. The show then proceeded through rapid-fire comedy bits, taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan turned to his co-host and said, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good night, Dick!". The show then featured cast members' opening panels in a psychedelically painted "joke wall" and telling jokes, After which, the show would continue with one final batch of skits, before drawing to a close. After the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping continued even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes, and NBC logo appeared.
Although episodes included most of the above segments, the arrangement of the segments was often interchanged. The show often featured guest stars. Sometimes, the guest had a prominent spot in the program, at other times the guest would pop in for short "quickies" (one- or two-line jokes) interspersed throughout the show – as was done most famously by Richard Nixon, when running for president.
Cast
Pilot and season 1
Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Ken Berry, Pamela Austin, Barbara Feldon and Jo Anne Worley appeared in the pilot special from 1967. (Goldie Hawn, who was under contract to Good Morning World at the time of the pilot, joined for season 1 in 1968 after that show was canceled). Only the two hosts, Gary Owens, Carne, Gibson, and Johnson, were in all 14 episodes of season one. Eileen Brennan, Hovis, and Roddy Maude-Roxby left after the first season.
Seasons 2 and 3
The second season had a handful of new people, including Alan Sues, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington "The Fun Couple" (Charlie Brill/Mitzi McCall) and Chelsea Brown. All of the new cast members from season two left at the end of that season except Sues, who stayed on until 1972. At the end of the 1968–69 season, Carne chose not to renew her contract, although she did make appearances during 1969–1970.
The third season had several new people who only stayed on for that season: Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Byron Gilliam. Lily Tomlin joined in the middle of the season. Jo Anne Worley, Goldie Hawn, and Judy Carne left after the season.
Seasons 4 and 5
The 1970–71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and the straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, Nancie Phillips and Johnny Brown.
Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson and Henry Gibson left the show during the fourth season; they were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further.
The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971–72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968.
Season 6
For the show's final season (1972–73), Rowan and Martin assumed the executive producer roles from George Schlatter (known on-air as "CFG", which stood for "Crazy Fucking George"), and Ed Friendly. Except for holdovers Dawson, Owens, Buzzi, Allen, and only occasional appearances from Tomlin, a new cast was brought in. This final season featured comedian Patti Deutsch, folksy singer-comedian Jud Strunk, ventriloquist act Willie Tyler and Lester, Donna Jean Young and giddy Goldie Hawn lookalike Sarah Kennedy. Voice artist Frank Welker also made numerous appearances. Former regular Jo Anne Worley returned for two guest appearances, including the final episode. These last shows never aired in the edited half-hour reruns syndicated (through Lorimar Productions) to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987, although they were included when the program was rerun on the Decades over-the-air television channel in 2017.
Of over three dozen entertainers to join the cast, only Rowan, Martin, Owens, and Buzzi were there from beginning to end. However, Owens was not in the 1967 pilot and Buzzi missed two first-season episodes.
Cast tenures
All seasons: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi
Season 1 (1968): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Henry Gibson, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Jo Anne Worley, Inga Neilsen, Paul Winchell, Tiny Tim.
Season 2 (1968–69): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Dave Madden, Alan Sues, Chelsea Brown, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington (through episode 14), Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall ("the Fun Couple"), Pigmeat Markham, Jack Riley, Muriel Landers, J.J. Barry, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 3 (1969–70): Judy Carne (through episode 11), Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, Byron Gilliam (through episode 11, but continued as a dancer & in occasional cameos), Lily Tomlin (from episode 15), Johnny Brown
Season 4 (1970–71): Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson (through episode 10), Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Nancie Phillips (through episode 17), Barbara Sharma, Ann Elder, Harvey Jason (episodes 2, 4), Glen Ash (episodes 10–11), Byron Gilliam (dancer only)
Season 5 (1971–72): Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Ann Elder, Barbara Sharma, Larry Hovis, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 6 (1972–73): Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Tod Bass, Patti Deutsch, Sarah Kennedy, Jud Strunk, Willie Tyler, Donna Jean Young, Frank Welker, Brian Bressler (through episode 10), Kathy Speirs (episodes 11–12), Lisa Farringer (from episode 13). Note: not all cast members appear in all episodes this season, and rotate with some frequency (for instance, Donna Jean Young appears in about half of the season's 24 episodes).
Regular guest performers
Jack Benny (seasons 2–4, 6)
Johnny Carson (seasons 1–6)
Carol Channing (seasons 3–5)
Tony Curtis (seasons 2–3, 5)
Sammy Davis, Jr. (seasons 1–4, 6)
Phyllis Diller (seasons 2–4, 6)
Barbara Feldon (seasons 1–2)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (seasons 2–3)
Peter Lawford (seasons 1–4; Lawford became Dan Rowan's son-in-law in 1971)
Rich Little (seasons 2, 4, 6)
Jill St. John (seasons 1, 3, 5–6)
Tiny Tim (seasons 1–3, 5)
John Wayne (seasons 1–2, 5–6)
Flip Wilson (seasons 1–4)
Henny Youngman (seasons 2, 5–6)
Series writers
The writers for Laugh-In were: George Schlatter, Larry Hovis (pilot only), Digby Wolfe, Paul W. Keyes, Hugh Wedlock, Jr. and Allan Manings, Chris Bearde (credited as Chris Beard), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson (Arte Johnson's twin brother), Marc London and David Panich, Dave Cox, Jim Carlson, Jack Mendelsohn and Jim Mulligan, Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz, Jack Douglas, Jeremy Lloyd, John Carsey, Dennis Gren, Gene Farmer, John Rappaport and Stephen Spears, Jim Abell and Chet Dowling, Barry Took, E. Jack Kaplan, Larry Siegel, Jack S. Margolis, Don Reo and Allan Katz, Richard Goren (also credited as Rowby Greeber and Rowby Goren), Winston Moss, Gene Perret and Bill Richmond, Jack Wohl, Bob Howard and Bob DeVinney. Script supervisors for Laugh-In included Digby Wolfe (comedy consultant, season 1), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan (season 2), Allan Manings (season 3), Marc London and David Panich (seasons 3–6), and Jim Mulligan (season 6).
Musical direction and production numbers
The musical director for Laugh-In was Ian Bernard. He wrote the opening theme music, "Inquisitive Tango" (used in Season 1 and again permanently from season 4), plus the infamous "What's the news across the nation" number. He wrote all the musical "play-ons" that introduced comedy sketches like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann, the little girl who sat in a giant rocking chair, and Arte Johnson's old man character, Tyrone, who always got hit with a purse. He also appeared in many of the cocktail scenes where he directed the band as they stopped and started between jokes. Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often appeared on-camera, accompanying Johnson, Buzzi, Worley, or Sues, on a golden grand piano. Barnes was the creator of the famous Billy Barnes Revues of the 1950s and 1960s, and composed such popular hits as "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair", recorded by Barbra Streisand and the jazz standard "Something Cool" recorded by June Christy.
Post-production
The show was recorded at NBC's Burbank facility using two-inch quadruplex videotape. As computer-controlled online editing had not been invented at the time, post-production video editing of the montage was achieved by the error-prone method of visualizing the recorded track with ferrofluid and cutting it with a razor blade or guillotine cutter and splicing with adhesive tape, in a manner similar to film editing. This had the incidental benefit of ensuring the preservation of the master tape, as a spliced tape could not be recycled for further use. Laugh-In editor Arthur Schneider won an Emmy Award in 1968 for his pioneering use of the "jump cut" – the unique editing style in which a sudden cut from one shot to another was made without a fade-out.
When the series was restored for airing by the Trio Cable Network in 1996, the aforementioned edits became problematic for the editors, as the adhesive used on the source tape had deteriorated during 20+ years of storage, making many of the visual elements at the edit points unusable. This was corrected in digital re-editing by removing the problematic video at the edit point and then slowing down the video image just before the edit point; time-expanding the slowed-down section long enough to allot enough time to seamlessly reinsert the audio portion from the removed portion of video.
Recurring sketches and characters
Sketches
Frequently recurring Laugh-In sketches included:
"Sock it to me"; Judy Carne was often tricked into saying the phrase ("It may be rice wine to you, but it's still sake to me!"), which invariably results in her (or other cast members) falling through a trap door, being doused with water, or playfully assaulted in various other manners. The phrase was also uttered by many of the cameo guest stars, most notably Richard Nixon, though they were almost never subjected to the same treatment as Carne.
"The Cocktail Party", attended by the cast and guest stars, to which Dan and Dick invite the audience. The orchestra plays a few bars of a wild dance song, then temporarily stops for the delivery of a brief joke.
"The Joke Wall", near the end of every episode, the regulars and guests poke their heads out of doors in the psychedelically decorated wall or floor and exchange one-liners, or brief dialogues with Rowan and Martin. In the sixth season, instead of coming in and out of view, the entire cast just hung out of the holes (as most of the wall doors were removed) and told their jokes and one-liners.
"Mod, Mod World" comprised brief sketches on a theme interspersed with film footage of female cast members (most often Hawn, Carne, Brown, Graves and Rodgers) go-go dancing in bikinis, their bodies painted with punchy phrases and clever wordplay. On occasion, a cast member (superimposed on the screen) would cast off a one-liner while the dancing took place. Usually, there was also a song which the entire cast sang, paying tribute to the theme.
"The Farkel Family", a couple with numerous children, all of whom had bright red hair and large freckles similar to their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel (Dick Martin). The sketch employed diversion humor, the writing paying more attention to the lines said by each player, using alliterative tongue-twisters ("That's a fine-looking Farkel flinger you found there, Frank"). Dan Rowan played father Frank Farkel the Third, Jo Anne Worley, Barbara Sharma and Patti Deutsch played his wife Fanny Farkel, Goldie Hawn played Sparkle Farkel, Arte Johnson played Frank Farkel the Fourth, and Ruth Buzzi played Flicker Farkel, who would only say "HIIIIII!" in a very high-pitched voice. Two of the children were twins named Simon and Gar Farkel, played by cast members of different races (Teresa Graves and Pamela Rodgers in the third season, Johnny Brown and Dennis Allen in the fourth season). All of the Farkel skits were written or co-written by David Panich.
"Here Comes the Judge", originally portrayed by British comic Roddy Maude-Roxby, was a stuffy magistrate with a black robe and oversized judge's wig. Each sketch featured the judge trading barbs with a defendant brought him; on delivery of the punch line, he would strike the defendant with an inflated bladder balloon tied to the sleeve of his robe. For a time guest star Flip Wilson or Sammy Davis Jr. would introduce the sketch saying "Here come da judge!", which was a venerable catchphrase by nightclub comedian Pigmeat Markham. Surprised that his trademark had been appropriated, Markham asked producer George Schlatter to let him play the Judge himself; Schlatter agreed and Markham presided for one season. After Markham left, the sketch was briefly retired until Sammy Davis Jr. donned the judicial robe and wig during his guest appearances, introducing each sketch with a rap that always finished with "Here come da judge, here come da judge...".
"Laugh-In Looks at the News", a parody of network newscasts, introduced by the female cast members in a highly un-journalistic production number. The sketch was originally called the Rowan and Martin Report (a take-off on the Huntley-Brinkley Report). The sketch itself featured Dick humorously reporting on current events, which then segued into Dan reporting on "News of the Past" and "News of the Future". The latter of these segments, on at least two occasions, correctly predicted future events, one being that Ronald Reagan would be president, and another that the Berlin Wall would finally come down in 1989. This segment was influenced by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, and in turn inspired Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segments (SNL creator Lorne Michaels was a Laugh-In writer early in his career). The News segments were followed by "Big Al" (Alan Sues) and his sports report in seasons 2–5. After Sues left the show, Jud Strunk took over the sports segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine") by featuring films of oddly-named events which were actual sports films played backwards. An example is the "Cannonball Catch", featuring a backwards film of a bowling tournament where the "cannonballs" (bowling balls) are caught one-handed by the catcher (the bowler) after rolling up the alley.
"New Talent Time" also called "Discovery of the Week" in later seasons. Introduced oddball variety acts (sometimes characters played by regular cast members)
Tin Pan Alley musician Tiny Tim - The most notable of these acts, was introduced in episode 1 & shot to fame. Returned in the Season 1 finale & made several guest appearances after.
Actor Paul Gilbert (adoptive father of actress Melissa Gilbert) appeared in two episodes as an inept French juggler, introduced as "Paul Jill-BEER".
6'2" actress Inga Neilsen made appearances as a bugle/kazoo player who could only play one note of "Tiger Rag" & had to deal with Martin's advances. Martin, who hated all of the other New Talent acts would enthusiastically cheer her on despite the obvious lack of talent.
Ventriloquist Paul Winchell appeared 3 times as "Lucky Pierre", whose puppets would fall apart or die on him.
Arte Johnson would appear as his Pyotr Rosmenko character looking for big American break, singing gibberish in a Russian accent
Murray Langston, who later achived fame as the Gong Show's "Unknown Comic"
Laugh-In writer Chris Bearde took the "New Talent" concept and later developed it into The Gong Show.
"The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" sardonically recognized actual dubious achievements by public individuals or institutions, the most frequent recipients being members or branches of the government. The trophy was a gilded left hand mounted on a trophy base with its extended index finger adorned with two small wings.
"The Wonderful World of Whoopee Award" was a counterpart to the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award", described by Rowan as a citation "for the little man who manages to outfight or outfox the bureaucracy"; the statue was similar to the Finger of Fate, only it was a right hand (without wings on the index finger) pointing straight up, and with a hidden mechanism that when activated caused the finger to wave in a circular motion.
"The C.F.G. Automat"; a vending machine whose title was an inside joke for cast members who referred to producer Schlatter as "Crazy (bleeping) George". The vending machine would distribute oddball items that were a play on the name. Examples: The 'pot pie' produced a cloud of smoke when the door was opened, then the pie floated away. The 'ladyfingers' was a woman's hand reaching out & tickling Arte's face while another 'ladyfingers' door opened & picked his pocket.
Many episodes were interspersed with a recurring, short wordless gag in which an actor repeatedly tried to accomplish some simple task like entering an elevator, opening a window or door, watering a plant, etc., which would fail each time in a different, surprising way (the object would move unexpectedly, another part of the wall or room would move, water would squirt the actor in the face from the object, etc.)
Another recurring wordless gag involved one or more actors walking around the street in a jerky fashion (using stop-motion or low shutter speed filming) holding and turning a bare steering wheel, as if they were driving a car or actually were a car, with various sound effects to simulate honking, back-ups, collisions with each other, etc.
From season four on, a variety of sketches or jokes used the word "Foon," usually as part of the name of imaginary products or persons (e.g., Foon detergent, Mr. Foonman). (They did this with "Nern" in earlier seasons)
Characters
Dan Rowan, in addition to hosting, provided the "news of the future" & appears as a character known as General Bull Right, a far-right-wing representative of the military establishment and outlet for political humor.
Dick Martin, in addition to hosting would also play a drunk Leonard Swizzle, husband of an equally drunk Doris Swizzle (Ruth Buzzi) & a character always buzzing for an elevator on which the doors never closed in a normal way
Announcer Gary Owens regularly stands in an old-time radio studio with his hand cupped over his ear, making announcements, often with little relation to the rest of the show, such as (in an overly-dramatic voice), "Earlier that evening ..."
Arte Johnson:
Wolfgang the German soldier – Wolfgang would often peer out from behind a potted palm and comment on the previous gag saying "Verrry interesting", sometimes with comments such as "... but shtupid!" He eventually closed each show by talking to Lucille Ball, as well as the cast of Gunsmoke — both airing opposite Laugh-In on CBS; as well as whatever was on ABC. Johnson later repeated the line while playing Nazi-themed supervillain Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Johnson also reprised his Wolfgang character in a series of skits for the second season of Sesame Street (1970–1971), and in 1980 for a series of small introductory skits with a plant on 3-2-1 Contact, during the "Growth/Decay" week.
Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH", presumably to satisfy the censors) was a dirty old man coming on to Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi) seated on a park bench, who almost invariably clobbers him with her purse. Both Tyrone and Gladys later became animated characters (voiced by Johnson and Buzzi) in "The Nitwits" segments of the 1977 Saturday morning animated television show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.
Pyotr Rosmenko, a Russian man, stands stiffly and nervously in an ill-fitting suit while commenting on differences between America and "the old country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In old country, television watches you!" This type of joke has come to be known as the Russian reversal.
Rabbi Shankar (a pun on Ravi Shankar) was an Indian guru who dresses in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudomystical Eastern wisdom laden with bad puns. He held up two fingers in a peace sign whenever he spoke.
An unnamed character in a yellow raincoat and hat, riding a tricycle and then falling over, was frequently used to link between sketches. The character was portrayed by many people besides Johnson, including his brother Coslough (a writer for the show), Alan Sues, and Johnny Brown.
The Scandanavian Storyteller - spoke gibberish, including non-sensical 'Knock Knock' jokes in the Joke Wall. No one could ever understand him. Possibly inspiration for the Muppets' Swedish Chef character.
Ruth Buzzi:
Gladys Ormphby – A drab, relatively young spinster, she is the eternal target of Arte Johnson's Tyrone; when Johnson left the series, Gladys retreated into recurring daydreams, often involving marriages to historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin (both played by Alan Sues). She typically hit people repeatedly with her purse. The character was recreated, along with Tyrone, in Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi also performed as Gladys on Sesame Street and The Dean Martin Show, most notably in the Celebrity Roasts.
Doris Swizzle – A seedy barfly, she is paired with her husband, Leonard Swizzle, played by Dick Martin.
Agnes Gooch – An exceedingly friendly hooker, commonly seen in sketches or at the cocktail party propositioning people while leaning against a lamppost.
Busy Buzzi – A cold and heartless old-style Hedda Hopper-type Hollywood gossip columnist.
Kathleen Pullman - A wicked parody of televangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. This always helpful but overdramatic woman is always eager to help people.
Henry Gibson:
The Poet held an oversized flower and nervously read offbeat poems. (His stage name was a play on the name of playwright Henrik Ibsen).
The Parson – A character who makes ecclesiastical quips. In 1970, he officiated at a near-marriage for Tyrone and Gladys.
Would frequently just pop up & utter the phrase "Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?".
Goldie Hawn is best known as the giggling "dumb blonde", stumbling over her lines, especially when she introduced Dan's "News of the Future". In the earliest episodes, she recited her dialogue sensibly and in her own voice, but as the series progressed, she adopted a Dumb Dora character with a higher-pitched giggle and a vacant expression, which endeared her to viewers. Frequently did a Donald Duck voice at inappropriate times, such as when she was expected to sing or doing ballet.
Lily Tomlin:
Ernestine/Miss Tomlin – An obnoxious telephone operator, she has no concern at all for her customers & constantly mispronounced their names. Her close friend is fellow telephone operator, Phenicia; and her boyfriend, Vito. She would boast of being a high school graduate. Tomlin later performed Ernestine on Saturday Night Live and Happy New Year, America. She also played the Ernestine character for a comedy album called This Is A Recording. At the suggestion of CFG, Ernestine began dialing with her middle finger in Season 4, sometimes blatantly flipping 'the bird' to the camera as a result. Censors never caught on - "we know she's doing something wrong, we just can't put our FINGER on it!"
Edith Ann – A -year-old child, she ends each of her short monologues with: "And that's the truth", followed by blowing a raspberry. Tomlin performs her skits in an oversized rocking chair that makes her appear small. Tomlin later performed Edith Ann on children's shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
Mrs. Earbore (the "Tasteful Lady") – A prim society matron, Mrs. Earbore expressed quiet disapproval about a tasteless joke or remark, and then rose from her chair with her legs spread, getting doused with a bucket of water or the sound of her skirt ripping.
Dotty – A crass and rude grocery checker who tended to annoy her customers at the store where she worked.
Lula – A loud and boisterous woman with a Marie Antoinette hair-do who always loved a party.
Suzie Sorority of the Silent Majority – clueless hippie college student who ended each bit with "Rah!"
The Babbler – A character given to speaking exuberantly and at great length while digressing after every few words and never staying on one subject, producing an unbroken, incomprehensible monologue.
Judy Carne had two characters known for their robotic speech and movement:
Mrs. Robot in "Robot Theater" – A female companion to Arte Johnson's "Mr. Robot".
The Talking Judy Doll – She is usually played with by Arte Johnson, who never heeded her warning: "Touch my little body, and I hit you!"
The Sock-It-To-Me Girl in which she would usually end up being splashed with water and/or falling through a trap door and/or getting conked on the head by a large club or mallet and/or knocked out by a boxing glove on a spring.
Jo Anne Worley sometimes sings off-the-wall songs using her loud operatic voice or displaying an advanced state of pregnancy, but is better remembered for her mock outrage at "chicken jokes" and her melodic outcry of "Bo-ring!". At the cocktail parties, she would talk about her never-seen married boyfriend/lover "Boris" (who, according to her in a Season 3 episode, was finally found out by his wife).
Alan Sues:
Big Al – A clueless and fey sports anchor, he loves ringing his "Featurette" bell, which he calls his "tinkle".
He would dress in drag as his former co-star, Jo Anne Worley, including skits where he appeared as a "fairy godmother" imitating Worley's boisterous laugh and offering help or advice to a Cinderella-type character in a conversation full of double entendres.
Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal – A short-tempered host of a children's show, he usually goes on the air with a hangover: "Oh, kiddies, Uncle Al had a lot of medicine last night." Whenever he got really agitated, he would yell to "Get Miss Twinkle on the phone!"
Grabowski - a benchwarmer football player obviously not cut out for the sport. Ex: "He pushed me! He pushed me!... they ALL pushed me!" & "No, you can't wear your ballet slippers on the field, Grabowski!"
Boomer – A self-absorbed "jock" bragging about his athletic exploits.
Ambiguously gay saloon patron – while Dan & Dick ordered whiskey, he would saunter up to the bar and ask for a fruit punch or frozen daiquiri
In the last season where he was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off (replacing Judy Carne as the one who always got drenched).
Pamela Rodgers - "your man in Washington", she would give 'reports' from the Capitol that were usually double entendres to give the impression that the Congressmen were fooling around with her.
Jeremy Lloyd - scrunched himself into an ultra-short character who wandered around
Dennis Allen:
Lt. Peaches of the Fuzz – a stumble-bum police officer.
Chaplain Bud Homily – a droll clergyman who often falls victim to his own sermons.
Eric Clarified – a correspondent for Laugh-In Looks at the News who further muddles up obfuscatory government statements he has been asked to clarify. Rowan would often throw to another correspondent (played by Sues) to analyze Eric Clarified's statements in turn.
Barbara Sharma:
The Burbank Metre Made – a dancing meter maid who tickets anything from trees to baby carriages.
An aspiring actress who often plays foil in cocktail-party segments to another "high-society" character (Tomlin).
In season four, a Ruby Keeler-esque dancer (and arch-nemesis of Johnson's Wolfgang) who often praises Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Johnny Brown lent his impersonations of Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Ralph Kramden and the Kingfish from Amos 'n' Andy.
Ann Elder as Pauline Rhetoric (spoofing Nancy Dickerson), the chief interviewer for the Laugh-In News segments.
Moosie Drier & Todd Bass - Drier did the "kids news for kids" segment of the Laugh-In news. Bass teamed with Drier in Season 6 to read letters from a treehouse
Larry Hovis - the Senator, the Texan, David Brinkley, Father Time
Richard Dawson - W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Hawkins the Butler, who always started his piece by asking "Permission to ...?" and proceeded to fall over.
Roddy Maude Roxby & Pigmeat Markham - Here Come Da Judge (Roxby for Season 1, Markham for Season 2)
Dave Madden - would always throw confetti after "a naughty thought", usually a punch line that was a double-entendre. Once while kissing Carne, confetti erupted around him
Memorable moments
The first season featured some of the first music videos seen on network TV, with cast members appearing in films set to the music of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the First Edition.
During the September 16, 1968, episode, Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared for a few seconds with a disbelieving vocal inflection, asking "Sock it to me?" Nixon was not doused or assaulted. An invitation was extended to Nixon's opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, but he declined. According to George Schlatter, the show's creator, "Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election", and "[Nixon] said the rest of his life that appearing on Laugh-In is what got him elected. And I believe that. And I've had to live with that." In an episode of the ill-fated 1977 revival, Rich Little as Nixon says, "I invited the American people to sock-it-to-me.... you can stop now".
After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona.
On multiple occasions, producer George Schlatter attempted to get William F. Buckley Jr. to appear on the show, only to be refused each time until he suddenly agreed to an appearance. In the episode that aired December 28, 1970, Buckley appeared in an unusual sit-down segment (portions of which were scattered throughout the episode) flanked by Rowan and Martin and fielding questions from the cast (which included Lily Tomlin doing her Babbler & Ernestine shticks) and giving humorous answers to each. Near the end, when Rowan asked Buckley why he finally agreed to appear on the show, Buckley explained that Schlatter had written him "an irresistable letter" in which he promised to fly Buckley out to Burbank "in an airplane with two right wings". At the end, Rowan thanked him for appearing, noting that "you can't be that smart without having a sense of humor, and you have a delightful one".
The 100th episode featured John Wayne, Tiny Tim & the return of several former cast members. Wayne, with his ear cupped, read the line "and me, I'm Gary Owens" instead of Owens himself. Wayne also shook Tiny Tim's hand, pretending that his grip was too overpowering.
Catchphrases
In addition to those already mentioned, the show created numerous catchphrases:
"Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (a lesser-known set of reference books whose phonetically funny name helped both Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to poke fun at NBC censors)
"You bet your sweet bippy!"
"Ring my chimes!"
"Beautiful downtown Burbank" (various actors/characters, referring tongue-in-cheek to the Los Angeles suburb in which the NBC studios (and thus the program) were located; the same term was frequently used by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
"One ringy-dingy ... two ringy-dingies ..." (Ernestine's mimicking of the rings while she was waiting for someone to pick up the receiver on the other end of the telephone lines)
"A gracious good afternoon. This is Miss Tomlin of the telephone company. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" Ernestine's greeting to people whom she would call. She would then mispronounce the names of famous people: Gore Vidal was "Mr. Veedle", WIlliam F. Buckley was "Mr. F'buckley". Richard Nixon was simply "Milhouse".
"I just wanna swing!" Gladys Ormphby's catchphrase
"Was that another chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley's outraged cry, a takeoff on Polish jokes
"Sock it to me!" experienced its greatest exposure on Laugh-In although the phrase had been featured in songs such as Aretha Franklin's 1967 "Respect" and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels' 1966 "Sock It To Me, Baby!"
"Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere."
"Now, that's a no-no!"
"Morgul the Friendly Drelb" – a pink Abominable Snowman-like character that was introduced in the second episode and bombed so badly, his name was used in various announcements by Gary Owens for the rest of the series (usually at the end of the opening cast list - "Yours truly, Gary Owens, and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!") and credited as the author of a paperback collection of the show's sketches. On the spin-off "Letters To Laugh-In", "Morgul" would reach out of the podium & hand Owens the card containing the next category in a manner similar to Thing on The Addams Family.
"Want a Walnetto?" was a pick-up line Tyrone would try on Gladys, which always resulted in a purse drubbing.
"Here come da Judge"
"Verrry Interesting"
"And that's the truth – PFFFFT!"
"Go to your room!" - "Big kid" Dan's response to a particularly bad joke, as if to put that cast member in time out like a child.
"He pushed me!" – usually said by Sues when another cast member would bump him.
"Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'" - uttered by Gibson randomly between sketches.
"How does that grab you?"
"Oh... THAT Henny Youngman" - preceded by cast members quoting a series of his punch lines in succession, but without the jokes leading up to them.
"He was a much better person for that" – as "Sock it to me!" was phased out following Carne's departure, this became the line used for similar sketches
"Well, I'll drink to that", "I did not know that!", "Whatever turns you on" and "That's funny, so did she" – Martin
"Goodnight, Lucy." During the first three seasons, Laugh-In was scheduled opposite Lucille Ball's third television series, Here's Lucy. At the end of the show, one or more cast members would say, "Goodnight, Lucy." Dick Martin had been a regular cast member in the first season of Ball's second series, The Lucy Show.
"Goodnight, Dick" - the closing portion of each episode of Seasons 1 & 2 began with the guest star & numerous cameos all saying "Goodnight, Dick". Occasionally, one of the cameo actors would say "Who's Dick?".
"Gotcha!"
"Wr-r-r-ong!" - spoken in a cameo by Otto Preminger, subsequent cameo actors would repeat the line, mimicking Preminger's delivery of it.
"How would I know? I've never been out with one"
"I think I've got it too" - running gag where the person would say this & start scratching themselves for no particular reason.
"Blah! Blah!" - staff writer Chet Dowling would appear at random in various episodes wearing a tux & this was all he'd ever say.
"That's not funny"
"Wacker!" - this name became used often in sketches after the Bobby Darin episode of Season 2. Darin had done a sketch with Martin & hilariously proceeded to call him 'Wacker' throughout the rest of the show
Merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs
A humor magazine tie-in, Laugh-In Magazine, was published for one year (12 issues: October 1968 through October 1969—no issue was published December 1968), and a 1968-1972 syndicated newspaper comic strip was drawn by Roy Doty and eventually collected for a paperback reprint.
The Laugh-In trading cards from Topps had a variety of items, such as a card with a caricature of Jo Anne Worley with a large open mouth. With a die-cut hole, the card became interactive; a finger could be inserted through the hole to simulate Worley's tongue. Little doors opened on Joke Wall cards to display punchlines.
On Letters to Laugh-In, a short-lived spin-off daytime show hosted by Gary Owens, cast members read jokes sent in by viewers, which were scored by applause meter. The eventual winning joke was read by actress Jill St. John: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a jar of peanut butter? A 500 pound sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth!"
A cross-promotional episode of I Dream of Jeannie ("The Biggest Star in Hollywood", February 1969) features Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens, and producer George Schlatter playing themselves in a story about Jeannie being sought after to appear on Laugh-In.
In 1969, a Laugh-In View-Master packet was issued by General Aniline and Film (GAF); The packet featured 21 3D images from the show.
The horror spoof film The Maltese Bippy (1969) starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was loosely related to the series. Pamela Rodgers was the only Laugh-In cast member to co-star in the film.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson. Made to capitalize on the popularity of the series, the short was made for Sears salesmen to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. A dancing, bikini-clad Carne provided the opening titles with tattoos on her body.
Two LPs of material from the show were released: the first on Epic Records (FXS-15118, 1968); the second, entitled Laugh-In '69, on Reprise Records (RS 6335, 1969).
DVD releases
Between 2003 and 2004, Rhino Entertainment Company (under its Rhino Retrovision classic TV entertainment brand), under license from the rightsholder at the time, SFM Entertainment, released two The Best Of releases of the show, each containing six episodes presented in its original, uncut broadcast version. In 2003, Rhino, through direct-response marketing firm Guthy-Renker, also released a series of DVDs subtitled The Sock-It-To-Me Collection, with each DVD containing two episodes.
On June 19, 2017, Time Life, another direct-response marketer, released Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1, in a deal with current rightsholder Proven Entertainment. The 38-disc set contains all 140 episodes of the series, complete and uncut, restored and remastered as well as many bonus features and a special 32-page collector's book.
On September 5, 2017, Time Life began releasing individual complete season sets on DVD, beginning with the first season. This was followed by the second season on January 9, 2018, and the third season on March 6, 2018. The fourth season was released on May 8, 2018. Season 5 was released on July 10, 2018. Finally, Season 6 was released on September 4, 2018.
Ratings
TV season, ranking, average viewers per episode
1967–1968: #21 (21.3)
1968–1969: #1 (31.8)
1969–1970: #1 (26.3)
1970–1971: #13 (22.4)
1971–1972: #22 (21.4)
1972–1973: #51 (16.7)
Revival
In 1977, Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials – titled simply Laugh-In – with a new cast. The standout was a then-unknown Robin Williams, whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one year later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979. Also featured were Wayland Flowers and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, Good Times actor Ben Powers and Bill Rafferty of Real People. Rowan and Martin, who owned part of the Laugh-In franchise, were not involved in this project. They sued Schlatter for using the format without their permission, and won a judgment of $4.6 million in 1980.
In 2019, Netflix produced a special tribute to the original series entitled, Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate. Tomlin, Buzzi and Worley appeared in the special.
Awards and honors
Emmy Awards
Won:
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Program, George Schlatter (for the September 9, 1967 special)
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series, George Schlatter
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, Chris Bearde, Phil Hahn, Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Jr., Digby Wolfe
1968: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1969: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series – Paul Keyes (producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Dick Martin (star), Dan Rowan (star)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Arte Johnson
1971: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Mark Warren (episode #4.7 with Orson Welles)
Nominated:
1968: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Bill Foster (pilot episode)
1968 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Gordon Wiles
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, – Larry Hovis, Paul Keyes, Jim Mulligan, David Panich, George Schlatter, Digby Wolfe (pilot episode)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – Gordon Wiles (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music – Billy Barnes (special material)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design – Ken Johnson
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – John Teele and Bruce Verran (video tape editors)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1970: Outstanding Variety or Musical Series – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 November 1969 with Buddy Hackett)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 20 December 1969 with Nancy Sinatra)
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Goldie Hawn
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Arte Johnson
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (composer) (For episode with Carol Channing)
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design – Michael Travis
1971: Outstanding Variety Series, Musical – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Arte Johnson
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Lily Tomlin
1971: Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork – Marvin Ault (cameraman), Ray Figelski (cameraman), Louis Fusari (technical director), Jon Olson (cameraman), Tony Yarlett (cameraman)
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Ruth Buzzi
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Lily Tomlin
1972: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (For episode with Liza Minnelli)
1973: Outstanding Achievement by a Supporting Performer in Music or Variety – Lily Tomlin
1978: Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music, Bea Arthur (for episode on 25 October 1977)
1978: Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Series – Ed. J. Brennan (editor) (For show #6–8 February 1978)
Golden Globe Award
Won:
1973: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Ruth Buzzi
1969: Best TV Show
Nominated:
1972: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Lily Tomlin
1971: Best Supporting Actor – Television, Henry Gibson
1970: Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy
1968: Best TV Show
International and U.S. re-broadcasts
The first four seasons were broadcast on BBC2 from January 1969 to November 1971. Some episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 were retransmitted during late 1983 and early 1984. Early broadcasts had to be shown with a black border, as technology was not available to render the 525-line NTSC video recording as a full-screen 625-line PAL picture. This issue was fixed for later broadcasts.
The series was broadcast on RTÉ One.
The series originally aired on the 0-10 Network in the 1960s and 1970s. It later appeared in re-runs on the Seven Network in the early 1980s.
CTV aired the series at the same time as the NBC run.
1983 saw the first 70 one-hour shows syndicated to broadcast stations (the pilot, first three seasons and the first four episodes of season 4). Alternate recut half-hour shows were syndicated through Lorimar Television to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987 through August 1990.
The Vivendi Universal-owned popular arts/pop culture entertainment cable network Trio started airing the show in its original one-hour form in the early 2000s; the same abbreviated 70 episode package was run.
In September 2016, digital sub-network Decades started airing the show twice a day in its original one-hour format, complete with the NBC Peacock opening and 'snake' closing. The entire 6 season run was supplied by Proven Entertainment.
In 2018, the original series became available in full on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020, the complete series became available on Tubi. The show is currently seen on IMDb TV.
References
External links
FBI review of an episode devoted to the agency, quoted by Harper's Magazine in 2006
FBI file on Rowan and Martins Laugh-In TV Show
1968 American television series debuts
1973 American television series endings
1960s American sketch comedy television series
1960s American variety television series
1970s American sketch comedy television series
1970s American variety television series
Atco Records artists
English-language television shows
Epic Records artists
NBC original programming
Nielsen ratings winners
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series winners
Television shows adapted into comics
| false |
[
"For a more in-depth discussion of the topic go here: Homosexuality in American Football.\n\nThis is a list of notable, openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, and queer-identifying athletes associated with American Football, namely the NFL. This includes those who were posthumously outed.\n\nList of Professional Players \n\n*Posthumously revealed to have been gay.\n\n**First active NFL player to come out.\n\n†First openly gay player to be drafted by the NFL (did not make it onto the roster by the start of the playing season).\n\n‡First openly gay man to play in a regular season game in the CFL\n\n△Played in a Regular Season Game\n\n▲Attended Training Camp\n\nList of Collegiate players \n\n*First active collegiate football player to publicly come out.\n\nReferences \n\nLGBT players of American football",
"Was (Not Was) is the debut album by art-funk ensemble Was (Not Was); it was released in 1981.\nThe album was re-released with additional material in 2004 under the name Out Come the Freaks. The art direction was by Maverse Players.\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks composed by David Was and Don Was; except where indicated\n\nSide A\n \"Out Come the Freaks\" – 5:41 vocals - Harry Bowens; spoken vocals - Marzanne McCants\n \"Where Did Your Heart Go?\" – 4:55 lead vocals - Sweet Pea Atkinson\n \"Tell Me That I'm Dreaming\" – 4:58 lead vocals - Harry Bowens\n \"Oh, Mr. Friction!\" – 3:31\n\nSide B\n \"Carry Me Back to Old Morocco\" (Was, Was, Doug Fieger) – 6:01\n \"It's an Attack!\" (Was, Was, David Goss) – 3:11 lead vocals - Sweet Pea Atkinson\n \"The Sky's Ablaze\" – 2:16\n \"Go...Now!\" (Was, Was, Ron Banks) – 5:34 lead vocals - Sweet Pea Atkinson\nSide B of the LP ends in a lock groove of Atkinson singing \"'Cause he says it hurts his neck\" (from \"Out Come the Freaks\"), looping on the last three words.\n\nOut Come the Freaks Track listing\n \"Wheel Me Out\" (Long Version) – 7:06\n \"Out Come the Freaks\" – 5:39\n \"Where Did Your Heart Go?\" – 4:57\n \"Tell Me That I'm Dreaming\" – 5:00\n \"Oh, Mr. Friction\" – 3:33\n \"Carry Me Back to Old Morocco\" – 6:01\n \"It's an Attack!\" – 3:10\n \"The Sky's Ablaze\" – 2:15\n \"Go...Now!\" – 5:30\n \"Hello Operator\" (Short Version) – 2:51\n \"Out Come the Freaks (Again)\" – 4:37\n \"Tell Me That I'm Dreaming\" (12\" Remix)\" – 7:48\n \"Out Come The Freaks\" (12\" Remix) – 7:10\n \"(Return to the Valley Of) Out Come the Freaks\" (Semi/Historic 1983 Version) – 4:20\n \"Christmas Time in Motor City\" – 2:55\n \"Out Come the Freaks\" (Dub Version) – 6:30\n\nPersonnel\nDavid Was - vocals, alto saxophone, piano\nDon Was - vocals, bass, vibraphone, Moog synthesizer, clavinet\nSir Harry Bowens - lead vocals on \"Out Come the Freaks\" and \"Tell Me That I'm Dreaming\"\nSweet Pea Atkinson - lead vocals on \"Where Did Your Heart Go?\", \"It's an Attack\" and \"Go...Now!\"\nBruce Nazarian, Ricardo Rouse, Wayne Kramer - guitar\nJervonny Collier, Lamont Johnson - bass \nBruce Nazarian - bass on \"Wheel Me Out\"\nFranklin K. Funklyn McCullers, Jerry Jones - drums\nLarry Fratangelo, Kevin Tschirhart - percussion\nCarl \"Butch\" Small - percussion, rap vocals\nGary Stuck, Jim Matthews, Les Chambers - additional percussion\nIrwin Krinsky - piano\nLuis Resto - piano, Oberheim OBX and ARP synthesizers\nRaymond Johnson, Mark Johnson - keyboards\nDavid McMurray - tenor, soprano and alto saxophone\nArmand Angeloni - tenor saxophone, piccolo flute\nMarcus Belgrave - trumpet, flugelhorn \nMack Pitt - mandolin\nCarol Hall, Carolyn Crawford, Kathy Kosins, Michelle Goulet, Sheila Horne - backing vocals\nAnthony Was, Kim Heron, Lamont Zodiac, Mark J. Norton, Mitchell Jacobs, Mrs. Martinez's Fifth Hour Vocal Music Class/Birney Middle School, Pam Schlom, Richard Pinkston, Rick Cushingberry, Rubin Weiss, Ruth Seymore, Tom Brzezina - additional vocals\nJohnny Allen - string arrangement on \"Where Did Your Heart Go?\"\nMichael Zilkha - Executive Producer\n\nReferences\n\n1981 debut albums\nWas (Not Was) albums\nAlbums produced by Don Was\nAlbums produced by David Was\nIsland Records albums\nZE Records albums"
] |
[
"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In",
"Seasons 4 and 5",
"When did season 4 come out",
"The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky,"
] |
C_27ac7339278942ffa055ed743d3947d3_1
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Who were the cast
| 2 |
Who were the cast of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in 1970-71?
|
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
|
The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, and Johnny Brown. Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson left the show after the 1970-71 season. Henry Gibson also departed after the 1970-71 season. Johnson and he were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona. The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968. CANNOTANSWER
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the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
The title of the show was a play on the 1960s hippie culture "love-ins" or the counterculture "be-ins", terms that were derived from "sit-ins" that were common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of That Was The Week That Was. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight man (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) act which they had established as nightclub comics. The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen announcer and permanent castmember Ruth Buzzi; longer-tenured cast members included Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Johnny Brown, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson.
Episodes
Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. The show started after the intro and a batch of shorts skits that served as cold open with a short dialogue between Rowan and Martin. Shortly afterward, Rowan would intone: "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party, You're all invited!". This live to tape segment comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing before a 1960s "mod" party backdrop, delivering one- and two-line jokes interspersed with a few bars of dance music (later adopted on The Muppet Show, which had a recurring segment that was similar to "The Cocktail Party" with absurd moments from characters). This was similar in format to the "Word Dance" segments of A Thurber Carnival. The show then proceeded through rapid-fire comedy bits, taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan turned to his co-host and said, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good night, Dick!". The show then featured cast members' opening panels in a psychedelically painted "joke wall" and telling jokes, After which, the show would continue with one final batch of skits, before drawing to a close. After the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping continued even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes, and NBC logo appeared.
Although episodes included most of the above segments, the arrangement of the segments was often interchanged. The show often featured guest stars. Sometimes, the guest had a prominent spot in the program, at other times the guest would pop in for short "quickies" (one- or two-line jokes) interspersed throughout the show – as was done most famously by Richard Nixon, when running for president.
Cast
Pilot and season 1
Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Ken Berry, Pamela Austin, Barbara Feldon and Jo Anne Worley appeared in the pilot special from 1967. (Goldie Hawn, who was under contract to Good Morning World at the time of the pilot, joined for season 1 in 1968 after that show was canceled). Only the two hosts, Gary Owens, Carne, Gibson, and Johnson, were in all 14 episodes of season one. Eileen Brennan, Hovis, and Roddy Maude-Roxby left after the first season.
Seasons 2 and 3
The second season had a handful of new people, including Alan Sues, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington "The Fun Couple" (Charlie Brill/Mitzi McCall) and Chelsea Brown. All of the new cast members from season two left at the end of that season except Sues, who stayed on until 1972. At the end of the 1968–69 season, Carne chose not to renew her contract, although she did make appearances during 1969–1970.
The third season had several new people who only stayed on for that season: Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Byron Gilliam. Lily Tomlin joined in the middle of the season. Jo Anne Worley, Goldie Hawn, and Judy Carne left after the season.
Seasons 4 and 5
The 1970–71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and the straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, Nancie Phillips and Johnny Brown.
Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson and Henry Gibson left the show during the fourth season; they were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further.
The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971–72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968.
Season 6
For the show's final season (1972–73), Rowan and Martin assumed the executive producer roles from George Schlatter (known on-air as "CFG", which stood for "Crazy Fucking George"), and Ed Friendly. Except for holdovers Dawson, Owens, Buzzi, Allen, and only occasional appearances from Tomlin, a new cast was brought in. This final season featured comedian Patti Deutsch, folksy singer-comedian Jud Strunk, ventriloquist act Willie Tyler and Lester, Donna Jean Young and giddy Goldie Hawn lookalike Sarah Kennedy. Voice artist Frank Welker also made numerous appearances. Former regular Jo Anne Worley returned for two guest appearances, including the final episode. These last shows never aired in the edited half-hour reruns syndicated (through Lorimar Productions) to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987, although they were included when the program was rerun on the Decades over-the-air television channel in 2017.
Of over three dozen entertainers to join the cast, only Rowan, Martin, Owens, and Buzzi were there from beginning to end. However, Owens was not in the 1967 pilot and Buzzi missed two first-season episodes.
Cast tenures
All seasons: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi
Season 1 (1968): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Henry Gibson, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Jo Anne Worley, Inga Neilsen, Paul Winchell, Tiny Tim.
Season 2 (1968–69): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Dave Madden, Alan Sues, Chelsea Brown, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington (through episode 14), Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall ("the Fun Couple"), Pigmeat Markham, Jack Riley, Muriel Landers, J.J. Barry, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 3 (1969–70): Judy Carne (through episode 11), Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, Byron Gilliam (through episode 11, but continued as a dancer & in occasional cameos), Lily Tomlin (from episode 15), Johnny Brown
Season 4 (1970–71): Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson (through episode 10), Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Nancie Phillips (through episode 17), Barbara Sharma, Ann Elder, Harvey Jason (episodes 2, 4), Glen Ash (episodes 10–11), Byron Gilliam (dancer only)
Season 5 (1971–72): Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Ann Elder, Barbara Sharma, Larry Hovis, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 6 (1972–73): Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Tod Bass, Patti Deutsch, Sarah Kennedy, Jud Strunk, Willie Tyler, Donna Jean Young, Frank Welker, Brian Bressler (through episode 10), Kathy Speirs (episodes 11–12), Lisa Farringer (from episode 13). Note: not all cast members appear in all episodes this season, and rotate with some frequency (for instance, Donna Jean Young appears in about half of the season's 24 episodes).
Regular guest performers
Jack Benny (seasons 2–4, 6)
Johnny Carson (seasons 1–6)
Carol Channing (seasons 3–5)
Tony Curtis (seasons 2–3, 5)
Sammy Davis, Jr. (seasons 1–4, 6)
Phyllis Diller (seasons 2–4, 6)
Barbara Feldon (seasons 1–2)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (seasons 2–3)
Peter Lawford (seasons 1–4; Lawford became Dan Rowan's son-in-law in 1971)
Rich Little (seasons 2, 4, 6)
Jill St. John (seasons 1, 3, 5–6)
Tiny Tim (seasons 1–3, 5)
John Wayne (seasons 1–2, 5–6)
Flip Wilson (seasons 1–4)
Henny Youngman (seasons 2, 5–6)
Series writers
The writers for Laugh-In were: George Schlatter, Larry Hovis (pilot only), Digby Wolfe, Paul W. Keyes, Hugh Wedlock, Jr. and Allan Manings, Chris Bearde (credited as Chris Beard), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson (Arte Johnson's twin brother), Marc London and David Panich, Dave Cox, Jim Carlson, Jack Mendelsohn and Jim Mulligan, Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz, Jack Douglas, Jeremy Lloyd, John Carsey, Dennis Gren, Gene Farmer, John Rappaport and Stephen Spears, Jim Abell and Chet Dowling, Barry Took, E. Jack Kaplan, Larry Siegel, Jack S. Margolis, Don Reo and Allan Katz, Richard Goren (also credited as Rowby Greeber and Rowby Goren), Winston Moss, Gene Perret and Bill Richmond, Jack Wohl, Bob Howard and Bob DeVinney. Script supervisors for Laugh-In included Digby Wolfe (comedy consultant, season 1), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan (season 2), Allan Manings (season 3), Marc London and David Panich (seasons 3–6), and Jim Mulligan (season 6).
Musical direction and production numbers
The musical director for Laugh-In was Ian Bernard. He wrote the opening theme music, "Inquisitive Tango" (used in Season 1 and again permanently from season 4), plus the infamous "What's the news across the nation" number. He wrote all the musical "play-ons" that introduced comedy sketches like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann, the little girl who sat in a giant rocking chair, and Arte Johnson's old man character, Tyrone, who always got hit with a purse. He also appeared in many of the cocktail scenes where he directed the band as they stopped and started between jokes. Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often appeared on-camera, accompanying Johnson, Buzzi, Worley, or Sues, on a golden grand piano. Barnes was the creator of the famous Billy Barnes Revues of the 1950s and 1960s, and composed such popular hits as "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair", recorded by Barbra Streisand and the jazz standard "Something Cool" recorded by June Christy.
Post-production
The show was recorded at NBC's Burbank facility using two-inch quadruplex videotape. As computer-controlled online editing had not been invented at the time, post-production video editing of the montage was achieved by the error-prone method of visualizing the recorded track with ferrofluid and cutting it with a razor blade or guillotine cutter and splicing with adhesive tape, in a manner similar to film editing. This had the incidental benefit of ensuring the preservation of the master tape, as a spliced tape could not be recycled for further use. Laugh-In editor Arthur Schneider won an Emmy Award in 1968 for his pioneering use of the "jump cut" – the unique editing style in which a sudden cut from one shot to another was made without a fade-out.
When the series was restored for airing by the Trio Cable Network in 1996, the aforementioned edits became problematic for the editors, as the adhesive used on the source tape had deteriorated during 20+ years of storage, making many of the visual elements at the edit points unusable. This was corrected in digital re-editing by removing the problematic video at the edit point and then slowing down the video image just before the edit point; time-expanding the slowed-down section long enough to allot enough time to seamlessly reinsert the audio portion from the removed portion of video.
Recurring sketches and characters
Sketches
Frequently recurring Laugh-In sketches included:
"Sock it to me"; Judy Carne was often tricked into saying the phrase ("It may be rice wine to you, but it's still sake to me!"), which invariably results in her (or other cast members) falling through a trap door, being doused with water, or playfully assaulted in various other manners. The phrase was also uttered by many of the cameo guest stars, most notably Richard Nixon, though they were almost never subjected to the same treatment as Carne.
"The Cocktail Party", attended by the cast and guest stars, to which Dan and Dick invite the audience. The orchestra plays a few bars of a wild dance song, then temporarily stops for the delivery of a brief joke.
"The Joke Wall", near the end of every episode, the regulars and guests poke their heads out of doors in the psychedelically decorated wall or floor and exchange one-liners, or brief dialogues with Rowan and Martin. In the sixth season, instead of coming in and out of view, the entire cast just hung out of the holes (as most of the wall doors were removed) and told their jokes and one-liners.
"Mod, Mod World" comprised brief sketches on a theme interspersed with film footage of female cast members (most often Hawn, Carne, Brown, Graves and Rodgers) go-go dancing in bikinis, their bodies painted with punchy phrases and clever wordplay. On occasion, a cast member (superimposed on the screen) would cast off a one-liner while the dancing took place. Usually, there was also a song which the entire cast sang, paying tribute to the theme.
"The Farkel Family", a couple with numerous children, all of whom had bright red hair and large freckles similar to their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel (Dick Martin). The sketch employed diversion humor, the writing paying more attention to the lines said by each player, using alliterative tongue-twisters ("That's a fine-looking Farkel flinger you found there, Frank"). Dan Rowan played father Frank Farkel the Third, Jo Anne Worley, Barbara Sharma and Patti Deutsch played his wife Fanny Farkel, Goldie Hawn played Sparkle Farkel, Arte Johnson played Frank Farkel the Fourth, and Ruth Buzzi played Flicker Farkel, who would only say "HIIIIII!" in a very high-pitched voice. Two of the children were twins named Simon and Gar Farkel, played by cast members of different races (Teresa Graves and Pamela Rodgers in the third season, Johnny Brown and Dennis Allen in the fourth season). All of the Farkel skits were written or co-written by David Panich.
"Here Comes the Judge", originally portrayed by British comic Roddy Maude-Roxby, was a stuffy magistrate with a black robe and oversized judge's wig. Each sketch featured the judge trading barbs with a defendant brought him; on delivery of the punch line, he would strike the defendant with an inflated bladder balloon tied to the sleeve of his robe. For a time guest star Flip Wilson or Sammy Davis Jr. would introduce the sketch saying "Here come da judge!", which was a venerable catchphrase by nightclub comedian Pigmeat Markham. Surprised that his trademark had been appropriated, Markham asked producer George Schlatter to let him play the Judge himself; Schlatter agreed and Markham presided for one season. After Markham left, the sketch was briefly retired until Sammy Davis Jr. donned the judicial robe and wig during his guest appearances, introducing each sketch with a rap that always finished with "Here come da judge, here come da judge...".
"Laugh-In Looks at the News", a parody of network newscasts, introduced by the female cast members in a highly un-journalistic production number. The sketch was originally called the Rowan and Martin Report (a take-off on the Huntley-Brinkley Report). The sketch itself featured Dick humorously reporting on current events, which then segued into Dan reporting on "News of the Past" and "News of the Future". The latter of these segments, on at least two occasions, correctly predicted future events, one being that Ronald Reagan would be president, and another that the Berlin Wall would finally come down in 1989. This segment was influenced by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, and in turn inspired Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segments (SNL creator Lorne Michaels was a Laugh-In writer early in his career). The News segments were followed by "Big Al" (Alan Sues) and his sports report in seasons 2–5. After Sues left the show, Jud Strunk took over the sports segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine") by featuring films of oddly-named events which were actual sports films played backwards. An example is the "Cannonball Catch", featuring a backwards film of a bowling tournament where the "cannonballs" (bowling balls) are caught one-handed by the catcher (the bowler) after rolling up the alley.
"New Talent Time" also called "Discovery of the Week" in later seasons. Introduced oddball variety acts (sometimes characters played by regular cast members)
Tin Pan Alley musician Tiny Tim - The most notable of these acts, was introduced in episode 1 & shot to fame. Returned in the Season 1 finale & made several guest appearances after.
Actor Paul Gilbert (adoptive father of actress Melissa Gilbert) appeared in two episodes as an inept French juggler, introduced as "Paul Jill-BEER".
6'2" actress Inga Neilsen made appearances as a bugle/kazoo player who could only play one note of "Tiger Rag" & had to deal with Martin's advances. Martin, who hated all of the other New Talent acts would enthusiastically cheer her on despite the obvious lack of talent.
Ventriloquist Paul Winchell appeared 3 times as "Lucky Pierre", whose puppets would fall apart or die on him.
Arte Johnson would appear as his Pyotr Rosmenko character looking for big American break, singing gibberish in a Russian accent
Murray Langston, who later achived fame as the Gong Show's "Unknown Comic"
Laugh-In writer Chris Bearde took the "New Talent" concept and later developed it into The Gong Show.
"The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" sardonically recognized actual dubious achievements by public individuals or institutions, the most frequent recipients being members or branches of the government. The trophy was a gilded left hand mounted on a trophy base with its extended index finger adorned with two small wings.
"The Wonderful World of Whoopee Award" was a counterpart to the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award", described by Rowan as a citation "for the little man who manages to outfight or outfox the bureaucracy"; the statue was similar to the Finger of Fate, only it was a right hand (without wings on the index finger) pointing straight up, and with a hidden mechanism that when activated caused the finger to wave in a circular motion.
"The C.F.G. Automat"; a vending machine whose title was an inside joke for cast members who referred to producer Schlatter as "Crazy (bleeping) George". The vending machine would distribute oddball items that were a play on the name. Examples: The 'pot pie' produced a cloud of smoke when the door was opened, then the pie floated away. The 'ladyfingers' was a woman's hand reaching out & tickling Arte's face while another 'ladyfingers' door opened & picked his pocket.
Many episodes were interspersed with a recurring, short wordless gag in which an actor repeatedly tried to accomplish some simple task like entering an elevator, opening a window or door, watering a plant, etc., which would fail each time in a different, surprising way (the object would move unexpectedly, another part of the wall or room would move, water would squirt the actor in the face from the object, etc.)
Another recurring wordless gag involved one or more actors walking around the street in a jerky fashion (using stop-motion or low shutter speed filming) holding and turning a bare steering wheel, as if they were driving a car or actually were a car, with various sound effects to simulate honking, back-ups, collisions with each other, etc.
From season four on, a variety of sketches or jokes used the word "Foon," usually as part of the name of imaginary products or persons (e.g., Foon detergent, Mr. Foonman). (They did this with "Nern" in earlier seasons)
Characters
Dan Rowan, in addition to hosting, provided the "news of the future" & appears as a character known as General Bull Right, a far-right-wing representative of the military establishment and outlet for political humor.
Dick Martin, in addition to hosting would also play a drunk Leonard Swizzle, husband of an equally drunk Doris Swizzle (Ruth Buzzi) & a character always buzzing for an elevator on which the doors never closed in a normal way
Announcer Gary Owens regularly stands in an old-time radio studio with his hand cupped over his ear, making announcements, often with little relation to the rest of the show, such as (in an overly-dramatic voice), "Earlier that evening ..."
Arte Johnson:
Wolfgang the German soldier – Wolfgang would often peer out from behind a potted palm and comment on the previous gag saying "Verrry interesting", sometimes with comments such as "... but shtupid!" He eventually closed each show by talking to Lucille Ball, as well as the cast of Gunsmoke — both airing opposite Laugh-In on CBS; as well as whatever was on ABC. Johnson later repeated the line while playing Nazi-themed supervillain Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Johnson also reprised his Wolfgang character in a series of skits for the second season of Sesame Street (1970–1971), and in 1980 for a series of small introductory skits with a plant on 3-2-1 Contact, during the "Growth/Decay" week.
Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH", presumably to satisfy the censors) was a dirty old man coming on to Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi) seated on a park bench, who almost invariably clobbers him with her purse. Both Tyrone and Gladys later became animated characters (voiced by Johnson and Buzzi) in "The Nitwits" segments of the 1977 Saturday morning animated television show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.
Pyotr Rosmenko, a Russian man, stands stiffly and nervously in an ill-fitting suit while commenting on differences between America and "the old country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In old country, television watches you!" This type of joke has come to be known as the Russian reversal.
Rabbi Shankar (a pun on Ravi Shankar) was an Indian guru who dresses in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudomystical Eastern wisdom laden with bad puns. He held up two fingers in a peace sign whenever he spoke.
An unnamed character in a yellow raincoat and hat, riding a tricycle and then falling over, was frequently used to link between sketches. The character was portrayed by many people besides Johnson, including his brother Coslough (a writer for the show), Alan Sues, and Johnny Brown.
The Scandanavian Storyteller - spoke gibberish, including non-sensical 'Knock Knock' jokes in the Joke Wall. No one could ever understand him. Possibly inspiration for the Muppets' Swedish Chef character.
Ruth Buzzi:
Gladys Ormphby – A drab, relatively young spinster, she is the eternal target of Arte Johnson's Tyrone; when Johnson left the series, Gladys retreated into recurring daydreams, often involving marriages to historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin (both played by Alan Sues). She typically hit people repeatedly with her purse. The character was recreated, along with Tyrone, in Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi also performed as Gladys on Sesame Street and The Dean Martin Show, most notably in the Celebrity Roasts.
Doris Swizzle – A seedy barfly, she is paired with her husband, Leonard Swizzle, played by Dick Martin.
Agnes Gooch – An exceedingly friendly hooker, commonly seen in sketches or at the cocktail party propositioning people while leaning against a lamppost.
Busy Buzzi – A cold and heartless old-style Hedda Hopper-type Hollywood gossip columnist.
Kathleen Pullman - A wicked parody of televangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. This always helpful but overdramatic woman is always eager to help people.
Henry Gibson:
The Poet held an oversized flower and nervously read offbeat poems. (His stage name was a play on the name of playwright Henrik Ibsen).
The Parson – A character who makes ecclesiastical quips. In 1970, he officiated at a near-marriage for Tyrone and Gladys.
Would frequently just pop up & utter the phrase "Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?".
Goldie Hawn is best known as the giggling "dumb blonde", stumbling over her lines, especially when she introduced Dan's "News of the Future". In the earliest episodes, she recited her dialogue sensibly and in her own voice, but as the series progressed, she adopted a Dumb Dora character with a higher-pitched giggle and a vacant expression, which endeared her to viewers. Frequently did a Donald Duck voice at inappropriate times, such as when she was expected to sing or doing ballet.
Lily Tomlin:
Ernestine/Miss Tomlin – An obnoxious telephone operator, she has no concern at all for her customers & constantly mispronounced their names. Her close friend is fellow telephone operator, Phenicia; and her boyfriend, Vito. She would boast of being a high school graduate. Tomlin later performed Ernestine on Saturday Night Live and Happy New Year, America. She also played the Ernestine character for a comedy album called This Is A Recording. At the suggestion of CFG, Ernestine began dialing with her middle finger in Season 4, sometimes blatantly flipping 'the bird' to the camera as a result. Censors never caught on - "we know she's doing something wrong, we just can't put our FINGER on it!"
Edith Ann – A -year-old child, she ends each of her short monologues with: "And that's the truth", followed by blowing a raspberry. Tomlin performs her skits in an oversized rocking chair that makes her appear small. Tomlin later performed Edith Ann on children's shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
Mrs. Earbore (the "Tasteful Lady") – A prim society matron, Mrs. Earbore expressed quiet disapproval about a tasteless joke or remark, and then rose from her chair with her legs spread, getting doused with a bucket of water or the sound of her skirt ripping.
Dotty – A crass and rude grocery checker who tended to annoy her customers at the store where she worked.
Lula – A loud and boisterous woman with a Marie Antoinette hair-do who always loved a party.
Suzie Sorority of the Silent Majority – clueless hippie college student who ended each bit with "Rah!"
The Babbler – A character given to speaking exuberantly and at great length while digressing after every few words and never staying on one subject, producing an unbroken, incomprehensible monologue.
Judy Carne had two characters known for their robotic speech and movement:
Mrs. Robot in "Robot Theater" – A female companion to Arte Johnson's "Mr. Robot".
The Talking Judy Doll – She is usually played with by Arte Johnson, who never heeded her warning: "Touch my little body, and I hit you!"
The Sock-It-To-Me Girl in which she would usually end up being splashed with water and/or falling through a trap door and/or getting conked on the head by a large club or mallet and/or knocked out by a boxing glove on a spring.
Jo Anne Worley sometimes sings off-the-wall songs using her loud operatic voice or displaying an advanced state of pregnancy, but is better remembered for her mock outrage at "chicken jokes" and her melodic outcry of "Bo-ring!". At the cocktail parties, she would talk about her never-seen married boyfriend/lover "Boris" (who, according to her in a Season 3 episode, was finally found out by his wife).
Alan Sues:
Big Al – A clueless and fey sports anchor, he loves ringing his "Featurette" bell, which he calls his "tinkle".
He would dress in drag as his former co-star, Jo Anne Worley, including skits where he appeared as a "fairy godmother" imitating Worley's boisterous laugh and offering help or advice to a Cinderella-type character in a conversation full of double entendres.
Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal – A short-tempered host of a children's show, he usually goes on the air with a hangover: "Oh, kiddies, Uncle Al had a lot of medicine last night." Whenever he got really agitated, he would yell to "Get Miss Twinkle on the phone!"
Grabowski - a benchwarmer football player obviously not cut out for the sport. Ex: "He pushed me! He pushed me!... they ALL pushed me!" & "No, you can't wear your ballet slippers on the field, Grabowski!"
Boomer – A self-absorbed "jock" bragging about his athletic exploits.
Ambiguously gay saloon patron – while Dan & Dick ordered whiskey, he would saunter up to the bar and ask for a fruit punch or frozen daiquiri
In the last season where he was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off (replacing Judy Carne as the one who always got drenched).
Pamela Rodgers - "your man in Washington", she would give 'reports' from the Capitol that were usually double entendres to give the impression that the Congressmen were fooling around with her.
Jeremy Lloyd - scrunched himself into an ultra-short character who wandered around
Dennis Allen:
Lt. Peaches of the Fuzz – a stumble-bum police officer.
Chaplain Bud Homily – a droll clergyman who often falls victim to his own sermons.
Eric Clarified – a correspondent for Laugh-In Looks at the News who further muddles up obfuscatory government statements he has been asked to clarify. Rowan would often throw to another correspondent (played by Sues) to analyze Eric Clarified's statements in turn.
Barbara Sharma:
The Burbank Metre Made – a dancing meter maid who tickets anything from trees to baby carriages.
An aspiring actress who often plays foil in cocktail-party segments to another "high-society" character (Tomlin).
In season four, a Ruby Keeler-esque dancer (and arch-nemesis of Johnson's Wolfgang) who often praises Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Johnny Brown lent his impersonations of Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Ralph Kramden and the Kingfish from Amos 'n' Andy.
Ann Elder as Pauline Rhetoric (spoofing Nancy Dickerson), the chief interviewer for the Laugh-In News segments.
Moosie Drier & Todd Bass - Drier did the "kids news for kids" segment of the Laugh-In news. Bass teamed with Drier in Season 6 to read letters from a treehouse
Larry Hovis - the Senator, the Texan, David Brinkley, Father Time
Richard Dawson - W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Hawkins the Butler, who always started his piece by asking "Permission to ...?" and proceeded to fall over.
Roddy Maude Roxby & Pigmeat Markham - Here Come Da Judge (Roxby for Season 1, Markham for Season 2)
Dave Madden - would always throw confetti after "a naughty thought", usually a punch line that was a double-entendre. Once while kissing Carne, confetti erupted around him
Memorable moments
The first season featured some of the first music videos seen on network TV, with cast members appearing in films set to the music of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the First Edition.
During the September 16, 1968, episode, Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared for a few seconds with a disbelieving vocal inflection, asking "Sock it to me?" Nixon was not doused or assaulted. An invitation was extended to Nixon's opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, but he declined. According to George Schlatter, the show's creator, "Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election", and "[Nixon] said the rest of his life that appearing on Laugh-In is what got him elected. And I believe that. And I've had to live with that." In an episode of the ill-fated 1977 revival, Rich Little as Nixon says, "I invited the American people to sock-it-to-me.... you can stop now".
After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona.
On multiple occasions, producer George Schlatter attempted to get William F. Buckley Jr. to appear on the show, only to be refused each time until he suddenly agreed to an appearance. In the episode that aired December 28, 1970, Buckley appeared in an unusual sit-down segment (portions of which were scattered throughout the episode) flanked by Rowan and Martin and fielding questions from the cast (which included Lily Tomlin doing her Babbler & Ernestine shticks) and giving humorous answers to each. Near the end, when Rowan asked Buckley why he finally agreed to appear on the show, Buckley explained that Schlatter had written him "an irresistable letter" in which he promised to fly Buckley out to Burbank "in an airplane with two right wings". At the end, Rowan thanked him for appearing, noting that "you can't be that smart without having a sense of humor, and you have a delightful one".
The 100th episode featured John Wayne, Tiny Tim & the return of several former cast members. Wayne, with his ear cupped, read the line "and me, I'm Gary Owens" instead of Owens himself. Wayne also shook Tiny Tim's hand, pretending that his grip was too overpowering.
Catchphrases
In addition to those already mentioned, the show created numerous catchphrases:
"Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (a lesser-known set of reference books whose phonetically funny name helped both Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to poke fun at NBC censors)
"You bet your sweet bippy!"
"Ring my chimes!"
"Beautiful downtown Burbank" (various actors/characters, referring tongue-in-cheek to the Los Angeles suburb in which the NBC studios (and thus the program) were located; the same term was frequently used by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
"One ringy-dingy ... two ringy-dingies ..." (Ernestine's mimicking of the rings while she was waiting for someone to pick up the receiver on the other end of the telephone lines)
"A gracious good afternoon. This is Miss Tomlin of the telephone company. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" Ernestine's greeting to people whom she would call. She would then mispronounce the names of famous people: Gore Vidal was "Mr. Veedle", WIlliam F. Buckley was "Mr. F'buckley". Richard Nixon was simply "Milhouse".
"I just wanna swing!" Gladys Ormphby's catchphrase
"Was that another chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley's outraged cry, a takeoff on Polish jokes
"Sock it to me!" experienced its greatest exposure on Laugh-In although the phrase had been featured in songs such as Aretha Franklin's 1967 "Respect" and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels' 1966 "Sock It To Me, Baby!"
"Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere."
"Now, that's a no-no!"
"Morgul the Friendly Drelb" – a pink Abominable Snowman-like character that was introduced in the second episode and bombed so badly, his name was used in various announcements by Gary Owens for the rest of the series (usually at the end of the opening cast list - "Yours truly, Gary Owens, and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!") and credited as the author of a paperback collection of the show's sketches. On the spin-off "Letters To Laugh-In", "Morgul" would reach out of the podium & hand Owens the card containing the next category in a manner similar to Thing on The Addams Family.
"Want a Walnetto?" was a pick-up line Tyrone would try on Gladys, which always resulted in a purse drubbing.
"Here come da Judge"
"Verrry Interesting"
"And that's the truth – PFFFFT!"
"Go to your room!" - "Big kid" Dan's response to a particularly bad joke, as if to put that cast member in time out like a child.
"He pushed me!" – usually said by Sues when another cast member would bump him.
"Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'" - uttered by Gibson randomly between sketches.
"How does that grab you?"
"Oh... THAT Henny Youngman" - preceded by cast members quoting a series of his punch lines in succession, but without the jokes leading up to them.
"He was a much better person for that" – as "Sock it to me!" was phased out following Carne's departure, this became the line used for similar sketches
"Well, I'll drink to that", "I did not know that!", "Whatever turns you on" and "That's funny, so did she" – Martin
"Goodnight, Lucy." During the first three seasons, Laugh-In was scheduled opposite Lucille Ball's third television series, Here's Lucy. At the end of the show, one or more cast members would say, "Goodnight, Lucy." Dick Martin had been a regular cast member in the first season of Ball's second series, The Lucy Show.
"Goodnight, Dick" - the closing portion of each episode of Seasons 1 & 2 began with the guest star & numerous cameos all saying "Goodnight, Dick". Occasionally, one of the cameo actors would say "Who's Dick?".
"Gotcha!"
"Wr-r-r-ong!" - spoken in a cameo by Otto Preminger, subsequent cameo actors would repeat the line, mimicking Preminger's delivery of it.
"How would I know? I've never been out with one"
"I think I've got it too" - running gag where the person would say this & start scratching themselves for no particular reason.
"Blah! Blah!" - staff writer Chet Dowling would appear at random in various episodes wearing a tux & this was all he'd ever say.
"That's not funny"
"Wacker!" - this name became used often in sketches after the Bobby Darin episode of Season 2. Darin had done a sketch with Martin & hilariously proceeded to call him 'Wacker' throughout the rest of the show
Merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs
A humor magazine tie-in, Laugh-In Magazine, was published for one year (12 issues: October 1968 through October 1969—no issue was published December 1968), and a 1968-1972 syndicated newspaper comic strip was drawn by Roy Doty and eventually collected for a paperback reprint.
The Laugh-In trading cards from Topps had a variety of items, such as a card with a caricature of Jo Anne Worley with a large open mouth. With a die-cut hole, the card became interactive; a finger could be inserted through the hole to simulate Worley's tongue. Little doors opened on Joke Wall cards to display punchlines.
On Letters to Laugh-In, a short-lived spin-off daytime show hosted by Gary Owens, cast members read jokes sent in by viewers, which were scored by applause meter. The eventual winning joke was read by actress Jill St. John: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a jar of peanut butter? A 500 pound sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth!"
A cross-promotional episode of I Dream of Jeannie ("The Biggest Star in Hollywood", February 1969) features Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens, and producer George Schlatter playing themselves in a story about Jeannie being sought after to appear on Laugh-In.
In 1969, a Laugh-In View-Master packet was issued by General Aniline and Film (GAF); The packet featured 21 3D images from the show.
The horror spoof film The Maltese Bippy (1969) starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was loosely related to the series. Pamela Rodgers was the only Laugh-In cast member to co-star in the film.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson. Made to capitalize on the popularity of the series, the short was made for Sears salesmen to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. A dancing, bikini-clad Carne provided the opening titles with tattoos on her body.
Two LPs of material from the show were released: the first on Epic Records (FXS-15118, 1968); the second, entitled Laugh-In '69, on Reprise Records (RS 6335, 1969).
DVD releases
Between 2003 and 2004, Rhino Entertainment Company (under its Rhino Retrovision classic TV entertainment brand), under license from the rightsholder at the time, SFM Entertainment, released two The Best Of releases of the show, each containing six episodes presented in its original, uncut broadcast version. In 2003, Rhino, through direct-response marketing firm Guthy-Renker, also released a series of DVDs subtitled The Sock-It-To-Me Collection, with each DVD containing two episodes.
On June 19, 2017, Time Life, another direct-response marketer, released Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1, in a deal with current rightsholder Proven Entertainment. The 38-disc set contains all 140 episodes of the series, complete and uncut, restored and remastered as well as many bonus features and a special 32-page collector's book.
On September 5, 2017, Time Life began releasing individual complete season sets on DVD, beginning with the first season. This was followed by the second season on January 9, 2018, and the third season on March 6, 2018. The fourth season was released on May 8, 2018. Season 5 was released on July 10, 2018. Finally, Season 6 was released on September 4, 2018.
Ratings
TV season, ranking, average viewers per episode
1967–1968: #21 (21.3)
1968–1969: #1 (31.8)
1969–1970: #1 (26.3)
1970–1971: #13 (22.4)
1971–1972: #22 (21.4)
1972–1973: #51 (16.7)
Revival
In 1977, Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials – titled simply Laugh-In – with a new cast. The standout was a then-unknown Robin Williams, whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one year later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979. Also featured were Wayland Flowers and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, Good Times actor Ben Powers and Bill Rafferty of Real People. Rowan and Martin, who owned part of the Laugh-In franchise, were not involved in this project. They sued Schlatter for using the format without their permission, and won a judgment of $4.6 million in 1980.
In 2019, Netflix produced a special tribute to the original series entitled, Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate. Tomlin, Buzzi and Worley appeared in the special.
Awards and honors
Emmy Awards
Won:
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Program, George Schlatter (for the September 9, 1967 special)
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series, George Schlatter
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, Chris Bearde, Phil Hahn, Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Jr., Digby Wolfe
1968: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1969: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series – Paul Keyes (producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Dick Martin (star), Dan Rowan (star)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Arte Johnson
1971: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Mark Warren (episode #4.7 with Orson Welles)
Nominated:
1968: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Bill Foster (pilot episode)
1968 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Gordon Wiles
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, – Larry Hovis, Paul Keyes, Jim Mulligan, David Panich, George Schlatter, Digby Wolfe (pilot episode)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – Gordon Wiles (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music – Billy Barnes (special material)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design – Ken Johnson
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – John Teele and Bruce Verran (video tape editors)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1970: Outstanding Variety or Musical Series – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 November 1969 with Buddy Hackett)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 20 December 1969 with Nancy Sinatra)
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Goldie Hawn
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Arte Johnson
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (composer) (For episode with Carol Channing)
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design – Michael Travis
1971: Outstanding Variety Series, Musical – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Arte Johnson
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Lily Tomlin
1971: Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork – Marvin Ault (cameraman), Ray Figelski (cameraman), Louis Fusari (technical director), Jon Olson (cameraman), Tony Yarlett (cameraman)
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Ruth Buzzi
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Lily Tomlin
1972: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (For episode with Liza Minnelli)
1973: Outstanding Achievement by a Supporting Performer in Music or Variety – Lily Tomlin
1978: Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music, Bea Arthur (for episode on 25 October 1977)
1978: Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Series – Ed. J. Brennan (editor) (For show #6–8 February 1978)
Golden Globe Award
Won:
1973: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Ruth Buzzi
1969: Best TV Show
Nominated:
1972: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Lily Tomlin
1971: Best Supporting Actor – Television, Henry Gibson
1970: Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy
1968: Best TV Show
International and U.S. re-broadcasts
The first four seasons were broadcast on BBC2 from January 1969 to November 1971. Some episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 were retransmitted during late 1983 and early 1984. Early broadcasts had to be shown with a black border, as technology was not available to render the 525-line NTSC video recording as a full-screen 625-line PAL picture. This issue was fixed for later broadcasts.
The series was broadcast on RTÉ One.
The series originally aired on the 0-10 Network in the 1960s and 1970s. It later appeared in re-runs on the Seven Network in the early 1980s.
CTV aired the series at the same time as the NBC run.
1983 saw the first 70 one-hour shows syndicated to broadcast stations (the pilot, first three seasons and the first four episodes of season 4). Alternate recut half-hour shows were syndicated through Lorimar Television to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987 through August 1990.
The Vivendi Universal-owned popular arts/pop culture entertainment cable network Trio started airing the show in its original one-hour form in the early 2000s; the same abbreviated 70 episode package was run.
In September 2016, digital sub-network Decades started airing the show twice a day in its original one-hour format, complete with the NBC Peacock opening and 'snake' closing. The entire 6 season run was supplied by Proven Entertainment.
In 2018, the original series became available in full on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020, the complete series became available on Tubi. The show is currently seen on IMDb TV.
References
External links
FBI review of an episode devoted to the agency, quoted by Harper's Magazine in 2006
FBI file on Rowan and Martins Laugh-In TV Show
1968 American television series debuts
1973 American television series endings
1960s American sketch comedy television series
1960s American variety television series
1970s American sketch comedy television series
1970s American variety television series
Atco Records artists
English-language television shows
Epic Records artists
NBC original programming
Nielsen ratings winners
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series winners
Television shows adapted into comics
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"Rudhall of Gloucester was a family business of bell founders in the city of Gloucester, England, who between 1684 and 1835 cast more than 5,000 bells.\n\nHistory\nThere had been a tradition of bell casting in Gloucester since before the 14th century.\n\nThe family business was founded by Abraham Rudhall (1657–1736) who developed a method of tuning bells by turning on a lathe rather than the traditional chipping method with a chisel.\nOne of the earliest ring of bells he cast was for St Nicholas' Church, Oddington in 1684. He came to be described as the greatest bell-founder of his age. The business was continued by his eldest son, also called Abraham (1680–1735), his son Abel (1714–60), and three of Abel's sons, Thomas (?1740–83), Charles (1746–1815) and John (1760–1835). In 1815 John Rudhall was declared bankrupt and the bell foundry bought by Mears & Stainbank who owned the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The business formally closed in 1828 but bells bearing John's name have been found with dates up to 1835.\n\nSelected bells\nFive bells cast in 1702 by Abraham Rudhall I hang in St James the Great, West Hanney, Oxfordshire. A sixth was recast in 1856.\n\nIn 1706 and 1707 Abraham Rudhall I cast three of the bells of Great Malvern Priory.\n\nIn 1710 Abraham Rudhall I cast six bells for SS Michael and Wulfhad's church in Stone, Staffordshire. In 2012 the four heaviest bells, including the tenor, were re-hung in the church but the other two were replaced by new bells cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The two redundant bells were moved to St Michael's Tower, Gloucester, near to where they were cast.\n\nThree of the bells of St Mary Magdalene, Adlestrop were cast by Abraham Rudhall I in 1711.\n\nSix of the bells in the Church of St Leonard, Middleton, Greater Manchester were cast by Abraham Rudhall I in 1714.\n\nFive of the bells of St Michael and All Angels, Great Torrington were cast by Abraham Rudhal I in 1716.\n\nSix of the bells in Pershore Abbey were cast in 1729 by Abraham Rudhall II: a seventh (also 1727) was recast in 1897.\n\nSix bells by Abel Rudhall (cast in 1738 and 1753) hang in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.\n\nEight change ringing bells (tenor: in F) at Old North Church in Boston were cast by Abel Rudhall in 1744 and hung in 1745. One bell has the inscription: \"We are the first ring of bells cast for the British Empire in North America, A.R. 1744.\" \n\nAll eight bells from the Church of St Anne, Shandon, an iconic symbol of Cork, Ireland, were cast by Abel Rudhall in 1750. They were recast in 1870.\n\nFour of the bells of Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, were cast by Abel Rudhall in 1751.\n\nFive bells cast by Abel Rudhall in 1757 still hang in Wells Cathedral.\n\nReferences\n\nBell foundries of the United Kingdom\nDefunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom\n1684 establishments in England\n1828 disestablishments\nCompanies based in Gloucester\nIndustrial history of Gloucestershire",
"The following is a list of cast members who have appeared in the MTV reality series Ex on the Beach.\n\nCast\nBold indicates original cast member; all other cast were brought into the series as an ex.\n\n Ages at the time the cast member appeared in the series\n Key: = \"Cast member\" returns to the beach for the second time.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" returns to the beach for the third time.\n\nDuration of cast\n Key: = \"Cast member\" is featured in this episode.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" arrives on the beach.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" has an ex arrive on the beach.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" arrives on the beach and has an ex arrive during the same episode.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" leaves the beach.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" has an ex arrive on the beach and leaves during the same episode.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" arrives on the beach and leaves during the same episode.\n Key: = \"Cast member\" does not feature in this episode.\n\nSeries 1\n\nSeries 2\n\nSeries 3\n\nSeries 4\n\nSeries 5\n\nSeries 6\n\nSeries 7\n\nSeries 8\n\nSeries 9\n\nCelebrity version\n\nSeries 1\n\nReferences\n\nEx on the Beach\nCast members"
] |
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What happen in Season 5
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What happen in Season 5 of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In?
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
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The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, and Johnny Brown. Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson left the show after the 1970-71 season. Henry Gibson also departed after the 1970-71 season. Johnson and he were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona. The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968. CANNOTANSWER
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The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne,
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
The title of the show was a play on the 1960s hippie culture "love-ins" or the counterculture "be-ins", terms that were derived from "sit-ins" that were common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of That Was The Week That Was. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight man (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) act which they had established as nightclub comics. The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen announcer and permanent castmember Ruth Buzzi; longer-tenured cast members included Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Johnny Brown, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson.
Episodes
Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. The show started after the intro and a batch of shorts skits that served as cold open with a short dialogue between Rowan and Martin. Shortly afterward, Rowan would intone: "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party, You're all invited!". This live to tape segment comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing before a 1960s "mod" party backdrop, delivering one- and two-line jokes interspersed with a few bars of dance music (later adopted on The Muppet Show, which had a recurring segment that was similar to "The Cocktail Party" with absurd moments from characters). This was similar in format to the "Word Dance" segments of A Thurber Carnival. The show then proceeded through rapid-fire comedy bits, taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan turned to his co-host and said, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good night, Dick!". The show then featured cast members' opening panels in a psychedelically painted "joke wall" and telling jokes, After which, the show would continue with one final batch of skits, before drawing to a close. After the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping continued even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes, and NBC logo appeared.
Although episodes included most of the above segments, the arrangement of the segments was often interchanged. The show often featured guest stars. Sometimes, the guest had a prominent spot in the program, at other times the guest would pop in for short "quickies" (one- or two-line jokes) interspersed throughout the show – as was done most famously by Richard Nixon, when running for president.
Cast
Pilot and season 1
Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Ken Berry, Pamela Austin, Barbara Feldon and Jo Anne Worley appeared in the pilot special from 1967. (Goldie Hawn, who was under contract to Good Morning World at the time of the pilot, joined for season 1 in 1968 after that show was canceled). Only the two hosts, Gary Owens, Carne, Gibson, and Johnson, were in all 14 episodes of season one. Eileen Brennan, Hovis, and Roddy Maude-Roxby left after the first season.
Seasons 2 and 3
The second season had a handful of new people, including Alan Sues, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington "The Fun Couple" (Charlie Brill/Mitzi McCall) and Chelsea Brown. All of the new cast members from season two left at the end of that season except Sues, who stayed on until 1972. At the end of the 1968–69 season, Carne chose not to renew her contract, although she did make appearances during 1969–1970.
The third season had several new people who only stayed on for that season: Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Byron Gilliam. Lily Tomlin joined in the middle of the season. Jo Anne Worley, Goldie Hawn, and Judy Carne left after the season.
Seasons 4 and 5
The 1970–71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and the straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, Nancie Phillips and Johnny Brown.
Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson and Henry Gibson left the show during the fourth season; they were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further.
The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971–72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968.
Season 6
For the show's final season (1972–73), Rowan and Martin assumed the executive producer roles from George Schlatter (known on-air as "CFG", which stood for "Crazy Fucking George"), and Ed Friendly. Except for holdovers Dawson, Owens, Buzzi, Allen, and only occasional appearances from Tomlin, a new cast was brought in. This final season featured comedian Patti Deutsch, folksy singer-comedian Jud Strunk, ventriloquist act Willie Tyler and Lester, Donna Jean Young and giddy Goldie Hawn lookalike Sarah Kennedy. Voice artist Frank Welker also made numerous appearances. Former regular Jo Anne Worley returned for two guest appearances, including the final episode. These last shows never aired in the edited half-hour reruns syndicated (through Lorimar Productions) to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987, although they were included when the program was rerun on the Decades over-the-air television channel in 2017.
Of over three dozen entertainers to join the cast, only Rowan, Martin, Owens, and Buzzi were there from beginning to end. However, Owens was not in the 1967 pilot and Buzzi missed two first-season episodes.
Cast tenures
All seasons: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi
Season 1 (1968): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Henry Gibson, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Jo Anne Worley, Inga Neilsen, Paul Winchell, Tiny Tim.
Season 2 (1968–69): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Dave Madden, Alan Sues, Chelsea Brown, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington (through episode 14), Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall ("the Fun Couple"), Pigmeat Markham, Jack Riley, Muriel Landers, J.J. Barry, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 3 (1969–70): Judy Carne (through episode 11), Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, Byron Gilliam (through episode 11, but continued as a dancer & in occasional cameos), Lily Tomlin (from episode 15), Johnny Brown
Season 4 (1970–71): Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson (through episode 10), Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Nancie Phillips (through episode 17), Barbara Sharma, Ann Elder, Harvey Jason (episodes 2, 4), Glen Ash (episodes 10–11), Byron Gilliam (dancer only)
Season 5 (1971–72): Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Ann Elder, Barbara Sharma, Larry Hovis, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 6 (1972–73): Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Tod Bass, Patti Deutsch, Sarah Kennedy, Jud Strunk, Willie Tyler, Donna Jean Young, Frank Welker, Brian Bressler (through episode 10), Kathy Speirs (episodes 11–12), Lisa Farringer (from episode 13). Note: not all cast members appear in all episodes this season, and rotate with some frequency (for instance, Donna Jean Young appears in about half of the season's 24 episodes).
Regular guest performers
Jack Benny (seasons 2–4, 6)
Johnny Carson (seasons 1–6)
Carol Channing (seasons 3–5)
Tony Curtis (seasons 2–3, 5)
Sammy Davis, Jr. (seasons 1–4, 6)
Phyllis Diller (seasons 2–4, 6)
Barbara Feldon (seasons 1–2)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (seasons 2–3)
Peter Lawford (seasons 1–4; Lawford became Dan Rowan's son-in-law in 1971)
Rich Little (seasons 2, 4, 6)
Jill St. John (seasons 1, 3, 5–6)
Tiny Tim (seasons 1–3, 5)
John Wayne (seasons 1–2, 5–6)
Flip Wilson (seasons 1–4)
Henny Youngman (seasons 2, 5–6)
Series writers
The writers for Laugh-In were: George Schlatter, Larry Hovis (pilot only), Digby Wolfe, Paul W. Keyes, Hugh Wedlock, Jr. and Allan Manings, Chris Bearde (credited as Chris Beard), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson (Arte Johnson's twin brother), Marc London and David Panich, Dave Cox, Jim Carlson, Jack Mendelsohn and Jim Mulligan, Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz, Jack Douglas, Jeremy Lloyd, John Carsey, Dennis Gren, Gene Farmer, John Rappaport and Stephen Spears, Jim Abell and Chet Dowling, Barry Took, E. Jack Kaplan, Larry Siegel, Jack S. Margolis, Don Reo and Allan Katz, Richard Goren (also credited as Rowby Greeber and Rowby Goren), Winston Moss, Gene Perret and Bill Richmond, Jack Wohl, Bob Howard and Bob DeVinney. Script supervisors for Laugh-In included Digby Wolfe (comedy consultant, season 1), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan (season 2), Allan Manings (season 3), Marc London and David Panich (seasons 3–6), and Jim Mulligan (season 6).
Musical direction and production numbers
The musical director for Laugh-In was Ian Bernard. He wrote the opening theme music, "Inquisitive Tango" (used in Season 1 and again permanently from season 4), plus the infamous "What's the news across the nation" number. He wrote all the musical "play-ons" that introduced comedy sketches like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann, the little girl who sat in a giant rocking chair, and Arte Johnson's old man character, Tyrone, who always got hit with a purse. He also appeared in many of the cocktail scenes where he directed the band as they stopped and started between jokes. Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often appeared on-camera, accompanying Johnson, Buzzi, Worley, or Sues, on a golden grand piano. Barnes was the creator of the famous Billy Barnes Revues of the 1950s and 1960s, and composed such popular hits as "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair", recorded by Barbra Streisand and the jazz standard "Something Cool" recorded by June Christy.
Post-production
The show was recorded at NBC's Burbank facility using two-inch quadruplex videotape. As computer-controlled online editing had not been invented at the time, post-production video editing of the montage was achieved by the error-prone method of visualizing the recorded track with ferrofluid and cutting it with a razor blade or guillotine cutter and splicing with adhesive tape, in a manner similar to film editing. This had the incidental benefit of ensuring the preservation of the master tape, as a spliced tape could not be recycled for further use. Laugh-In editor Arthur Schneider won an Emmy Award in 1968 for his pioneering use of the "jump cut" – the unique editing style in which a sudden cut from one shot to another was made without a fade-out.
When the series was restored for airing by the Trio Cable Network in 1996, the aforementioned edits became problematic for the editors, as the adhesive used on the source tape had deteriorated during 20+ years of storage, making many of the visual elements at the edit points unusable. This was corrected in digital re-editing by removing the problematic video at the edit point and then slowing down the video image just before the edit point; time-expanding the slowed-down section long enough to allot enough time to seamlessly reinsert the audio portion from the removed portion of video.
Recurring sketches and characters
Sketches
Frequently recurring Laugh-In sketches included:
"Sock it to me"; Judy Carne was often tricked into saying the phrase ("It may be rice wine to you, but it's still sake to me!"), which invariably results in her (or other cast members) falling through a trap door, being doused with water, or playfully assaulted in various other manners. The phrase was also uttered by many of the cameo guest stars, most notably Richard Nixon, though they were almost never subjected to the same treatment as Carne.
"The Cocktail Party", attended by the cast and guest stars, to which Dan and Dick invite the audience. The orchestra plays a few bars of a wild dance song, then temporarily stops for the delivery of a brief joke.
"The Joke Wall", near the end of every episode, the regulars and guests poke their heads out of doors in the psychedelically decorated wall or floor and exchange one-liners, or brief dialogues with Rowan and Martin. In the sixth season, instead of coming in and out of view, the entire cast just hung out of the holes (as most of the wall doors were removed) and told their jokes and one-liners.
"Mod, Mod World" comprised brief sketches on a theme interspersed with film footage of female cast members (most often Hawn, Carne, Brown, Graves and Rodgers) go-go dancing in bikinis, their bodies painted with punchy phrases and clever wordplay. On occasion, a cast member (superimposed on the screen) would cast off a one-liner while the dancing took place. Usually, there was also a song which the entire cast sang, paying tribute to the theme.
"The Farkel Family", a couple with numerous children, all of whom had bright red hair and large freckles similar to their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel (Dick Martin). The sketch employed diversion humor, the writing paying more attention to the lines said by each player, using alliterative tongue-twisters ("That's a fine-looking Farkel flinger you found there, Frank"). Dan Rowan played father Frank Farkel the Third, Jo Anne Worley, Barbara Sharma and Patti Deutsch played his wife Fanny Farkel, Goldie Hawn played Sparkle Farkel, Arte Johnson played Frank Farkel the Fourth, and Ruth Buzzi played Flicker Farkel, who would only say "HIIIIII!" in a very high-pitched voice. Two of the children were twins named Simon and Gar Farkel, played by cast members of different races (Teresa Graves and Pamela Rodgers in the third season, Johnny Brown and Dennis Allen in the fourth season). All of the Farkel skits were written or co-written by David Panich.
"Here Comes the Judge", originally portrayed by British comic Roddy Maude-Roxby, was a stuffy magistrate with a black robe and oversized judge's wig. Each sketch featured the judge trading barbs with a defendant brought him; on delivery of the punch line, he would strike the defendant with an inflated bladder balloon tied to the sleeve of his robe. For a time guest star Flip Wilson or Sammy Davis Jr. would introduce the sketch saying "Here come da judge!", which was a venerable catchphrase by nightclub comedian Pigmeat Markham. Surprised that his trademark had been appropriated, Markham asked producer George Schlatter to let him play the Judge himself; Schlatter agreed and Markham presided for one season. After Markham left, the sketch was briefly retired until Sammy Davis Jr. donned the judicial robe and wig during his guest appearances, introducing each sketch with a rap that always finished with "Here come da judge, here come da judge...".
"Laugh-In Looks at the News", a parody of network newscasts, introduced by the female cast members in a highly un-journalistic production number. The sketch was originally called the Rowan and Martin Report (a take-off on the Huntley-Brinkley Report). The sketch itself featured Dick humorously reporting on current events, which then segued into Dan reporting on "News of the Past" and "News of the Future". The latter of these segments, on at least two occasions, correctly predicted future events, one being that Ronald Reagan would be president, and another that the Berlin Wall would finally come down in 1989. This segment was influenced by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, and in turn inspired Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segments (SNL creator Lorne Michaels was a Laugh-In writer early in his career). The News segments were followed by "Big Al" (Alan Sues) and his sports report in seasons 2–5. After Sues left the show, Jud Strunk took over the sports segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine") by featuring films of oddly-named events which were actual sports films played backwards. An example is the "Cannonball Catch", featuring a backwards film of a bowling tournament where the "cannonballs" (bowling balls) are caught one-handed by the catcher (the bowler) after rolling up the alley.
"New Talent Time" also called "Discovery of the Week" in later seasons. Introduced oddball variety acts (sometimes characters played by regular cast members)
Tin Pan Alley musician Tiny Tim - The most notable of these acts, was introduced in episode 1 & shot to fame. Returned in the Season 1 finale & made several guest appearances after.
Actor Paul Gilbert (adoptive father of actress Melissa Gilbert) appeared in two episodes as an inept French juggler, introduced as "Paul Jill-BEER".
6'2" actress Inga Neilsen made appearances as a bugle/kazoo player who could only play one note of "Tiger Rag" & had to deal with Martin's advances. Martin, who hated all of the other New Talent acts would enthusiastically cheer her on despite the obvious lack of talent.
Ventriloquist Paul Winchell appeared 3 times as "Lucky Pierre", whose puppets would fall apart or die on him.
Arte Johnson would appear as his Pyotr Rosmenko character looking for big American break, singing gibberish in a Russian accent
Murray Langston, who later achived fame as the Gong Show's "Unknown Comic"
Laugh-In writer Chris Bearde took the "New Talent" concept and later developed it into The Gong Show.
"The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" sardonically recognized actual dubious achievements by public individuals or institutions, the most frequent recipients being members or branches of the government. The trophy was a gilded left hand mounted on a trophy base with its extended index finger adorned with two small wings.
"The Wonderful World of Whoopee Award" was a counterpart to the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award", described by Rowan as a citation "for the little man who manages to outfight or outfox the bureaucracy"; the statue was similar to the Finger of Fate, only it was a right hand (without wings on the index finger) pointing straight up, and with a hidden mechanism that when activated caused the finger to wave in a circular motion.
"The C.F.G. Automat"; a vending machine whose title was an inside joke for cast members who referred to producer Schlatter as "Crazy (bleeping) George". The vending machine would distribute oddball items that were a play on the name. Examples: The 'pot pie' produced a cloud of smoke when the door was opened, then the pie floated away. The 'ladyfingers' was a woman's hand reaching out & tickling Arte's face while another 'ladyfingers' door opened & picked his pocket.
Many episodes were interspersed with a recurring, short wordless gag in which an actor repeatedly tried to accomplish some simple task like entering an elevator, opening a window or door, watering a plant, etc., which would fail each time in a different, surprising way (the object would move unexpectedly, another part of the wall or room would move, water would squirt the actor in the face from the object, etc.)
Another recurring wordless gag involved one or more actors walking around the street in a jerky fashion (using stop-motion or low shutter speed filming) holding and turning a bare steering wheel, as if they were driving a car or actually were a car, with various sound effects to simulate honking, back-ups, collisions with each other, etc.
From season four on, a variety of sketches or jokes used the word "Foon," usually as part of the name of imaginary products or persons (e.g., Foon detergent, Mr. Foonman). (They did this with "Nern" in earlier seasons)
Characters
Dan Rowan, in addition to hosting, provided the "news of the future" & appears as a character known as General Bull Right, a far-right-wing representative of the military establishment and outlet for political humor.
Dick Martin, in addition to hosting would also play a drunk Leonard Swizzle, husband of an equally drunk Doris Swizzle (Ruth Buzzi) & a character always buzzing for an elevator on which the doors never closed in a normal way
Announcer Gary Owens regularly stands in an old-time radio studio with his hand cupped over his ear, making announcements, often with little relation to the rest of the show, such as (in an overly-dramatic voice), "Earlier that evening ..."
Arte Johnson:
Wolfgang the German soldier – Wolfgang would often peer out from behind a potted palm and comment on the previous gag saying "Verrry interesting", sometimes with comments such as "... but shtupid!" He eventually closed each show by talking to Lucille Ball, as well as the cast of Gunsmoke — both airing opposite Laugh-In on CBS; as well as whatever was on ABC. Johnson later repeated the line while playing Nazi-themed supervillain Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Johnson also reprised his Wolfgang character in a series of skits for the second season of Sesame Street (1970–1971), and in 1980 for a series of small introductory skits with a plant on 3-2-1 Contact, during the "Growth/Decay" week.
Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH", presumably to satisfy the censors) was a dirty old man coming on to Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi) seated on a park bench, who almost invariably clobbers him with her purse. Both Tyrone and Gladys later became animated characters (voiced by Johnson and Buzzi) in "The Nitwits" segments of the 1977 Saturday morning animated television show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.
Pyotr Rosmenko, a Russian man, stands stiffly and nervously in an ill-fitting suit while commenting on differences between America and "the old country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In old country, television watches you!" This type of joke has come to be known as the Russian reversal.
Rabbi Shankar (a pun on Ravi Shankar) was an Indian guru who dresses in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudomystical Eastern wisdom laden with bad puns. He held up two fingers in a peace sign whenever he spoke.
An unnamed character in a yellow raincoat and hat, riding a tricycle and then falling over, was frequently used to link between sketches. The character was portrayed by many people besides Johnson, including his brother Coslough (a writer for the show), Alan Sues, and Johnny Brown.
The Scandanavian Storyteller - spoke gibberish, including non-sensical 'Knock Knock' jokes in the Joke Wall. No one could ever understand him. Possibly inspiration for the Muppets' Swedish Chef character.
Ruth Buzzi:
Gladys Ormphby – A drab, relatively young spinster, she is the eternal target of Arte Johnson's Tyrone; when Johnson left the series, Gladys retreated into recurring daydreams, often involving marriages to historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin (both played by Alan Sues). She typically hit people repeatedly with her purse. The character was recreated, along with Tyrone, in Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi also performed as Gladys on Sesame Street and The Dean Martin Show, most notably in the Celebrity Roasts.
Doris Swizzle – A seedy barfly, she is paired with her husband, Leonard Swizzle, played by Dick Martin.
Agnes Gooch – An exceedingly friendly hooker, commonly seen in sketches or at the cocktail party propositioning people while leaning against a lamppost.
Busy Buzzi – A cold and heartless old-style Hedda Hopper-type Hollywood gossip columnist.
Kathleen Pullman - A wicked parody of televangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. This always helpful but overdramatic woman is always eager to help people.
Henry Gibson:
The Poet held an oversized flower and nervously read offbeat poems. (His stage name was a play on the name of playwright Henrik Ibsen).
The Parson – A character who makes ecclesiastical quips. In 1970, he officiated at a near-marriage for Tyrone and Gladys.
Would frequently just pop up & utter the phrase "Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?".
Goldie Hawn is best known as the giggling "dumb blonde", stumbling over her lines, especially when she introduced Dan's "News of the Future". In the earliest episodes, she recited her dialogue sensibly and in her own voice, but as the series progressed, she adopted a Dumb Dora character with a higher-pitched giggle and a vacant expression, which endeared her to viewers. Frequently did a Donald Duck voice at inappropriate times, such as when she was expected to sing or doing ballet.
Lily Tomlin:
Ernestine/Miss Tomlin – An obnoxious telephone operator, she has no concern at all for her customers & constantly mispronounced their names. Her close friend is fellow telephone operator, Phenicia; and her boyfriend, Vito. She would boast of being a high school graduate. Tomlin later performed Ernestine on Saturday Night Live and Happy New Year, America. She also played the Ernestine character for a comedy album called This Is A Recording. At the suggestion of CFG, Ernestine began dialing with her middle finger in Season 4, sometimes blatantly flipping 'the bird' to the camera as a result. Censors never caught on - "we know she's doing something wrong, we just can't put our FINGER on it!"
Edith Ann – A -year-old child, she ends each of her short monologues with: "And that's the truth", followed by blowing a raspberry. Tomlin performs her skits in an oversized rocking chair that makes her appear small. Tomlin later performed Edith Ann on children's shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
Mrs. Earbore (the "Tasteful Lady") – A prim society matron, Mrs. Earbore expressed quiet disapproval about a tasteless joke or remark, and then rose from her chair with her legs spread, getting doused with a bucket of water or the sound of her skirt ripping.
Dotty – A crass and rude grocery checker who tended to annoy her customers at the store where she worked.
Lula – A loud and boisterous woman with a Marie Antoinette hair-do who always loved a party.
Suzie Sorority of the Silent Majority – clueless hippie college student who ended each bit with "Rah!"
The Babbler – A character given to speaking exuberantly and at great length while digressing after every few words and never staying on one subject, producing an unbroken, incomprehensible monologue.
Judy Carne had two characters known for their robotic speech and movement:
Mrs. Robot in "Robot Theater" – A female companion to Arte Johnson's "Mr. Robot".
The Talking Judy Doll – She is usually played with by Arte Johnson, who never heeded her warning: "Touch my little body, and I hit you!"
The Sock-It-To-Me Girl in which she would usually end up being splashed with water and/or falling through a trap door and/or getting conked on the head by a large club or mallet and/or knocked out by a boxing glove on a spring.
Jo Anne Worley sometimes sings off-the-wall songs using her loud operatic voice or displaying an advanced state of pregnancy, but is better remembered for her mock outrage at "chicken jokes" and her melodic outcry of "Bo-ring!". At the cocktail parties, she would talk about her never-seen married boyfriend/lover "Boris" (who, according to her in a Season 3 episode, was finally found out by his wife).
Alan Sues:
Big Al – A clueless and fey sports anchor, he loves ringing his "Featurette" bell, which he calls his "tinkle".
He would dress in drag as his former co-star, Jo Anne Worley, including skits where he appeared as a "fairy godmother" imitating Worley's boisterous laugh and offering help or advice to a Cinderella-type character in a conversation full of double entendres.
Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal – A short-tempered host of a children's show, he usually goes on the air with a hangover: "Oh, kiddies, Uncle Al had a lot of medicine last night." Whenever he got really agitated, he would yell to "Get Miss Twinkle on the phone!"
Grabowski - a benchwarmer football player obviously not cut out for the sport. Ex: "He pushed me! He pushed me!... they ALL pushed me!" & "No, you can't wear your ballet slippers on the field, Grabowski!"
Boomer – A self-absorbed "jock" bragging about his athletic exploits.
Ambiguously gay saloon patron – while Dan & Dick ordered whiskey, he would saunter up to the bar and ask for a fruit punch or frozen daiquiri
In the last season where he was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off (replacing Judy Carne as the one who always got drenched).
Pamela Rodgers - "your man in Washington", she would give 'reports' from the Capitol that were usually double entendres to give the impression that the Congressmen were fooling around with her.
Jeremy Lloyd - scrunched himself into an ultra-short character who wandered around
Dennis Allen:
Lt. Peaches of the Fuzz – a stumble-bum police officer.
Chaplain Bud Homily – a droll clergyman who often falls victim to his own sermons.
Eric Clarified – a correspondent for Laugh-In Looks at the News who further muddles up obfuscatory government statements he has been asked to clarify. Rowan would often throw to another correspondent (played by Sues) to analyze Eric Clarified's statements in turn.
Barbara Sharma:
The Burbank Metre Made – a dancing meter maid who tickets anything from trees to baby carriages.
An aspiring actress who often plays foil in cocktail-party segments to another "high-society" character (Tomlin).
In season four, a Ruby Keeler-esque dancer (and arch-nemesis of Johnson's Wolfgang) who often praises Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Johnny Brown lent his impersonations of Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Ralph Kramden and the Kingfish from Amos 'n' Andy.
Ann Elder as Pauline Rhetoric (spoofing Nancy Dickerson), the chief interviewer for the Laugh-In News segments.
Moosie Drier & Todd Bass - Drier did the "kids news for kids" segment of the Laugh-In news. Bass teamed with Drier in Season 6 to read letters from a treehouse
Larry Hovis - the Senator, the Texan, David Brinkley, Father Time
Richard Dawson - W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Hawkins the Butler, who always started his piece by asking "Permission to ...?" and proceeded to fall over.
Roddy Maude Roxby & Pigmeat Markham - Here Come Da Judge (Roxby for Season 1, Markham for Season 2)
Dave Madden - would always throw confetti after "a naughty thought", usually a punch line that was a double-entendre. Once while kissing Carne, confetti erupted around him
Memorable moments
The first season featured some of the first music videos seen on network TV, with cast members appearing in films set to the music of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the First Edition.
During the September 16, 1968, episode, Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared for a few seconds with a disbelieving vocal inflection, asking "Sock it to me?" Nixon was not doused or assaulted. An invitation was extended to Nixon's opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, but he declined. According to George Schlatter, the show's creator, "Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election", and "[Nixon] said the rest of his life that appearing on Laugh-In is what got him elected. And I believe that. And I've had to live with that." In an episode of the ill-fated 1977 revival, Rich Little as Nixon says, "I invited the American people to sock-it-to-me.... you can stop now".
After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona.
On multiple occasions, producer George Schlatter attempted to get William F. Buckley Jr. to appear on the show, only to be refused each time until he suddenly agreed to an appearance. In the episode that aired December 28, 1970, Buckley appeared in an unusual sit-down segment (portions of which were scattered throughout the episode) flanked by Rowan and Martin and fielding questions from the cast (which included Lily Tomlin doing her Babbler & Ernestine shticks) and giving humorous answers to each. Near the end, when Rowan asked Buckley why he finally agreed to appear on the show, Buckley explained that Schlatter had written him "an irresistable letter" in which he promised to fly Buckley out to Burbank "in an airplane with two right wings". At the end, Rowan thanked him for appearing, noting that "you can't be that smart without having a sense of humor, and you have a delightful one".
The 100th episode featured John Wayne, Tiny Tim & the return of several former cast members. Wayne, with his ear cupped, read the line "and me, I'm Gary Owens" instead of Owens himself. Wayne also shook Tiny Tim's hand, pretending that his grip was too overpowering.
Catchphrases
In addition to those already mentioned, the show created numerous catchphrases:
"Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (a lesser-known set of reference books whose phonetically funny name helped both Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to poke fun at NBC censors)
"You bet your sweet bippy!"
"Ring my chimes!"
"Beautiful downtown Burbank" (various actors/characters, referring tongue-in-cheek to the Los Angeles suburb in which the NBC studios (and thus the program) were located; the same term was frequently used by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
"One ringy-dingy ... two ringy-dingies ..." (Ernestine's mimicking of the rings while she was waiting for someone to pick up the receiver on the other end of the telephone lines)
"A gracious good afternoon. This is Miss Tomlin of the telephone company. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" Ernestine's greeting to people whom she would call. She would then mispronounce the names of famous people: Gore Vidal was "Mr. Veedle", WIlliam F. Buckley was "Mr. F'buckley". Richard Nixon was simply "Milhouse".
"I just wanna swing!" Gladys Ormphby's catchphrase
"Was that another chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley's outraged cry, a takeoff on Polish jokes
"Sock it to me!" experienced its greatest exposure on Laugh-In although the phrase had been featured in songs such as Aretha Franklin's 1967 "Respect" and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels' 1966 "Sock It To Me, Baby!"
"Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere."
"Now, that's a no-no!"
"Morgul the Friendly Drelb" – a pink Abominable Snowman-like character that was introduced in the second episode and bombed so badly, his name was used in various announcements by Gary Owens for the rest of the series (usually at the end of the opening cast list - "Yours truly, Gary Owens, and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!") and credited as the author of a paperback collection of the show's sketches. On the spin-off "Letters To Laugh-In", "Morgul" would reach out of the podium & hand Owens the card containing the next category in a manner similar to Thing on The Addams Family.
"Want a Walnetto?" was a pick-up line Tyrone would try on Gladys, which always resulted in a purse drubbing.
"Here come da Judge"
"Verrry Interesting"
"And that's the truth – PFFFFT!"
"Go to your room!" - "Big kid" Dan's response to a particularly bad joke, as if to put that cast member in time out like a child.
"He pushed me!" – usually said by Sues when another cast member would bump him.
"Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'" - uttered by Gibson randomly between sketches.
"How does that grab you?"
"Oh... THAT Henny Youngman" - preceded by cast members quoting a series of his punch lines in succession, but without the jokes leading up to them.
"He was a much better person for that" – as "Sock it to me!" was phased out following Carne's departure, this became the line used for similar sketches
"Well, I'll drink to that", "I did not know that!", "Whatever turns you on" and "That's funny, so did she" – Martin
"Goodnight, Lucy." During the first three seasons, Laugh-In was scheduled opposite Lucille Ball's third television series, Here's Lucy. At the end of the show, one or more cast members would say, "Goodnight, Lucy." Dick Martin had been a regular cast member in the first season of Ball's second series, The Lucy Show.
"Goodnight, Dick" - the closing portion of each episode of Seasons 1 & 2 began with the guest star & numerous cameos all saying "Goodnight, Dick". Occasionally, one of the cameo actors would say "Who's Dick?".
"Gotcha!"
"Wr-r-r-ong!" - spoken in a cameo by Otto Preminger, subsequent cameo actors would repeat the line, mimicking Preminger's delivery of it.
"How would I know? I've never been out with one"
"I think I've got it too" - running gag where the person would say this & start scratching themselves for no particular reason.
"Blah! Blah!" - staff writer Chet Dowling would appear at random in various episodes wearing a tux & this was all he'd ever say.
"That's not funny"
"Wacker!" - this name became used often in sketches after the Bobby Darin episode of Season 2. Darin had done a sketch with Martin & hilariously proceeded to call him 'Wacker' throughout the rest of the show
Merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs
A humor magazine tie-in, Laugh-In Magazine, was published for one year (12 issues: October 1968 through October 1969—no issue was published December 1968), and a 1968-1972 syndicated newspaper comic strip was drawn by Roy Doty and eventually collected for a paperback reprint.
The Laugh-In trading cards from Topps had a variety of items, such as a card with a caricature of Jo Anne Worley with a large open mouth. With a die-cut hole, the card became interactive; a finger could be inserted through the hole to simulate Worley's tongue. Little doors opened on Joke Wall cards to display punchlines.
On Letters to Laugh-In, a short-lived spin-off daytime show hosted by Gary Owens, cast members read jokes sent in by viewers, which were scored by applause meter. The eventual winning joke was read by actress Jill St. John: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a jar of peanut butter? A 500 pound sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth!"
A cross-promotional episode of I Dream of Jeannie ("The Biggest Star in Hollywood", February 1969) features Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens, and producer George Schlatter playing themselves in a story about Jeannie being sought after to appear on Laugh-In.
In 1969, a Laugh-In View-Master packet was issued by General Aniline and Film (GAF); The packet featured 21 3D images from the show.
The horror spoof film The Maltese Bippy (1969) starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was loosely related to the series. Pamela Rodgers was the only Laugh-In cast member to co-star in the film.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson. Made to capitalize on the popularity of the series, the short was made for Sears salesmen to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. A dancing, bikini-clad Carne provided the opening titles with tattoos on her body.
Two LPs of material from the show were released: the first on Epic Records (FXS-15118, 1968); the second, entitled Laugh-In '69, on Reprise Records (RS 6335, 1969).
DVD releases
Between 2003 and 2004, Rhino Entertainment Company (under its Rhino Retrovision classic TV entertainment brand), under license from the rightsholder at the time, SFM Entertainment, released two The Best Of releases of the show, each containing six episodes presented in its original, uncut broadcast version. In 2003, Rhino, through direct-response marketing firm Guthy-Renker, also released a series of DVDs subtitled The Sock-It-To-Me Collection, with each DVD containing two episodes.
On June 19, 2017, Time Life, another direct-response marketer, released Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1, in a deal with current rightsholder Proven Entertainment. The 38-disc set contains all 140 episodes of the series, complete and uncut, restored and remastered as well as many bonus features and a special 32-page collector's book.
On September 5, 2017, Time Life began releasing individual complete season sets on DVD, beginning with the first season. This was followed by the second season on January 9, 2018, and the third season on March 6, 2018. The fourth season was released on May 8, 2018. Season 5 was released on July 10, 2018. Finally, Season 6 was released on September 4, 2018.
Ratings
TV season, ranking, average viewers per episode
1967–1968: #21 (21.3)
1968–1969: #1 (31.8)
1969–1970: #1 (26.3)
1970–1971: #13 (22.4)
1971–1972: #22 (21.4)
1972–1973: #51 (16.7)
Revival
In 1977, Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials – titled simply Laugh-In – with a new cast. The standout was a then-unknown Robin Williams, whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one year later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979. Also featured were Wayland Flowers and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, Good Times actor Ben Powers and Bill Rafferty of Real People. Rowan and Martin, who owned part of the Laugh-In franchise, were not involved in this project. They sued Schlatter for using the format without their permission, and won a judgment of $4.6 million in 1980.
In 2019, Netflix produced a special tribute to the original series entitled, Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate. Tomlin, Buzzi and Worley appeared in the special.
Awards and honors
Emmy Awards
Won:
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Program, George Schlatter (for the September 9, 1967 special)
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series, George Schlatter
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, Chris Bearde, Phil Hahn, Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Jr., Digby Wolfe
1968: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1969: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series – Paul Keyes (producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Dick Martin (star), Dan Rowan (star)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Arte Johnson
1971: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Mark Warren (episode #4.7 with Orson Welles)
Nominated:
1968: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Bill Foster (pilot episode)
1968 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Gordon Wiles
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, – Larry Hovis, Paul Keyes, Jim Mulligan, David Panich, George Schlatter, Digby Wolfe (pilot episode)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – Gordon Wiles (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music – Billy Barnes (special material)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design – Ken Johnson
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – John Teele and Bruce Verran (video tape editors)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1970: Outstanding Variety or Musical Series – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 November 1969 with Buddy Hackett)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 20 December 1969 with Nancy Sinatra)
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Goldie Hawn
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Arte Johnson
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (composer) (For episode with Carol Channing)
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design – Michael Travis
1971: Outstanding Variety Series, Musical – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Arte Johnson
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Lily Tomlin
1971: Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork – Marvin Ault (cameraman), Ray Figelski (cameraman), Louis Fusari (technical director), Jon Olson (cameraman), Tony Yarlett (cameraman)
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Ruth Buzzi
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Lily Tomlin
1972: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (For episode with Liza Minnelli)
1973: Outstanding Achievement by a Supporting Performer in Music or Variety – Lily Tomlin
1978: Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music, Bea Arthur (for episode on 25 October 1977)
1978: Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Series – Ed. J. Brennan (editor) (For show #6–8 February 1978)
Golden Globe Award
Won:
1973: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Ruth Buzzi
1969: Best TV Show
Nominated:
1972: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Lily Tomlin
1971: Best Supporting Actor – Television, Henry Gibson
1970: Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy
1968: Best TV Show
International and U.S. re-broadcasts
The first four seasons were broadcast on BBC2 from January 1969 to November 1971. Some episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 were retransmitted during late 1983 and early 1984. Early broadcasts had to be shown with a black border, as technology was not available to render the 525-line NTSC video recording as a full-screen 625-line PAL picture. This issue was fixed for later broadcasts.
The series was broadcast on RTÉ One.
The series originally aired on the 0-10 Network in the 1960s and 1970s. It later appeared in re-runs on the Seven Network in the early 1980s.
CTV aired the series at the same time as the NBC run.
1983 saw the first 70 one-hour shows syndicated to broadcast stations (the pilot, first three seasons and the first four episodes of season 4). Alternate recut half-hour shows were syndicated through Lorimar Television to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987 through August 1990.
The Vivendi Universal-owned popular arts/pop culture entertainment cable network Trio started airing the show in its original one-hour form in the early 2000s; the same abbreviated 70 episode package was run.
In September 2016, digital sub-network Decades started airing the show twice a day in its original one-hour format, complete with the NBC Peacock opening and 'snake' closing. The entire 6 season run was supplied by Proven Entertainment.
In 2018, the original series became available in full on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020, the complete series became available on Tubi. The show is currently seen on IMDb TV.
References
External links
FBI review of an episode devoted to the agency, quoted by Harper's Magazine in 2006
FBI file on Rowan and Martins Laugh-In TV Show
1968 American television series debuts
1973 American television series endings
1960s American sketch comedy television series
1960s American variety television series
1970s American sketch comedy television series
1970s American variety television series
Atco Records artists
English-language television shows
Epic Records artists
NBC original programming
Nielsen ratings winners
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series winners
Television shows adapted into comics
| false |
[
"Dude, What Would Happen is an American live-action reality series that aired on Cartoon Network originally as part of its CN Real block which aired a line of live-action reality shows promoted in the summer season of 2009. The show premiered on August 19, 2009, preceded by another CN Real series Bobb'e Says. The show is hosted by three male teenagers (C.J. Manigo, Jackson Rogow, and Ali Sepasyar) who wondered what would happen if some wild event, scheme or experiment were to occur. The three teens attempt to create the event themselves and consult experts (\"The Lab Dudes\") when needed.\n\nThe series went on to have four seasons aired throughout a span of two years, in which the series eventually ended in September 2011, as the series was not announced for a renewal by Cartoon Network.\n\nDude, What Would Happen was one of only two CN Real shows (the other being Destroy Build Destroy) to have been renewed for additional seasons, as the other CN Real shows had already been cancelled earlier.\n\nCast\n C.J. Manigo\n Jackson Rogow\n Ali Sepasyar\n\nProduction\nIn the \"Dudes Make It Happen\" weekend special, it was revealed that new episodes were coming. These episodes ranked #1 in their timeslot among boys 6–11 on all television.\n\nThe show was listed as returning for Cartoon Network's 2010–2011 season. The next season began airing on October 6, 2010.\n\nIn February 2011, Vincent Cariati renewed his contract to serve an additional four seasons as the series' showrunner, co-creator and co-executive producer. The show had four seasons aired, but was not announced as a returning series, automatically cancelling the series altogether.\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeries overview\n\nSeason 1 (2009–10)\n\nSeason 2 (2010)\n\nSeason 3 (2011)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n2009 American television series debuts\n2011 American television series endings\n2000s American television series\n2010s American television series\nAmerican educational television series\n2000s American reality television series\nCartoon Network original programming\nEnglish-language television shows\nAmerican non-fiction television series\nScience education television series\nTelevision series about teenagers\n2010s American reality television series",
"Anything Can Happen is a 1952 comedy-drama film.\n\nAnything Can Happen may also refer to:\n\n Anything Can Happen (album), by Leon Russell, 1994\n \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2019 song by Saint Jhn \n Edhuvum Nadakkum ('Anything Can Happen'), a season of the Tamil TV series Marmadesam\n \"Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour\", or \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2007 song by Enter Shikari\n Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour (EP), 2004\n\nSee also\n \"Anything Could Happen\", a 2012 song by Ellie Goulding \n Anything Might Happen, 1934 British crime film\n Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, a 1996 American documentary film\n \"Anything Can Happen on Halloween\", a song from the 1986 film The Worst Witch \n Anything Can Happen in the Theatre, a musical revue of works by Maury Yeston\n \"The Anything Can Happen Recurrence\", an episode of The Big Bang Theory (season 7)\n The Anupam Kher Show - Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai ('The Anupam Kher Show — Anything Can Happen') an Indian TV show"
] |
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"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In",
"Seasons 4 and 5",
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"The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky,",
"Who were the cast",
"the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress",
"What happen in Season 5",
"The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne,"
] |
C_27ac7339278942ffa055ed743d3947d3_1
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
| 4 |
Besides Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In celebrating its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
|
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
|
The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, and Johnny Brown. Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson left the show after the 1970-71 season. Henry Gibson also departed after the 1970-71 season. Johnson and he were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona. The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968. CANNOTANSWER
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After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season.
|
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
The title of the show was a play on the 1960s hippie culture "love-ins" or the counterculture "be-ins", terms that were derived from "sit-ins" that were common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of That Was The Week That Was. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight man (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) act which they had established as nightclub comics. The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen announcer and permanent castmember Ruth Buzzi; longer-tenured cast members included Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Johnny Brown, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson.
Episodes
Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. The show started after the intro and a batch of shorts skits that served as cold open with a short dialogue between Rowan and Martin. Shortly afterward, Rowan would intone: "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party, You're all invited!". This live to tape segment comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing before a 1960s "mod" party backdrop, delivering one- and two-line jokes interspersed with a few bars of dance music (later adopted on The Muppet Show, which had a recurring segment that was similar to "The Cocktail Party" with absurd moments from characters). This was similar in format to the "Word Dance" segments of A Thurber Carnival. The show then proceeded through rapid-fire comedy bits, taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan turned to his co-host and said, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good night, Dick!". The show then featured cast members' opening panels in a psychedelically painted "joke wall" and telling jokes, After which, the show would continue with one final batch of skits, before drawing to a close. After the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping continued even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes, and NBC logo appeared.
Although episodes included most of the above segments, the arrangement of the segments was often interchanged. The show often featured guest stars. Sometimes, the guest had a prominent spot in the program, at other times the guest would pop in for short "quickies" (one- or two-line jokes) interspersed throughout the show – as was done most famously by Richard Nixon, when running for president.
Cast
Pilot and season 1
Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Ken Berry, Pamela Austin, Barbara Feldon and Jo Anne Worley appeared in the pilot special from 1967. (Goldie Hawn, who was under contract to Good Morning World at the time of the pilot, joined for season 1 in 1968 after that show was canceled). Only the two hosts, Gary Owens, Carne, Gibson, and Johnson, were in all 14 episodes of season one. Eileen Brennan, Hovis, and Roddy Maude-Roxby left after the first season.
Seasons 2 and 3
The second season had a handful of new people, including Alan Sues, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington "The Fun Couple" (Charlie Brill/Mitzi McCall) and Chelsea Brown. All of the new cast members from season two left at the end of that season except Sues, who stayed on until 1972. At the end of the 1968–69 season, Carne chose not to renew her contract, although she did make appearances during 1969–1970.
The third season had several new people who only stayed on for that season: Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Byron Gilliam. Lily Tomlin joined in the middle of the season. Jo Anne Worley, Goldie Hawn, and Judy Carne left after the season.
Seasons 4 and 5
The 1970–71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and the straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, Nancie Phillips and Johnny Brown.
Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson and Henry Gibson left the show during the fourth season; they were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further.
The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971–72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968.
Season 6
For the show's final season (1972–73), Rowan and Martin assumed the executive producer roles from George Schlatter (known on-air as "CFG", which stood for "Crazy Fucking George"), and Ed Friendly. Except for holdovers Dawson, Owens, Buzzi, Allen, and only occasional appearances from Tomlin, a new cast was brought in. This final season featured comedian Patti Deutsch, folksy singer-comedian Jud Strunk, ventriloquist act Willie Tyler and Lester, Donna Jean Young and giddy Goldie Hawn lookalike Sarah Kennedy. Voice artist Frank Welker also made numerous appearances. Former regular Jo Anne Worley returned for two guest appearances, including the final episode. These last shows never aired in the edited half-hour reruns syndicated (through Lorimar Productions) to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987, although they were included when the program was rerun on the Decades over-the-air television channel in 2017.
Of over three dozen entertainers to join the cast, only Rowan, Martin, Owens, and Buzzi were there from beginning to end. However, Owens was not in the 1967 pilot and Buzzi missed two first-season episodes.
Cast tenures
All seasons: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi
Season 1 (1968): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Henry Gibson, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Jo Anne Worley, Inga Neilsen, Paul Winchell, Tiny Tim.
Season 2 (1968–69): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Dave Madden, Alan Sues, Chelsea Brown, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington (through episode 14), Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall ("the Fun Couple"), Pigmeat Markham, Jack Riley, Muriel Landers, J.J. Barry, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 3 (1969–70): Judy Carne (through episode 11), Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, Byron Gilliam (through episode 11, but continued as a dancer & in occasional cameos), Lily Tomlin (from episode 15), Johnny Brown
Season 4 (1970–71): Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson (through episode 10), Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Nancie Phillips (through episode 17), Barbara Sharma, Ann Elder, Harvey Jason (episodes 2, 4), Glen Ash (episodes 10–11), Byron Gilliam (dancer only)
Season 5 (1971–72): Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Ann Elder, Barbara Sharma, Larry Hovis, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 6 (1972–73): Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Tod Bass, Patti Deutsch, Sarah Kennedy, Jud Strunk, Willie Tyler, Donna Jean Young, Frank Welker, Brian Bressler (through episode 10), Kathy Speirs (episodes 11–12), Lisa Farringer (from episode 13). Note: not all cast members appear in all episodes this season, and rotate with some frequency (for instance, Donna Jean Young appears in about half of the season's 24 episodes).
Regular guest performers
Jack Benny (seasons 2–4, 6)
Johnny Carson (seasons 1–6)
Carol Channing (seasons 3–5)
Tony Curtis (seasons 2–3, 5)
Sammy Davis, Jr. (seasons 1–4, 6)
Phyllis Diller (seasons 2–4, 6)
Barbara Feldon (seasons 1–2)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (seasons 2–3)
Peter Lawford (seasons 1–4; Lawford became Dan Rowan's son-in-law in 1971)
Rich Little (seasons 2, 4, 6)
Jill St. John (seasons 1, 3, 5–6)
Tiny Tim (seasons 1–3, 5)
John Wayne (seasons 1–2, 5–6)
Flip Wilson (seasons 1–4)
Henny Youngman (seasons 2, 5–6)
Series writers
The writers for Laugh-In were: George Schlatter, Larry Hovis (pilot only), Digby Wolfe, Paul W. Keyes, Hugh Wedlock, Jr. and Allan Manings, Chris Bearde (credited as Chris Beard), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson (Arte Johnson's twin brother), Marc London and David Panich, Dave Cox, Jim Carlson, Jack Mendelsohn and Jim Mulligan, Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz, Jack Douglas, Jeremy Lloyd, John Carsey, Dennis Gren, Gene Farmer, John Rappaport and Stephen Spears, Jim Abell and Chet Dowling, Barry Took, E. Jack Kaplan, Larry Siegel, Jack S. Margolis, Don Reo and Allan Katz, Richard Goren (also credited as Rowby Greeber and Rowby Goren), Winston Moss, Gene Perret and Bill Richmond, Jack Wohl, Bob Howard and Bob DeVinney. Script supervisors for Laugh-In included Digby Wolfe (comedy consultant, season 1), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan (season 2), Allan Manings (season 3), Marc London and David Panich (seasons 3–6), and Jim Mulligan (season 6).
Musical direction and production numbers
The musical director for Laugh-In was Ian Bernard. He wrote the opening theme music, "Inquisitive Tango" (used in Season 1 and again permanently from season 4), plus the infamous "What's the news across the nation" number. He wrote all the musical "play-ons" that introduced comedy sketches like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann, the little girl who sat in a giant rocking chair, and Arte Johnson's old man character, Tyrone, who always got hit with a purse. He also appeared in many of the cocktail scenes where he directed the band as they stopped and started between jokes. Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often appeared on-camera, accompanying Johnson, Buzzi, Worley, or Sues, on a golden grand piano. Barnes was the creator of the famous Billy Barnes Revues of the 1950s and 1960s, and composed such popular hits as "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair", recorded by Barbra Streisand and the jazz standard "Something Cool" recorded by June Christy.
Post-production
The show was recorded at NBC's Burbank facility using two-inch quadruplex videotape. As computer-controlled online editing had not been invented at the time, post-production video editing of the montage was achieved by the error-prone method of visualizing the recorded track with ferrofluid and cutting it with a razor blade or guillotine cutter and splicing with adhesive tape, in a manner similar to film editing. This had the incidental benefit of ensuring the preservation of the master tape, as a spliced tape could not be recycled for further use. Laugh-In editor Arthur Schneider won an Emmy Award in 1968 for his pioneering use of the "jump cut" – the unique editing style in which a sudden cut from one shot to another was made without a fade-out.
When the series was restored for airing by the Trio Cable Network in 1996, the aforementioned edits became problematic for the editors, as the adhesive used on the source tape had deteriorated during 20+ years of storage, making many of the visual elements at the edit points unusable. This was corrected in digital re-editing by removing the problematic video at the edit point and then slowing down the video image just before the edit point; time-expanding the slowed-down section long enough to allot enough time to seamlessly reinsert the audio portion from the removed portion of video.
Recurring sketches and characters
Sketches
Frequently recurring Laugh-In sketches included:
"Sock it to me"; Judy Carne was often tricked into saying the phrase ("It may be rice wine to you, but it's still sake to me!"), which invariably results in her (or other cast members) falling through a trap door, being doused with water, or playfully assaulted in various other manners. The phrase was also uttered by many of the cameo guest stars, most notably Richard Nixon, though they were almost never subjected to the same treatment as Carne.
"The Cocktail Party", attended by the cast and guest stars, to which Dan and Dick invite the audience. The orchestra plays a few bars of a wild dance song, then temporarily stops for the delivery of a brief joke.
"The Joke Wall", near the end of every episode, the regulars and guests poke their heads out of doors in the psychedelically decorated wall or floor and exchange one-liners, or brief dialogues with Rowan and Martin. In the sixth season, instead of coming in and out of view, the entire cast just hung out of the holes (as most of the wall doors were removed) and told their jokes and one-liners.
"Mod, Mod World" comprised brief sketches on a theme interspersed with film footage of female cast members (most often Hawn, Carne, Brown, Graves and Rodgers) go-go dancing in bikinis, their bodies painted with punchy phrases and clever wordplay. On occasion, a cast member (superimposed on the screen) would cast off a one-liner while the dancing took place. Usually, there was also a song which the entire cast sang, paying tribute to the theme.
"The Farkel Family", a couple with numerous children, all of whom had bright red hair and large freckles similar to their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel (Dick Martin). The sketch employed diversion humor, the writing paying more attention to the lines said by each player, using alliterative tongue-twisters ("That's a fine-looking Farkel flinger you found there, Frank"). Dan Rowan played father Frank Farkel the Third, Jo Anne Worley, Barbara Sharma and Patti Deutsch played his wife Fanny Farkel, Goldie Hawn played Sparkle Farkel, Arte Johnson played Frank Farkel the Fourth, and Ruth Buzzi played Flicker Farkel, who would only say "HIIIIII!" in a very high-pitched voice. Two of the children were twins named Simon and Gar Farkel, played by cast members of different races (Teresa Graves and Pamela Rodgers in the third season, Johnny Brown and Dennis Allen in the fourth season). All of the Farkel skits were written or co-written by David Panich.
"Here Comes the Judge", originally portrayed by British comic Roddy Maude-Roxby, was a stuffy magistrate with a black robe and oversized judge's wig. Each sketch featured the judge trading barbs with a defendant brought him; on delivery of the punch line, he would strike the defendant with an inflated bladder balloon tied to the sleeve of his robe. For a time guest star Flip Wilson or Sammy Davis Jr. would introduce the sketch saying "Here come da judge!", which was a venerable catchphrase by nightclub comedian Pigmeat Markham. Surprised that his trademark had been appropriated, Markham asked producer George Schlatter to let him play the Judge himself; Schlatter agreed and Markham presided for one season. After Markham left, the sketch was briefly retired until Sammy Davis Jr. donned the judicial robe and wig during his guest appearances, introducing each sketch with a rap that always finished with "Here come da judge, here come da judge...".
"Laugh-In Looks at the News", a parody of network newscasts, introduced by the female cast members in a highly un-journalistic production number. The sketch was originally called the Rowan and Martin Report (a take-off on the Huntley-Brinkley Report). The sketch itself featured Dick humorously reporting on current events, which then segued into Dan reporting on "News of the Past" and "News of the Future". The latter of these segments, on at least two occasions, correctly predicted future events, one being that Ronald Reagan would be president, and another that the Berlin Wall would finally come down in 1989. This segment was influenced by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, and in turn inspired Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segments (SNL creator Lorne Michaels was a Laugh-In writer early in his career). The News segments were followed by "Big Al" (Alan Sues) and his sports report in seasons 2–5. After Sues left the show, Jud Strunk took over the sports segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine") by featuring films of oddly-named events which were actual sports films played backwards. An example is the "Cannonball Catch", featuring a backwards film of a bowling tournament where the "cannonballs" (bowling balls) are caught one-handed by the catcher (the bowler) after rolling up the alley.
"New Talent Time" also called "Discovery of the Week" in later seasons. Introduced oddball variety acts (sometimes characters played by regular cast members)
Tin Pan Alley musician Tiny Tim - The most notable of these acts, was introduced in episode 1 & shot to fame. Returned in the Season 1 finale & made several guest appearances after.
Actor Paul Gilbert (adoptive father of actress Melissa Gilbert) appeared in two episodes as an inept French juggler, introduced as "Paul Jill-BEER".
6'2" actress Inga Neilsen made appearances as a bugle/kazoo player who could only play one note of "Tiger Rag" & had to deal with Martin's advances. Martin, who hated all of the other New Talent acts would enthusiastically cheer her on despite the obvious lack of talent.
Ventriloquist Paul Winchell appeared 3 times as "Lucky Pierre", whose puppets would fall apart or die on him.
Arte Johnson would appear as his Pyotr Rosmenko character looking for big American break, singing gibberish in a Russian accent
Murray Langston, who later achived fame as the Gong Show's "Unknown Comic"
Laugh-In writer Chris Bearde took the "New Talent" concept and later developed it into The Gong Show.
"The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" sardonically recognized actual dubious achievements by public individuals or institutions, the most frequent recipients being members or branches of the government. The trophy was a gilded left hand mounted on a trophy base with its extended index finger adorned with two small wings.
"The Wonderful World of Whoopee Award" was a counterpart to the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award", described by Rowan as a citation "for the little man who manages to outfight or outfox the bureaucracy"; the statue was similar to the Finger of Fate, only it was a right hand (without wings on the index finger) pointing straight up, and with a hidden mechanism that when activated caused the finger to wave in a circular motion.
"The C.F.G. Automat"; a vending machine whose title was an inside joke for cast members who referred to producer Schlatter as "Crazy (bleeping) George". The vending machine would distribute oddball items that were a play on the name. Examples: The 'pot pie' produced a cloud of smoke when the door was opened, then the pie floated away. The 'ladyfingers' was a woman's hand reaching out & tickling Arte's face while another 'ladyfingers' door opened & picked his pocket.
Many episodes were interspersed with a recurring, short wordless gag in which an actor repeatedly tried to accomplish some simple task like entering an elevator, opening a window or door, watering a plant, etc., which would fail each time in a different, surprising way (the object would move unexpectedly, another part of the wall or room would move, water would squirt the actor in the face from the object, etc.)
Another recurring wordless gag involved one or more actors walking around the street in a jerky fashion (using stop-motion or low shutter speed filming) holding and turning a bare steering wheel, as if they were driving a car or actually were a car, with various sound effects to simulate honking, back-ups, collisions with each other, etc.
From season four on, a variety of sketches or jokes used the word "Foon," usually as part of the name of imaginary products or persons (e.g., Foon detergent, Mr. Foonman). (They did this with "Nern" in earlier seasons)
Characters
Dan Rowan, in addition to hosting, provided the "news of the future" & appears as a character known as General Bull Right, a far-right-wing representative of the military establishment and outlet for political humor.
Dick Martin, in addition to hosting would also play a drunk Leonard Swizzle, husband of an equally drunk Doris Swizzle (Ruth Buzzi) & a character always buzzing for an elevator on which the doors never closed in a normal way
Announcer Gary Owens regularly stands in an old-time radio studio with his hand cupped over his ear, making announcements, often with little relation to the rest of the show, such as (in an overly-dramatic voice), "Earlier that evening ..."
Arte Johnson:
Wolfgang the German soldier – Wolfgang would often peer out from behind a potted palm and comment on the previous gag saying "Verrry interesting", sometimes with comments such as "... but shtupid!" He eventually closed each show by talking to Lucille Ball, as well as the cast of Gunsmoke — both airing opposite Laugh-In on CBS; as well as whatever was on ABC. Johnson later repeated the line while playing Nazi-themed supervillain Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Johnson also reprised his Wolfgang character in a series of skits for the second season of Sesame Street (1970–1971), and in 1980 for a series of small introductory skits with a plant on 3-2-1 Contact, during the "Growth/Decay" week.
Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH", presumably to satisfy the censors) was a dirty old man coming on to Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi) seated on a park bench, who almost invariably clobbers him with her purse. Both Tyrone and Gladys later became animated characters (voiced by Johnson and Buzzi) in "The Nitwits" segments of the 1977 Saturday morning animated television show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.
Pyotr Rosmenko, a Russian man, stands stiffly and nervously in an ill-fitting suit while commenting on differences between America and "the old country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In old country, television watches you!" This type of joke has come to be known as the Russian reversal.
Rabbi Shankar (a pun on Ravi Shankar) was an Indian guru who dresses in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudomystical Eastern wisdom laden with bad puns. He held up two fingers in a peace sign whenever he spoke.
An unnamed character in a yellow raincoat and hat, riding a tricycle and then falling over, was frequently used to link between sketches. The character was portrayed by many people besides Johnson, including his brother Coslough (a writer for the show), Alan Sues, and Johnny Brown.
The Scandanavian Storyteller - spoke gibberish, including non-sensical 'Knock Knock' jokes in the Joke Wall. No one could ever understand him. Possibly inspiration for the Muppets' Swedish Chef character.
Ruth Buzzi:
Gladys Ormphby – A drab, relatively young spinster, she is the eternal target of Arte Johnson's Tyrone; when Johnson left the series, Gladys retreated into recurring daydreams, often involving marriages to historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin (both played by Alan Sues). She typically hit people repeatedly with her purse. The character was recreated, along with Tyrone, in Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi also performed as Gladys on Sesame Street and The Dean Martin Show, most notably in the Celebrity Roasts.
Doris Swizzle – A seedy barfly, she is paired with her husband, Leonard Swizzle, played by Dick Martin.
Agnes Gooch – An exceedingly friendly hooker, commonly seen in sketches or at the cocktail party propositioning people while leaning against a lamppost.
Busy Buzzi – A cold and heartless old-style Hedda Hopper-type Hollywood gossip columnist.
Kathleen Pullman - A wicked parody of televangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. This always helpful but overdramatic woman is always eager to help people.
Henry Gibson:
The Poet held an oversized flower and nervously read offbeat poems. (His stage name was a play on the name of playwright Henrik Ibsen).
The Parson – A character who makes ecclesiastical quips. In 1970, he officiated at a near-marriage for Tyrone and Gladys.
Would frequently just pop up & utter the phrase "Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?".
Goldie Hawn is best known as the giggling "dumb blonde", stumbling over her lines, especially when she introduced Dan's "News of the Future". In the earliest episodes, she recited her dialogue sensibly and in her own voice, but as the series progressed, she adopted a Dumb Dora character with a higher-pitched giggle and a vacant expression, which endeared her to viewers. Frequently did a Donald Duck voice at inappropriate times, such as when she was expected to sing or doing ballet.
Lily Tomlin:
Ernestine/Miss Tomlin – An obnoxious telephone operator, she has no concern at all for her customers & constantly mispronounced their names. Her close friend is fellow telephone operator, Phenicia; and her boyfriend, Vito. She would boast of being a high school graduate. Tomlin later performed Ernestine on Saturday Night Live and Happy New Year, America. She also played the Ernestine character for a comedy album called This Is A Recording. At the suggestion of CFG, Ernestine began dialing with her middle finger in Season 4, sometimes blatantly flipping 'the bird' to the camera as a result. Censors never caught on - "we know she's doing something wrong, we just can't put our FINGER on it!"
Edith Ann – A -year-old child, she ends each of her short monologues with: "And that's the truth", followed by blowing a raspberry. Tomlin performs her skits in an oversized rocking chair that makes her appear small. Tomlin later performed Edith Ann on children's shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
Mrs. Earbore (the "Tasteful Lady") – A prim society matron, Mrs. Earbore expressed quiet disapproval about a tasteless joke or remark, and then rose from her chair with her legs spread, getting doused with a bucket of water or the sound of her skirt ripping.
Dotty – A crass and rude grocery checker who tended to annoy her customers at the store where she worked.
Lula – A loud and boisterous woman with a Marie Antoinette hair-do who always loved a party.
Suzie Sorority of the Silent Majority – clueless hippie college student who ended each bit with "Rah!"
The Babbler – A character given to speaking exuberantly and at great length while digressing after every few words and never staying on one subject, producing an unbroken, incomprehensible monologue.
Judy Carne had two characters known for their robotic speech and movement:
Mrs. Robot in "Robot Theater" – A female companion to Arte Johnson's "Mr. Robot".
The Talking Judy Doll – She is usually played with by Arte Johnson, who never heeded her warning: "Touch my little body, and I hit you!"
The Sock-It-To-Me Girl in which she would usually end up being splashed with water and/or falling through a trap door and/or getting conked on the head by a large club or mallet and/or knocked out by a boxing glove on a spring.
Jo Anne Worley sometimes sings off-the-wall songs using her loud operatic voice or displaying an advanced state of pregnancy, but is better remembered for her mock outrage at "chicken jokes" and her melodic outcry of "Bo-ring!". At the cocktail parties, she would talk about her never-seen married boyfriend/lover "Boris" (who, according to her in a Season 3 episode, was finally found out by his wife).
Alan Sues:
Big Al – A clueless and fey sports anchor, he loves ringing his "Featurette" bell, which he calls his "tinkle".
He would dress in drag as his former co-star, Jo Anne Worley, including skits where he appeared as a "fairy godmother" imitating Worley's boisterous laugh and offering help or advice to a Cinderella-type character in a conversation full of double entendres.
Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal – A short-tempered host of a children's show, he usually goes on the air with a hangover: "Oh, kiddies, Uncle Al had a lot of medicine last night." Whenever he got really agitated, he would yell to "Get Miss Twinkle on the phone!"
Grabowski - a benchwarmer football player obviously not cut out for the sport. Ex: "He pushed me! He pushed me!... they ALL pushed me!" & "No, you can't wear your ballet slippers on the field, Grabowski!"
Boomer – A self-absorbed "jock" bragging about his athletic exploits.
Ambiguously gay saloon patron – while Dan & Dick ordered whiskey, he would saunter up to the bar and ask for a fruit punch or frozen daiquiri
In the last season where he was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off (replacing Judy Carne as the one who always got drenched).
Pamela Rodgers - "your man in Washington", she would give 'reports' from the Capitol that were usually double entendres to give the impression that the Congressmen were fooling around with her.
Jeremy Lloyd - scrunched himself into an ultra-short character who wandered around
Dennis Allen:
Lt. Peaches of the Fuzz – a stumble-bum police officer.
Chaplain Bud Homily – a droll clergyman who often falls victim to his own sermons.
Eric Clarified – a correspondent for Laugh-In Looks at the News who further muddles up obfuscatory government statements he has been asked to clarify. Rowan would often throw to another correspondent (played by Sues) to analyze Eric Clarified's statements in turn.
Barbara Sharma:
The Burbank Metre Made – a dancing meter maid who tickets anything from trees to baby carriages.
An aspiring actress who often plays foil in cocktail-party segments to another "high-society" character (Tomlin).
In season four, a Ruby Keeler-esque dancer (and arch-nemesis of Johnson's Wolfgang) who often praises Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Johnny Brown lent his impersonations of Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Ralph Kramden and the Kingfish from Amos 'n' Andy.
Ann Elder as Pauline Rhetoric (spoofing Nancy Dickerson), the chief interviewer for the Laugh-In News segments.
Moosie Drier & Todd Bass - Drier did the "kids news for kids" segment of the Laugh-In news. Bass teamed with Drier in Season 6 to read letters from a treehouse
Larry Hovis - the Senator, the Texan, David Brinkley, Father Time
Richard Dawson - W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Hawkins the Butler, who always started his piece by asking "Permission to ...?" and proceeded to fall over.
Roddy Maude Roxby & Pigmeat Markham - Here Come Da Judge (Roxby for Season 1, Markham for Season 2)
Dave Madden - would always throw confetti after "a naughty thought", usually a punch line that was a double-entendre. Once while kissing Carne, confetti erupted around him
Memorable moments
The first season featured some of the first music videos seen on network TV, with cast members appearing in films set to the music of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the First Edition.
During the September 16, 1968, episode, Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared for a few seconds with a disbelieving vocal inflection, asking "Sock it to me?" Nixon was not doused or assaulted. An invitation was extended to Nixon's opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, but he declined. According to George Schlatter, the show's creator, "Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election", and "[Nixon] said the rest of his life that appearing on Laugh-In is what got him elected. And I believe that. And I've had to live with that." In an episode of the ill-fated 1977 revival, Rich Little as Nixon says, "I invited the American people to sock-it-to-me.... you can stop now".
After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona.
On multiple occasions, producer George Schlatter attempted to get William F. Buckley Jr. to appear on the show, only to be refused each time until he suddenly agreed to an appearance. In the episode that aired December 28, 1970, Buckley appeared in an unusual sit-down segment (portions of which were scattered throughout the episode) flanked by Rowan and Martin and fielding questions from the cast (which included Lily Tomlin doing her Babbler & Ernestine shticks) and giving humorous answers to each. Near the end, when Rowan asked Buckley why he finally agreed to appear on the show, Buckley explained that Schlatter had written him "an irresistable letter" in which he promised to fly Buckley out to Burbank "in an airplane with two right wings". At the end, Rowan thanked him for appearing, noting that "you can't be that smart without having a sense of humor, and you have a delightful one".
The 100th episode featured John Wayne, Tiny Tim & the return of several former cast members. Wayne, with his ear cupped, read the line "and me, I'm Gary Owens" instead of Owens himself. Wayne also shook Tiny Tim's hand, pretending that his grip was too overpowering.
Catchphrases
In addition to those already mentioned, the show created numerous catchphrases:
"Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (a lesser-known set of reference books whose phonetically funny name helped both Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to poke fun at NBC censors)
"You bet your sweet bippy!"
"Ring my chimes!"
"Beautiful downtown Burbank" (various actors/characters, referring tongue-in-cheek to the Los Angeles suburb in which the NBC studios (and thus the program) were located; the same term was frequently used by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
"One ringy-dingy ... two ringy-dingies ..." (Ernestine's mimicking of the rings while she was waiting for someone to pick up the receiver on the other end of the telephone lines)
"A gracious good afternoon. This is Miss Tomlin of the telephone company. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" Ernestine's greeting to people whom she would call. She would then mispronounce the names of famous people: Gore Vidal was "Mr. Veedle", WIlliam F. Buckley was "Mr. F'buckley". Richard Nixon was simply "Milhouse".
"I just wanna swing!" Gladys Ormphby's catchphrase
"Was that another chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley's outraged cry, a takeoff on Polish jokes
"Sock it to me!" experienced its greatest exposure on Laugh-In although the phrase had been featured in songs such as Aretha Franklin's 1967 "Respect" and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels' 1966 "Sock It To Me, Baby!"
"Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere."
"Now, that's a no-no!"
"Morgul the Friendly Drelb" – a pink Abominable Snowman-like character that was introduced in the second episode and bombed so badly, his name was used in various announcements by Gary Owens for the rest of the series (usually at the end of the opening cast list - "Yours truly, Gary Owens, and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!") and credited as the author of a paperback collection of the show's sketches. On the spin-off "Letters To Laugh-In", "Morgul" would reach out of the podium & hand Owens the card containing the next category in a manner similar to Thing on The Addams Family.
"Want a Walnetto?" was a pick-up line Tyrone would try on Gladys, which always resulted in a purse drubbing.
"Here come da Judge"
"Verrry Interesting"
"And that's the truth – PFFFFT!"
"Go to your room!" - "Big kid" Dan's response to a particularly bad joke, as if to put that cast member in time out like a child.
"He pushed me!" – usually said by Sues when another cast member would bump him.
"Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'" - uttered by Gibson randomly between sketches.
"How does that grab you?"
"Oh... THAT Henny Youngman" - preceded by cast members quoting a series of his punch lines in succession, but without the jokes leading up to them.
"He was a much better person for that" – as "Sock it to me!" was phased out following Carne's departure, this became the line used for similar sketches
"Well, I'll drink to that", "I did not know that!", "Whatever turns you on" and "That's funny, so did she" – Martin
"Goodnight, Lucy." During the first three seasons, Laugh-In was scheduled opposite Lucille Ball's third television series, Here's Lucy. At the end of the show, one or more cast members would say, "Goodnight, Lucy." Dick Martin had been a regular cast member in the first season of Ball's second series, The Lucy Show.
"Goodnight, Dick" - the closing portion of each episode of Seasons 1 & 2 began with the guest star & numerous cameos all saying "Goodnight, Dick". Occasionally, one of the cameo actors would say "Who's Dick?".
"Gotcha!"
"Wr-r-r-ong!" - spoken in a cameo by Otto Preminger, subsequent cameo actors would repeat the line, mimicking Preminger's delivery of it.
"How would I know? I've never been out with one"
"I think I've got it too" - running gag where the person would say this & start scratching themselves for no particular reason.
"Blah! Blah!" - staff writer Chet Dowling would appear at random in various episodes wearing a tux & this was all he'd ever say.
"That's not funny"
"Wacker!" - this name became used often in sketches after the Bobby Darin episode of Season 2. Darin had done a sketch with Martin & hilariously proceeded to call him 'Wacker' throughout the rest of the show
Merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs
A humor magazine tie-in, Laugh-In Magazine, was published for one year (12 issues: October 1968 through October 1969—no issue was published December 1968), and a 1968-1972 syndicated newspaper comic strip was drawn by Roy Doty and eventually collected for a paperback reprint.
The Laugh-In trading cards from Topps had a variety of items, such as a card with a caricature of Jo Anne Worley with a large open mouth. With a die-cut hole, the card became interactive; a finger could be inserted through the hole to simulate Worley's tongue. Little doors opened on Joke Wall cards to display punchlines.
On Letters to Laugh-In, a short-lived spin-off daytime show hosted by Gary Owens, cast members read jokes sent in by viewers, which were scored by applause meter. The eventual winning joke was read by actress Jill St. John: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a jar of peanut butter? A 500 pound sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth!"
A cross-promotional episode of I Dream of Jeannie ("The Biggest Star in Hollywood", February 1969) features Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens, and producer George Schlatter playing themselves in a story about Jeannie being sought after to appear on Laugh-In.
In 1969, a Laugh-In View-Master packet was issued by General Aniline and Film (GAF); The packet featured 21 3D images from the show.
The horror spoof film The Maltese Bippy (1969) starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was loosely related to the series. Pamela Rodgers was the only Laugh-In cast member to co-star in the film.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson. Made to capitalize on the popularity of the series, the short was made for Sears salesmen to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. A dancing, bikini-clad Carne provided the opening titles with tattoos on her body.
Two LPs of material from the show were released: the first on Epic Records (FXS-15118, 1968); the second, entitled Laugh-In '69, on Reprise Records (RS 6335, 1969).
DVD releases
Between 2003 and 2004, Rhino Entertainment Company (under its Rhino Retrovision classic TV entertainment brand), under license from the rightsholder at the time, SFM Entertainment, released two The Best Of releases of the show, each containing six episodes presented in its original, uncut broadcast version. In 2003, Rhino, through direct-response marketing firm Guthy-Renker, also released a series of DVDs subtitled The Sock-It-To-Me Collection, with each DVD containing two episodes.
On June 19, 2017, Time Life, another direct-response marketer, released Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1, in a deal with current rightsholder Proven Entertainment. The 38-disc set contains all 140 episodes of the series, complete and uncut, restored and remastered as well as many bonus features and a special 32-page collector's book.
On September 5, 2017, Time Life began releasing individual complete season sets on DVD, beginning with the first season. This was followed by the second season on January 9, 2018, and the third season on March 6, 2018. The fourth season was released on May 8, 2018. Season 5 was released on July 10, 2018. Finally, Season 6 was released on September 4, 2018.
Ratings
TV season, ranking, average viewers per episode
1967–1968: #21 (21.3)
1968–1969: #1 (31.8)
1969–1970: #1 (26.3)
1970–1971: #13 (22.4)
1971–1972: #22 (21.4)
1972–1973: #51 (16.7)
Revival
In 1977, Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials – titled simply Laugh-In – with a new cast. The standout was a then-unknown Robin Williams, whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one year later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979. Also featured were Wayland Flowers and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, Good Times actor Ben Powers and Bill Rafferty of Real People. Rowan and Martin, who owned part of the Laugh-In franchise, were not involved in this project. They sued Schlatter for using the format without their permission, and won a judgment of $4.6 million in 1980.
In 2019, Netflix produced a special tribute to the original series entitled, Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate. Tomlin, Buzzi and Worley appeared in the special.
Awards and honors
Emmy Awards
Won:
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Program, George Schlatter (for the September 9, 1967 special)
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series, George Schlatter
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, Chris Bearde, Phil Hahn, Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Jr., Digby Wolfe
1968: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1969: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series – Paul Keyes (producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Dick Martin (star), Dan Rowan (star)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Arte Johnson
1971: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Mark Warren (episode #4.7 with Orson Welles)
Nominated:
1968: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Bill Foster (pilot episode)
1968 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Gordon Wiles
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, – Larry Hovis, Paul Keyes, Jim Mulligan, David Panich, George Schlatter, Digby Wolfe (pilot episode)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – Gordon Wiles (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music – Billy Barnes (special material)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design – Ken Johnson
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – John Teele and Bruce Verran (video tape editors)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1970: Outstanding Variety or Musical Series – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 November 1969 with Buddy Hackett)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 20 December 1969 with Nancy Sinatra)
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Goldie Hawn
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Arte Johnson
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (composer) (For episode with Carol Channing)
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design – Michael Travis
1971: Outstanding Variety Series, Musical – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Arte Johnson
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Lily Tomlin
1971: Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork – Marvin Ault (cameraman), Ray Figelski (cameraman), Louis Fusari (technical director), Jon Olson (cameraman), Tony Yarlett (cameraman)
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Ruth Buzzi
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Lily Tomlin
1972: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (For episode with Liza Minnelli)
1973: Outstanding Achievement by a Supporting Performer in Music or Variety – Lily Tomlin
1978: Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music, Bea Arthur (for episode on 25 October 1977)
1978: Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Series – Ed. J. Brennan (editor) (For show #6–8 February 1978)
Golden Globe Award
Won:
1973: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Ruth Buzzi
1969: Best TV Show
Nominated:
1972: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Lily Tomlin
1971: Best Supporting Actor – Television, Henry Gibson
1970: Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy
1968: Best TV Show
International and U.S. re-broadcasts
The first four seasons were broadcast on BBC2 from January 1969 to November 1971. Some episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 were retransmitted during late 1983 and early 1984. Early broadcasts had to be shown with a black border, as technology was not available to render the 525-line NTSC video recording as a full-screen 625-line PAL picture. This issue was fixed for later broadcasts.
The series was broadcast on RTÉ One.
The series originally aired on the 0-10 Network in the 1960s and 1970s. It later appeared in re-runs on the Seven Network in the early 1980s.
CTV aired the series at the same time as the NBC run.
1983 saw the first 70 one-hour shows syndicated to broadcast stations (the pilot, first three seasons and the first four episodes of season 4). Alternate recut half-hour shows were syndicated through Lorimar Television to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987 through August 1990.
The Vivendi Universal-owned popular arts/pop culture entertainment cable network Trio started airing the show in its original one-hour form in the early 2000s; the same abbreviated 70 episode package was run.
In September 2016, digital sub-network Decades started airing the show twice a day in its original one-hour format, complete with the NBC Peacock opening and 'snake' closing. The entire 6 season run was supplied by Proven Entertainment.
In 2018, the original series became available in full on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020, the complete series became available on Tubi. The show is currently seen on IMDb TV.
References
External links
FBI review of an episode devoted to the agency, quoted by Harper's Magazine in 2006
FBI file on Rowan and Martins Laugh-In TV Show
1968 American television series debuts
1973 American television series endings
1960s American sketch comedy television series
1960s American variety television series
1970s American sketch comedy television series
1970s American variety television series
Atco Records artists
English-language television shows
Epic Records artists
NBC original programming
Nielsen ratings winners
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series winners
Television shows adapted into comics
| true |
[
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
] |
[
"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In",
"Seasons 4 and 5",
"When did season 4 come out",
"The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky,",
"Who were the cast",
"the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress",
"What happen in Season 5",
"The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season."
] |
C_27ac7339278942ffa055ed743d3947d3_1
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Did they win any other awards?
| 5 |
Did Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In win any other awards, in addition to the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress?
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
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The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, and Johnny Brown. Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson left the show after the 1970-71 season. Henry Gibson also departed after the 1970-71 season. Johnson and he were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona. The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968. CANNOTANSWER
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
The title of the show was a play on the 1960s hippie culture "love-ins" or the counterculture "be-ins", terms that were derived from "sit-ins" that were common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of That Was The Week That Was. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight man (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) act which they had established as nightclub comics. The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen announcer and permanent castmember Ruth Buzzi; longer-tenured cast members included Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Johnny Brown, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson.
Episodes
Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. The show started after the intro and a batch of shorts skits that served as cold open with a short dialogue between Rowan and Martin. Shortly afterward, Rowan would intone: "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party, You're all invited!". This live to tape segment comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing before a 1960s "mod" party backdrop, delivering one- and two-line jokes interspersed with a few bars of dance music (later adopted on The Muppet Show, which had a recurring segment that was similar to "The Cocktail Party" with absurd moments from characters). This was similar in format to the "Word Dance" segments of A Thurber Carnival. The show then proceeded through rapid-fire comedy bits, taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan turned to his co-host and said, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good night, Dick!". The show then featured cast members' opening panels in a psychedelically painted "joke wall" and telling jokes, After which, the show would continue with one final batch of skits, before drawing to a close. After the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping continued even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes, and NBC logo appeared.
Although episodes included most of the above segments, the arrangement of the segments was often interchanged. The show often featured guest stars. Sometimes, the guest had a prominent spot in the program, at other times the guest would pop in for short "quickies" (one- or two-line jokes) interspersed throughout the show – as was done most famously by Richard Nixon, when running for president.
Cast
Pilot and season 1
Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Ken Berry, Pamela Austin, Barbara Feldon and Jo Anne Worley appeared in the pilot special from 1967. (Goldie Hawn, who was under contract to Good Morning World at the time of the pilot, joined for season 1 in 1968 after that show was canceled). Only the two hosts, Gary Owens, Carne, Gibson, and Johnson, were in all 14 episodes of season one. Eileen Brennan, Hovis, and Roddy Maude-Roxby left after the first season.
Seasons 2 and 3
The second season had a handful of new people, including Alan Sues, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington "The Fun Couple" (Charlie Brill/Mitzi McCall) and Chelsea Brown. All of the new cast members from season two left at the end of that season except Sues, who stayed on until 1972. At the end of the 1968–69 season, Carne chose not to renew her contract, although she did make appearances during 1969–1970.
The third season had several new people who only stayed on for that season: Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Byron Gilliam. Lily Tomlin joined in the middle of the season. Jo Anne Worley, Goldie Hawn, and Judy Carne left after the season.
Seasons 4 and 5
The 1970–71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and the straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, Nancie Phillips and Johnny Brown.
Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson and Henry Gibson left the show during the fourth season; they were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further.
The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971–72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968.
Season 6
For the show's final season (1972–73), Rowan and Martin assumed the executive producer roles from George Schlatter (known on-air as "CFG", which stood for "Crazy Fucking George"), and Ed Friendly. Except for holdovers Dawson, Owens, Buzzi, Allen, and only occasional appearances from Tomlin, a new cast was brought in. This final season featured comedian Patti Deutsch, folksy singer-comedian Jud Strunk, ventriloquist act Willie Tyler and Lester, Donna Jean Young and giddy Goldie Hawn lookalike Sarah Kennedy. Voice artist Frank Welker also made numerous appearances. Former regular Jo Anne Worley returned for two guest appearances, including the final episode. These last shows never aired in the edited half-hour reruns syndicated (through Lorimar Productions) to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987, although they were included when the program was rerun on the Decades over-the-air television channel in 2017.
Of over three dozen entertainers to join the cast, only Rowan, Martin, Owens, and Buzzi were there from beginning to end. However, Owens was not in the 1967 pilot and Buzzi missed two first-season episodes.
Cast tenures
All seasons: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi
Season 1 (1968): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Henry Gibson, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Jo Anne Worley, Inga Neilsen, Paul Winchell, Tiny Tim.
Season 2 (1968–69): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Dave Madden, Alan Sues, Chelsea Brown, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington (through episode 14), Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall ("the Fun Couple"), Pigmeat Markham, Jack Riley, Muriel Landers, J.J. Barry, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 3 (1969–70): Judy Carne (through episode 11), Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, Byron Gilliam (through episode 11, but continued as a dancer & in occasional cameos), Lily Tomlin (from episode 15), Johnny Brown
Season 4 (1970–71): Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson (through episode 10), Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Nancie Phillips (through episode 17), Barbara Sharma, Ann Elder, Harvey Jason (episodes 2, 4), Glen Ash (episodes 10–11), Byron Gilliam (dancer only)
Season 5 (1971–72): Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Ann Elder, Barbara Sharma, Larry Hovis, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 6 (1972–73): Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Tod Bass, Patti Deutsch, Sarah Kennedy, Jud Strunk, Willie Tyler, Donna Jean Young, Frank Welker, Brian Bressler (through episode 10), Kathy Speirs (episodes 11–12), Lisa Farringer (from episode 13). Note: not all cast members appear in all episodes this season, and rotate with some frequency (for instance, Donna Jean Young appears in about half of the season's 24 episodes).
Regular guest performers
Jack Benny (seasons 2–4, 6)
Johnny Carson (seasons 1–6)
Carol Channing (seasons 3–5)
Tony Curtis (seasons 2–3, 5)
Sammy Davis, Jr. (seasons 1–4, 6)
Phyllis Diller (seasons 2–4, 6)
Barbara Feldon (seasons 1–2)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (seasons 2–3)
Peter Lawford (seasons 1–4; Lawford became Dan Rowan's son-in-law in 1971)
Rich Little (seasons 2, 4, 6)
Jill St. John (seasons 1, 3, 5–6)
Tiny Tim (seasons 1–3, 5)
John Wayne (seasons 1–2, 5–6)
Flip Wilson (seasons 1–4)
Henny Youngman (seasons 2, 5–6)
Series writers
The writers for Laugh-In were: George Schlatter, Larry Hovis (pilot only), Digby Wolfe, Paul W. Keyes, Hugh Wedlock, Jr. and Allan Manings, Chris Bearde (credited as Chris Beard), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson (Arte Johnson's twin brother), Marc London and David Panich, Dave Cox, Jim Carlson, Jack Mendelsohn and Jim Mulligan, Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz, Jack Douglas, Jeremy Lloyd, John Carsey, Dennis Gren, Gene Farmer, John Rappaport and Stephen Spears, Jim Abell and Chet Dowling, Barry Took, E. Jack Kaplan, Larry Siegel, Jack S. Margolis, Don Reo and Allan Katz, Richard Goren (also credited as Rowby Greeber and Rowby Goren), Winston Moss, Gene Perret and Bill Richmond, Jack Wohl, Bob Howard and Bob DeVinney. Script supervisors for Laugh-In included Digby Wolfe (comedy consultant, season 1), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan (season 2), Allan Manings (season 3), Marc London and David Panich (seasons 3–6), and Jim Mulligan (season 6).
Musical direction and production numbers
The musical director for Laugh-In was Ian Bernard. He wrote the opening theme music, "Inquisitive Tango" (used in Season 1 and again permanently from season 4), plus the infamous "What's the news across the nation" number. He wrote all the musical "play-ons" that introduced comedy sketches like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann, the little girl who sat in a giant rocking chair, and Arte Johnson's old man character, Tyrone, who always got hit with a purse. He also appeared in many of the cocktail scenes where he directed the band as they stopped and started between jokes. Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often appeared on-camera, accompanying Johnson, Buzzi, Worley, or Sues, on a golden grand piano. Barnes was the creator of the famous Billy Barnes Revues of the 1950s and 1960s, and composed such popular hits as "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair", recorded by Barbra Streisand and the jazz standard "Something Cool" recorded by June Christy.
Post-production
The show was recorded at NBC's Burbank facility using two-inch quadruplex videotape. As computer-controlled online editing had not been invented at the time, post-production video editing of the montage was achieved by the error-prone method of visualizing the recorded track with ferrofluid and cutting it with a razor blade or guillotine cutter and splicing with adhesive tape, in a manner similar to film editing. This had the incidental benefit of ensuring the preservation of the master tape, as a spliced tape could not be recycled for further use. Laugh-In editor Arthur Schneider won an Emmy Award in 1968 for his pioneering use of the "jump cut" – the unique editing style in which a sudden cut from one shot to another was made without a fade-out.
When the series was restored for airing by the Trio Cable Network in 1996, the aforementioned edits became problematic for the editors, as the adhesive used on the source tape had deteriorated during 20+ years of storage, making many of the visual elements at the edit points unusable. This was corrected in digital re-editing by removing the problematic video at the edit point and then slowing down the video image just before the edit point; time-expanding the slowed-down section long enough to allot enough time to seamlessly reinsert the audio portion from the removed portion of video.
Recurring sketches and characters
Sketches
Frequently recurring Laugh-In sketches included:
"Sock it to me"; Judy Carne was often tricked into saying the phrase ("It may be rice wine to you, but it's still sake to me!"), which invariably results in her (or other cast members) falling through a trap door, being doused with water, or playfully assaulted in various other manners. The phrase was also uttered by many of the cameo guest stars, most notably Richard Nixon, though they were almost never subjected to the same treatment as Carne.
"The Cocktail Party", attended by the cast and guest stars, to which Dan and Dick invite the audience. The orchestra plays a few bars of a wild dance song, then temporarily stops for the delivery of a brief joke.
"The Joke Wall", near the end of every episode, the regulars and guests poke their heads out of doors in the psychedelically decorated wall or floor and exchange one-liners, or brief dialogues with Rowan and Martin. In the sixth season, instead of coming in and out of view, the entire cast just hung out of the holes (as most of the wall doors were removed) and told their jokes and one-liners.
"Mod, Mod World" comprised brief sketches on a theme interspersed with film footage of female cast members (most often Hawn, Carne, Brown, Graves and Rodgers) go-go dancing in bikinis, their bodies painted with punchy phrases and clever wordplay. On occasion, a cast member (superimposed on the screen) would cast off a one-liner while the dancing took place. Usually, there was also a song which the entire cast sang, paying tribute to the theme.
"The Farkel Family", a couple with numerous children, all of whom had bright red hair and large freckles similar to their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel (Dick Martin). The sketch employed diversion humor, the writing paying more attention to the lines said by each player, using alliterative tongue-twisters ("That's a fine-looking Farkel flinger you found there, Frank"). Dan Rowan played father Frank Farkel the Third, Jo Anne Worley, Barbara Sharma and Patti Deutsch played his wife Fanny Farkel, Goldie Hawn played Sparkle Farkel, Arte Johnson played Frank Farkel the Fourth, and Ruth Buzzi played Flicker Farkel, who would only say "HIIIIII!" in a very high-pitched voice. Two of the children were twins named Simon and Gar Farkel, played by cast members of different races (Teresa Graves and Pamela Rodgers in the third season, Johnny Brown and Dennis Allen in the fourth season). All of the Farkel skits were written or co-written by David Panich.
"Here Comes the Judge", originally portrayed by British comic Roddy Maude-Roxby, was a stuffy magistrate with a black robe and oversized judge's wig. Each sketch featured the judge trading barbs with a defendant brought him; on delivery of the punch line, he would strike the defendant with an inflated bladder balloon tied to the sleeve of his robe. For a time guest star Flip Wilson or Sammy Davis Jr. would introduce the sketch saying "Here come da judge!", which was a venerable catchphrase by nightclub comedian Pigmeat Markham. Surprised that his trademark had been appropriated, Markham asked producer George Schlatter to let him play the Judge himself; Schlatter agreed and Markham presided for one season. After Markham left, the sketch was briefly retired until Sammy Davis Jr. donned the judicial robe and wig during his guest appearances, introducing each sketch with a rap that always finished with "Here come da judge, here come da judge...".
"Laugh-In Looks at the News", a parody of network newscasts, introduced by the female cast members in a highly un-journalistic production number. The sketch was originally called the Rowan and Martin Report (a take-off on the Huntley-Brinkley Report). The sketch itself featured Dick humorously reporting on current events, which then segued into Dan reporting on "News of the Past" and "News of the Future". The latter of these segments, on at least two occasions, correctly predicted future events, one being that Ronald Reagan would be president, and another that the Berlin Wall would finally come down in 1989. This segment was influenced by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, and in turn inspired Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segments (SNL creator Lorne Michaels was a Laugh-In writer early in his career). The News segments were followed by "Big Al" (Alan Sues) and his sports report in seasons 2–5. After Sues left the show, Jud Strunk took over the sports segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine") by featuring films of oddly-named events which were actual sports films played backwards. An example is the "Cannonball Catch", featuring a backwards film of a bowling tournament where the "cannonballs" (bowling balls) are caught one-handed by the catcher (the bowler) after rolling up the alley.
"New Talent Time" also called "Discovery of the Week" in later seasons. Introduced oddball variety acts (sometimes characters played by regular cast members)
Tin Pan Alley musician Tiny Tim - The most notable of these acts, was introduced in episode 1 & shot to fame. Returned in the Season 1 finale & made several guest appearances after.
Actor Paul Gilbert (adoptive father of actress Melissa Gilbert) appeared in two episodes as an inept French juggler, introduced as "Paul Jill-BEER".
6'2" actress Inga Neilsen made appearances as a bugle/kazoo player who could only play one note of "Tiger Rag" & had to deal with Martin's advances. Martin, who hated all of the other New Talent acts would enthusiastically cheer her on despite the obvious lack of talent.
Ventriloquist Paul Winchell appeared 3 times as "Lucky Pierre", whose puppets would fall apart or die on him.
Arte Johnson would appear as his Pyotr Rosmenko character looking for big American break, singing gibberish in a Russian accent
Murray Langston, who later achived fame as the Gong Show's "Unknown Comic"
Laugh-In writer Chris Bearde took the "New Talent" concept and later developed it into The Gong Show.
"The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" sardonically recognized actual dubious achievements by public individuals or institutions, the most frequent recipients being members or branches of the government. The trophy was a gilded left hand mounted on a trophy base with its extended index finger adorned with two small wings.
"The Wonderful World of Whoopee Award" was a counterpart to the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award", described by Rowan as a citation "for the little man who manages to outfight or outfox the bureaucracy"; the statue was similar to the Finger of Fate, only it was a right hand (without wings on the index finger) pointing straight up, and with a hidden mechanism that when activated caused the finger to wave in a circular motion.
"The C.F.G. Automat"; a vending machine whose title was an inside joke for cast members who referred to producer Schlatter as "Crazy (bleeping) George". The vending machine would distribute oddball items that were a play on the name. Examples: The 'pot pie' produced a cloud of smoke when the door was opened, then the pie floated away. The 'ladyfingers' was a woman's hand reaching out & tickling Arte's face while another 'ladyfingers' door opened & picked his pocket.
Many episodes were interspersed with a recurring, short wordless gag in which an actor repeatedly tried to accomplish some simple task like entering an elevator, opening a window or door, watering a plant, etc., which would fail each time in a different, surprising way (the object would move unexpectedly, another part of the wall or room would move, water would squirt the actor in the face from the object, etc.)
Another recurring wordless gag involved one or more actors walking around the street in a jerky fashion (using stop-motion or low shutter speed filming) holding and turning a bare steering wheel, as if they were driving a car or actually were a car, with various sound effects to simulate honking, back-ups, collisions with each other, etc.
From season four on, a variety of sketches or jokes used the word "Foon," usually as part of the name of imaginary products or persons (e.g., Foon detergent, Mr. Foonman). (They did this with "Nern" in earlier seasons)
Characters
Dan Rowan, in addition to hosting, provided the "news of the future" & appears as a character known as General Bull Right, a far-right-wing representative of the military establishment and outlet for political humor.
Dick Martin, in addition to hosting would also play a drunk Leonard Swizzle, husband of an equally drunk Doris Swizzle (Ruth Buzzi) & a character always buzzing for an elevator on which the doors never closed in a normal way
Announcer Gary Owens regularly stands in an old-time radio studio with his hand cupped over his ear, making announcements, often with little relation to the rest of the show, such as (in an overly-dramatic voice), "Earlier that evening ..."
Arte Johnson:
Wolfgang the German soldier – Wolfgang would often peer out from behind a potted palm and comment on the previous gag saying "Verrry interesting", sometimes with comments such as "... but shtupid!" He eventually closed each show by talking to Lucille Ball, as well as the cast of Gunsmoke — both airing opposite Laugh-In on CBS; as well as whatever was on ABC. Johnson later repeated the line while playing Nazi-themed supervillain Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Johnson also reprised his Wolfgang character in a series of skits for the second season of Sesame Street (1970–1971), and in 1980 for a series of small introductory skits with a plant on 3-2-1 Contact, during the "Growth/Decay" week.
Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH", presumably to satisfy the censors) was a dirty old man coming on to Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi) seated on a park bench, who almost invariably clobbers him with her purse. Both Tyrone and Gladys later became animated characters (voiced by Johnson and Buzzi) in "The Nitwits" segments of the 1977 Saturday morning animated television show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.
Pyotr Rosmenko, a Russian man, stands stiffly and nervously in an ill-fitting suit while commenting on differences between America and "the old country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In old country, television watches you!" This type of joke has come to be known as the Russian reversal.
Rabbi Shankar (a pun on Ravi Shankar) was an Indian guru who dresses in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudomystical Eastern wisdom laden with bad puns. He held up two fingers in a peace sign whenever he spoke.
An unnamed character in a yellow raincoat and hat, riding a tricycle and then falling over, was frequently used to link between sketches. The character was portrayed by many people besides Johnson, including his brother Coslough (a writer for the show), Alan Sues, and Johnny Brown.
The Scandanavian Storyteller - spoke gibberish, including non-sensical 'Knock Knock' jokes in the Joke Wall. No one could ever understand him. Possibly inspiration for the Muppets' Swedish Chef character.
Ruth Buzzi:
Gladys Ormphby – A drab, relatively young spinster, she is the eternal target of Arte Johnson's Tyrone; when Johnson left the series, Gladys retreated into recurring daydreams, often involving marriages to historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin (both played by Alan Sues). She typically hit people repeatedly with her purse. The character was recreated, along with Tyrone, in Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi also performed as Gladys on Sesame Street and The Dean Martin Show, most notably in the Celebrity Roasts.
Doris Swizzle – A seedy barfly, she is paired with her husband, Leonard Swizzle, played by Dick Martin.
Agnes Gooch – An exceedingly friendly hooker, commonly seen in sketches or at the cocktail party propositioning people while leaning against a lamppost.
Busy Buzzi – A cold and heartless old-style Hedda Hopper-type Hollywood gossip columnist.
Kathleen Pullman - A wicked parody of televangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. This always helpful but overdramatic woman is always eager to help people.
Henry Gibson:
The Poet held an oversized flower and nervously read offbeat poems. (His stage name was a play on the name of playwright Henrik Ibsen).
The Parson – A character who makes ecclesiastical quips. In 1970, he officiated at a near-marriage for Tyrone and Gladys.
Would frequently just pop up & utter the phrase "Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?".
Goldie Hawn is best known as the giggling "dumb blonde", stumbling over her lines, especially when she introduced Dan's "News of the Future". In the earliest episodes, she recited her dialogue sensibly and in her own voice, but as the series progressed, she adopted a Dumb Dora character with a higher-pitched giggle and a vacant expression, which endeared her to viewers. Frequently did a Donald Duck voice at inappropriate times, such as when she was expected to sing or doing ballet.
Lily Tomlin:
Ernestine/Miss Tomlin – An obnoxious telephone operator, she has no concern at all for her customers & constantly mispronounced their names. Her close friend is fellow telephone operator, Phenicia; and her boyfriend, Vito. She would boast of being a high school graduate. Tomlin later performed Ernestine on Saturday Night Live and Happy New Year, America. She also played the Ernestine character for a comedy album called This Is A Recording. At the suggestion of CFG, Ernestine began dialing with her middle finger in Season 4, sometimes blatantly flipping 'the bird' to the camera as a result. Censors never caught on - "we know she's doing something wrong, we just can't put our FINGER on it!"
Edith Ann – A -year-old child, she ends each of her short monologues with: "And that's the truth", followed by blowing a raspberry. Tomlin performs her skits in an oversized rocking chair that makes her appear small. Tomlin later performed Edith Ann on children's shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
Mrs. Earbore (the "Tasteful Lady") – A prim society matron, Mrs. Earbore expressed quiet disapproval about a tasteless joke or remark, and then rose from her chair with her legs spread, getting doused with a bucket of water or the sound of her skirt ripping.
Dotty – A crass and rude grocery checker who tended to annoy her customers at the store where she worked.
Lula – A loud and boisterous woman with a Marie Antoinette hair-do who always loved a party.
Suzie Sorority of the Silent Majority – clueless hippie college student who ended each bit with "Rah!"
The Babbler – A character given to speaking exuberantly and at great length while digressing after every few words and never staying on one subject, producing an unbroken, incomprehensible monologue.
Judy Carne had two characters known for their robotic speech and movement:
Mrs. Robot in "Robot Theater" – A female companion to Arte Johnson's "Mr. Robot".
The Talking Judy Doll – She is usually played with by Arte Johnson, who never heeded her warning: "Touch my little body, and I hit you!"
The Sock-It-To-Me Girl in which she would usually end up being splashed with water and/or falling through a trap door and/or getting conked on the head by a large club or mallet and/or knocked out by a boxing glove on a spring.
Jo Anne Worley sometimes sings off-the-wall songs using her loud operatic voice or displaying an advanced state of pregnancy, but is better remembered for her mock outrage at "chicken jokes" and her melodic outcry of "Bo-ring!". At the cocktail parties, she would talk about her never-seen married boyfriend/lover "Boris" (who, according to her in a Season 3 episode, was finally found out by his wife).
Alan Sues:
Big Al – A clueless and fey sports anchor, he loves ringing his "Featurette" bell, which he calls his "tinkle".
He would dress in drag as his former co-star, Jo Anne Worley, including skits where he appeared as a "fairy godmother" imitating Worley's boisterous laugh and offering help or advice to a Cinderella-type character in a conversation full of double entendres.
Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal – A short-tempered host of a children's show, he usually goes on the air with a hangover: "Oh, kiddies, Uncle Al had a lot of medicine last night." Whenever he got really agitated, he would yell to "Get Miss Twinkle on the phone!"
Grabowski - a benchwarmer football player obviously not cut out for the sport. Ex: "He pushed me! He pushed me!... they ALL pushed me!" & "No, you can't wear your ballet slippers on the field, Grabowski!"
Boomer – A self-absorbed "jock" bragging about his athletic exploits.
Ambiguously gay saloon patron – while Dan & Dick ordered whiskey, he would saunter up to the bar and ask for a fruit punch or frozen daiquiri
In the last season where he was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off (replacing Judy Carne as the one who always got drenched).
Pamela Rodgers - "your man in Washington", she would give 'reports' from the Capitol that were usually double entendres to give the impression that the Congressmen were fooling around with her.
Jeremy Lloyd - scrunched himself into an ultra-short character who wandered around
Dennis Allen:
Lt. Peaches of the Fuzz – a stumble-bum police officer.
Chaplain Bud Homily – a droll clergyman who often falls victim to his own sermons.
Eric Clarified – a correspondent for Laugh-In Looks at the News who further muddles up obfuscatory government statements he has been asked to clarify. Rowan would often throw to another correspondent (played by Sues) to analyze Eric Clarified's statements in turn.
Barbara Sharma:
The Burbank Metre Made – a dancing meter maid who tickets anything from trees to baby carriages.
An aspiring actress who often plays foil in cocktail-party segments to another "high-society" character (Tomlin).
In season four, a Ruby Keeler-esque dancer (and arch-nemesis of Johnson's Wolfgang) who often praises Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Johnny Brown lent his impersonations of Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Ralph Kramden and the Kingfish from Amos 'n' Andy.
Ann Elder as Pauline Rhetoric (spoofing Nancy Dickerson), the chief interviewer for the Laugh-In News segments.
Moosie Drier & Todd Bass - Drier did the "kids news for kids" segment of the Laugh-In news. Bass teamed with Drier in Season 6 to read letters from a treehouse
Larry Hovis - the Senator, the Texan, David Brinkley, Father Time
Richard Dawson - W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Hawkins the Butler, who always started his piece by asking "Permission to ...?" and proceeded to fall over.
Roddy Maude Roxby & Pigmeat Markham - Here Come Da Judge (Roxby for Season 1, Markham for Season 2)
Dave Madden - would always throw confetti after "a naughty thought", usually a punch line that was a double-entendre. Once while kissing Carne, confetti erupted around him
Memorable moments
The first season featured some of the first music videos seen on network TV, with cast members appearing in films set to the music of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the First Edition.
During the September 16, 1968, episode, Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared for a few seconds with a disbelieving vocal inflection, asking "Sock it to me?" Nixon was not doused or assaulted. An invitation was extended to Nixon's opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, but he declined. According to George Schlatter, the show's creator, "Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election", and "[Nixon] said the rest of his life that appearing on Laugh-In is what got him elected. And I believe that. And I've had to live with that." In an episode of the ill-fated 1977 revival, Rich Little as Nixon says, "I invited the American people to sock-it-to-me.... you can stop now".
After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona.
On multiple occasions, producer George Schlatter attempted to get William F. Buckley Jr. to appear on the show, only to be refused each time until he suddenly agreed to an appearance. In the episode that aired December 28, 1970, Buckley appeared in an unusual sit-down segment (portions of which were scattered throughout the episode) flanked by Rowan and Martin and fielding questions from the cast (which included Lily Tomlin doing her Babbler & Ernestine shticks) and giving humorous answers to each. Near the end, when Rowan asked Buckley why he finally agreed to appear on the show, Buckley explained that Schlatter had written him "an irresistable letter" in which he promised to fly Buckley out to Burbank "in an airplane with two right wings". At the end, Rowan thanked him for appearing, noting that "you can't be that smart without having a sense of humor, and you have a delightful one".
The 100th episode featured John Wayne, Tiny Tim & the return of several former cast members. Wayne, with his ear cupped, read the line "and me, I'm Gary Owens" instead of Owens himself. Wayne also shook Tiny Tim's hand, pretending that his grip was too overpowering.
Catchphrases
In addition to those already mentioned, the show created numerous catchphrases:
"Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (a lesser-known set of reference books whose phonetically funny name helped both Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to poke fun at NBC censors)
"You bet your sweet bippy!"
"Ring my chimes!"
"Beautiful downtown Burbank" (various actors/characters, referring tongue-in-cheek to the Los Angeles suburb in which the NBC studios (and thus the program) were located; the same term was frequently used by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
"One ringy-dingy ... two ringy-dingies ..." (Ernestine's mimicking of the rings while she was waiting for someone to pick up the receiver on the other end of the telephone lines)
"A gracious good afternoon. This is Miss Tomlin of the telephone company. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" Ernestine's greeting to people whom she would call. She would then mispronounce the names of famous people: Gore Vidal was "Mr. Veedle", WIlliam F. Buckley was "Mr. F'buckley". Richard Nixon was simply "Milhouse".
"I just wanna swing!" Gladys Ormphby's catchphrase
"Was that another chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley's outraged cry, a takeoff on Polish jokes
"Sock it to me!" experienced its greatest exposure on Laugh-In although the phrase had been featured in songs such as Aretha Franklin's 1967 "Respect" and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels' 1966 "Sock It To Me, Baby!"
"Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere."
"Now, that's a no-no!"
"Morgul the Friendly Drelb" – a pink Abominable Snowman-like character that was introduced in the second episode and bombed so badly, his name was used in various announcements by Gary Owens for the rest of the series (usually at the end of the opening cast list - "Yours truly, Gary Owens, and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!") and credited as the author of a paperback collection of the show's sketches. On the spin-off "Letters To Laugh-In", "Morgul" would reach out of the podium & hand Owens the card containing the next category in a manner similar to Thing on The Addams Family.
"Want a Walnetto?" was a pick-up line Tyrone would try on Gladys, which always resulted in a purse drubbing.
"Here come da Judge"
"Verrry Interesting"
"And that's the truth – PFFFFT!"
"Go to your room!" - "Big kid" Dan's response to a particularly bad joke, as if to put that cast member in time out like a child.
"He pushed me!" – usually said by Sues when another cast member would bump him.
"Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'" - uttered by Gibson randomly between sketches.
"How does that grab you?"
"Oh... THAT Henny Youngman" - preceded by cast members quoting a series of his punch lines in succession, but without the jokes leading up to them.
"He was a much better person for that" – as "Sock it to me!" was phased out following Carne's departure, this became the line used for similar sketches
"Well, I'll drink to that", "I did not know that!", "Whatever turns you on" and "That's funny, so did she" – Martin
"Goodnight, Lucy." During the first three seasons, Laugh-In was scheduled opposite Lucille Ball's third television series, Here's Lucy. At the end of the show, one or more cast members would say, "Goodnight, Lucy." Dick Martin had been a regular cast member in the first season of Ball's second series, The Lucy Show.
"Goodnight, Dick" - the closing portion of each episode of Seasons 1 & 2 began with the guest star & numerous cameos all saying "Goodnight, Dick". Occasionally, one of the cameo actors would say "Who's Dick?".
"Gotcha!"
"Wr-r-r-ong!" - spoken in a cameo by Otto Preminger, subsequent cameo actors would repeat the line, mimicking Preminger's delivery of it.
"How would I know? I've never been out with one"
"I think I've got it too" - running gag where the person would say this & start scratching themselves for no particular reason.
"Blah! Blah!" - staff writer Chet Dowling would appear at random in various episodes wearing a tux & this was all he'd ever say.
"That's not funny"
"Wacker!" - this name became used often in sketches after the Bobby Darin episode of Season 2. Darin had done a sketch with Martin & hilariously proceeded to call him 'Wacker' throughout the rest of the show
Merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs
A humor magazine tie-in, Laugh-In Magazine, was published for one year (12 issues: October 1968 through October 1969—no issue was published December 1968), and a 1968-1972 syndicated newspaper comic strip was drawn by Roy Doty and eventually collected for a paperback reprint.
The Laugh-In trading cards from Topps had a variety of items, such as a card with a caricature of Jo Anne Worley with a large open mouth. With a die-cut hole, the card became interactive; a finger could be inserted through the hole to simulate Worley's tongue. Little doors opened on Joke Wall cards to display punchlines.
On Letters to Laugh-In, a short-lived spin-off daytime show hosted by Gary Owens, cast members read jokes sent in by viewers, which were scored by applause meter. The eventual winning joke was read by actress Jill St. John: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a jar of peanut butter? A 500 pound sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth!"
A cross-promotional episode of I Dream of Jeannie ("The Biggest Star in Hollywood", February 1969) features Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens, and producer George Schlatter playing themselves in a story about Jeannie being sought after to appear on Laugh-In.
In 1969, a Laugh-In View-Master packet was issued by General Aniline and Film (GAF); The packet featured 21 3D images from the show.
The horror spoof film The Maltese Bippy (1969) starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was loosely related to the series. Pamela Rodgers was the only Laugh-In cast member to co-star in the film.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson. Made to capitalize on the popularity of the series, the short was made for Sears salesmen to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. A dancing, bikini-clad Carne provided the opening titles with tattoos on her body.
Two LPs of material from the show were released: the first on Epic Records (FXS-15118, 1968); the second, entitled Laugh-In '69, on Reprise Records (RS 6335, 1969).
DVD releases
Between 2003 and 2004, Rhino Entertainment Company (under its Rhino Retrovision classic TV entertainment brand), under license from the rightsholder at the time, SFM Entertainment, released two The Best Of releases of the show, each containing six episodes presented in its original, uncut broadcast version. In 2003, Rhino, through direct-response marketing firm Guthy-Renker, also released a series of DVDs subtitled The Sock-It-To-Me Collection, with each DVD containing two episodes.
On June 19, 2017, Time Life, another direct-response marketer, released Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1, in a deal with current rightsholder Proven Entertainment. The 38-disc set contains all 140 episodes of the series, complete and uncut, restored and remastered as well as many bonus features and a special 32-page collector's book.
On September 5, 2017, Time Life began releasing individual complete season sets on DVD, beginning with the first season. This was followed by the second season on January 9, 2018, and the third season on March 6, 2018. The fourth season was released on May 8, 2018. Season 5 was released on July 10, 2018. Finally, Season 6 was released on September 4, 2018.
Ratings
TV season, ranking, average viewers per episode
1967–1968: #21 (21.3)
1968–1969: #1 (31.8)
1969–1970: #1 (26.3)
1970–1971: #13 (22.4)
1971–1972: #22 (21.4)
1972–1973: #51 (16.7)
Revival
In 1977, Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials – titled simply Laugh-In – with a new cast. The standout was a then-unknown Robin Williams, whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one year later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979. Also featured were Wayland Flowers and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, Good Times actor Ben Powers and Bill Rafferty of Real People. Rowan and Martin, who owned part of the Laugh-In franchise, were not involved in this project. They sued Schlatter for using the format without their permission, and won a judgment of $4.6 million in 1980.
In 2019, Netflix produced a special tribute to the original series entitled, Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate. Tomlin, Buzzi and Worley appeared in the special.
Awards and honors
Emmy Awards
Won:
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Program, George Schlatter (for the September 9, 1967 special)
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series, George Schlatter
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, Chris Bearde, Phil Hahn, Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Jr., Digby Wolfe
1968: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1969: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series – Paul Keyes (producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Dick Martin (star), Dan Rowan (star)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Arte Johnson
1971: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Mark Warren (episode #4.7 with Orson Welles)
Nominated:
1968: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Bill Foster (pilot episode)
1968 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Gordon Wiles
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, – Larry Hovis, Paul Keyes, Jim Mulligan, David Panich, George Schlatter, Digby Wolfe (pilot episode)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – Gordon Wiles (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music – Billy Barnes (special material)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design – Ken Johnson
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – John Teele and Bruce Verran (video tape editors)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1970: Outstanding Variety or Musical Series – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 November 1969 with Buddy Hackett)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 20 December 1969 with Nancy Sinatra)
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Goldie Hawn
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Arte Johnson
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (composer) (For episode with Carol Channing)
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design – Michael Travis
1971: Outstanding Variety Series, Musical – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Arte Johnson
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Lily Tomlin
1971: Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork – Marvin Ault (cameraman), Ray Figelski (cameraman), Louis Fusari (technical director), Jon Olson (cameraman), Tony Yarlett (cameraman)
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Ruth Buzzi
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Lily Tomlin
1972: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (For episode with Liza Minnelli)
1973: Outstanding Achievement by a Supporting Performer in Music or Variety – Lily Tomlin
1978: Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music, Bea Arthur (for episode on 25 October 1977)
1978: Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Series – Ed. J. Brennan (editor) (For show #6–8 February 1978)
Golden Globe Award
Won:
1973: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Ruth Buzzi
1969: Best TV Show
Nominated:
1972: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Lily Tomlin
1971: Best Supporting Actor – Television, Henry Gibson
1970: Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy
1968: Best TV Show
International and U.S. re-broadcasts
The first four seasons were broadcast on BBC2 from January 1969 to November 1971. Some episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 were retransmitted during late 1983 and early 1984. Early broadcasts had to be shown with a black border, as technology was not available to render the 525-line NTSC video recording as a full-screen 625-line PAL picture. This issue was fixed for later broadcasts.
The series was broadcast on RTÉ One.
The series originally aired on the 0-10 Network in the 1960s and 1970s. It later appeared in re-runs on the Seven Network in the early 1980s.
CTV aired the series at the same time as the NBC run.
1983 saw the first 70 one-hour shows syndicated to broadcast stations (the pilot, first three seasons and the first four episodes of season 4). Alternate recut half-hour shows were syndicated through Lorimar Television to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987 through August 1990.
The Vivendi Universal-owned popular arts/pop culture entertainment cable network Trio started airing the show in its original one-hour form in the early 2000s; the same abbreviated 70 episode package was run.
In September 2016, digital sub-network Decades started airing the show twice a day in its original one-hour format, complete with the NBC Peacock opening and 'snake' closing. The entire 6 season run was supplied by Proven Entertainment.
In 2018, the original series became available in full on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020, the complete series became available on Tubi. The show is currently seen on IMDb TV.
References
External links
FBI review of an episode devoted to the agency, quoted by Harper's Magazine in 2006
FBI file on Rowan and Martins Laugh-In TV Show
1968 American television series debuts
1973 American television series endings
1960s American sketch comedy television series
1960s American variety television series
1970s American sketch comedy television series
1970s American variety television series
Atco Records artists
English-language television shows
Epic Records artists
NBC original programming
Nielsen ratings winners
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series winners
Television shows adapted into comics
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"The 1952–53 Boston Bruins season was the Bruins' 29th season in the National Hockey League (NHL).\n\nOffseason\n\nRegular season\n\nFinal standings\n\nRecord vs. opponents\n\nSchedule and results\n\nPlayoffs\n\nPlayer statistics\n\nRegular season\nScoring\n\nGoaltending\n\nPlayoffs\nScoring\n\nGoaltending\n\nAwards and records\n\nAwards\n\nThe Boston Bruins did not win any NHL awards for the 1952-53 NHL season.\n\nAll-Star teams\n\nTransactions\n\nThe following is a list of all transactions that have occurred for the Boston Bruins during the 1952–53 NHL season. It lists which team each player has been traded to and for which player(s) or other consideration(s), if applicable.\n\nSee also\n1952–53 NHL season\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nBoston Bruins season, 1952-53\nBoston Bruins season, 1952-53\nBoston Bruins seasons\nBoston\nBoston\n1950s in Boston"
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"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In",
"Seasons 4 and 5",
"When did season 4 come out",
"The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky,",
"Who were the cast",
"the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress",
"What happen in Season 5",
"The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season.",
"Did they win any other awards?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_27ac7339278942ffa055ed743d3947d3_1
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What else was going on with the seasons
| 6 |
What else was going on with the seasons of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, besides Goldie Hawn appearing in the third episode of the fourth season?
|
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
|
The 1970-71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, and Johnny Brown. Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson left the show after the 1970-71 season. Henry Gibson also departed after the 1970-71 season. Johnson and he were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona. The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971-72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968. CANNOTANSWER
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Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens
|
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
The title of the show was a play on the 1960s hippie culture "love-ins" or the counterculture "be-ins", terms that were derived from "sit-ins" that were common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of That Was The Week That Was. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight man (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) act which they had established as nightclub comics. The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen announcer and permanent castmember Ruth Buzzi; longer-tenured cast members included Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Johnny Brown, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson.
Episodes
Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. The show started after the intro and a batch of shorts skits that served as cold open with a short dialogue between Rowan and Martin. Shortly afterward, Rowan would intone: "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party, You're all invited!". This live to tape segment comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing before a 1960s "mod" party backdrop, delivering one- and two-line jokes interspersed with a few bars of dance music (later adopted on The Muppet Show, which had a recurring segment that was similar to "The Cocktail Party" with absurd moments from characters). This was similar in format to the "Word Dance" segments of A Thurber Carnival. The show then proceeded through rapid-fire comedy bits, taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan turned to his co-host and said, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good night, Dick!". The show then featured cast members' opening panels in a psychedelically painted "joke wall" and telling jokes, After which, the show would continue with one final batch of skits, before drawing to a close. After the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping continued even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes, and NBC logo appeared.
Although episodes included most of the above segments, the arrangement of the segments was often interchanged. The show often featured guest stars. Sometimes, the guest had a prominent spot in the program, at other times the guest would pop in for short "quickies" (one- or two-line jokes) interspersed throughout the show – as was done most famously by Richard Nixon, when running for president.
Cast
Pilot and season 1
Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Ken Berry, Pamela Austin, Barbara Feldon and Jo Anne Worley appeared in the pilot special from 1967. (Goldie Hawn, who was under contract to Good Morning World at the time of the pilot, joined for season 1 in 1968 after that show was canceled). Only the two hosts, Gary Owens, Carne, Gibson, and Johnson, were in all 14 episodes of season one. Eileen Brennan, Hovis, and Roddy Maude-Roxby left after the first season.
Seasons 2 and 3
The second season had a handful of new people, including Alan Sues, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington "The Fun Couple" (Charlie Brill/Mitzi McCall) and Chelsea Brown. All of the new cast members from season two left at the end of that season except Sues, who stayed on until 1972. At the end of the 1968–69 season, Carne chose not to renew her contract, although she did make appearances during 1969–1970.
The third season had several new people who only stayed on for that season: Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Byron Gilliam. Lily Tomlin joined in the middle of the season. Jo Anne Worley, Goldie Hawn, and Judy Carne left after the season.
Seasons 4 and 5
The 1970–71 season brought new additions to the cast include tall, lanky, sad-eyed Dennis Allen, who alternately played quietly zany characters and the straight man for anybody's jokes; comic actress Ann Elder, who also contributed to scripts, tap dancer Barbara Sharma, Nancie Phillips and Johnny Brown.
Arte Johnson, who created many memorable characters, insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him, but had announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! And Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi ..." This maneuver gave Johnson star billing, but made it sound like he was still part of the ensemble cast. Johnson and Henry Gibson left the show during the fourth season; they were replaced by former Hogan's Heroes stars Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many popular characters caused ratings to drop further.
The show celebrated its 100th episode during the 1971–72 season, with Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves, and Tiny Tim all returning for the festivities. John Wayne was on hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968.
Season 6
For the show's final season (1972–73), Rowan and Martin assumed the executive producer roles from George Schlatter (known on-air as "CFG", which stood for "Crazy Fucking George"), and Ed Friendly. Except for holdovers Dawson, Owens, Buzzi, Allen, and only occasional appearances from Tomlin, a new cast was brought in. This final season featured comedian Patti Deutsch, folksy singer-comedian Jud Strunk, ventriloquist act Willie Tyler and Lester, Donna Jean Young and giddy Goldie Hawn lookalike Sarah Kennedy. Voice artist Frank Welker also made numerous appearances. Former regular Jo Anne Worley returned for two guest appearances, including the final episode. These last shows never aired in the edited half-hour reruns syndicated (through Lorimar Productions) to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987, although they were included when the program was rerun on the Decades over-the-air television channel in 2017.
Of over three dozen entertainers to join the cast, only Rowan, Martin, Owens, and Buzzi were there from beginning to end. However, Owens was not in the 1967 pilot and Buzzi missed two first-season episodes.
Cast tenures
All seasons: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi
Season 1 (1968): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Henry Gibson, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Jo Anne Worley, Inga Neilsen, Paul Winchell, Tiny Tim.
Season 2 (1968–69): Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Dave Madden, Alan Sues, Chelsea Brown, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington (through episode 14), Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall ("the Fun Couple"), Pigmeat Markham, Jack Riley, Muriel Landers, J.J. Barry, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 3 (1969–70): Judy Carne (through episode 11), Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, Byron Gilliam (through episode 11, but continued as a dancer & in occasional cameos), Lily Tomlin (from episode 15), Johnny Brown
Season 4 (1970–71): Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson (through episode 10), Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Nancie Phillips (through episode 17), Barbara Sharma, Ann Elder, Harvey Jason (episodes 2, 4), Glen Ash (episodes 10–11), Byron Gilliam (dancer only)
Season 5 (1971–72): Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Ann Elder, Barbara Sharma, Larry Hovis, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Byron Gilliam (dancer only), Barbi Benton (dancer only)
Season 6 (1972–73): Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, Richard Dawson, Moosie Drier, Tod Bass, Patti Deutsch, Sarah Kennedy, Jud Strunk, Willie Tyler, Donna Jean Young, Frank Welker, Brian Bressler (through episode 10), Kathy Speirs (episodes 11–12), Lisa Farringer (from episode 13). Note: not all cast members appear in all episodes this season, and rotate with some frequency (for instance, Donna Jean Young appears in about half of the season's 24 episodes).
Regular guest performers
Jack Benny (seasons 2–4, 6)
Johnny Carson (seasons 1–6)
Carol Channing (seasons 3–5)
Tony Curtis (seasons 2–3, 5)
Sammy Davis, Jr. (seasons 1–4, 6)
Phyllis Diller (seasons 2–4, 6)
Barbara Feldon (seasons 1–2)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (seasons 2–3)
Peter Lawford (seasons 1–4; Lawford became Dan Rowan's son-in-law in 1971)
Rich Little (seasons 2, 4, 6)
Jill St. John (seasons 1, 3, 5–6)
Tiny Tim (seasons 1–3, 5)
John Wayne (seasons 1–2, 5–6)
Flip Wilson (seasons 1–4)
Henny Youngman (seasons 2, 5–6)
Series writers
The writers for Laugh-In were: George Schlatter, Larry Hovis (pilot only), Digby Wolfe, Paul W. Keyes, Hugh Wedlock, Jr. and Allan Manings, Chris Bearde (credited as Chris Beard), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson (Arte Johnson's twin brother), Marc London and David Panich, Dave Cox, Jim Carlson, Jack Mendelsohn and Jim Mulligan, Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz, Jack Douglas, Jeremy Lloyd, John Carsey, Dennis Gren, Gene Farmer, John Rappaport and Stephen Spears, Jim Abell and Chet Dowling, Barry Took, E. Jack Kaplan, Larry Siegel, Jack S. Margolis, Don Reo and Allan Katz, Richard Goren (also credited as Rowby Greeber and Rowby Goren), Winston Moss, Gene Perret and Bill Richmond, Jack Wohl, Bob Howard and Bob DeVinney. Script supervisors for Laugh-In included Digby Wolfe (comedy consultant, season 1), Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan (season 2), Allan Manings (season 3), Marc London and David Panich (seasons 3–6), and Jim Mulligan (season 6).
Musical direction and production numbers
The musical director for Laugh-In was Ian Bernard. He wrote the opening theme music, "Inquisitive Tango" (used in Season 1 and again permanently from season 4), plus the infamous "What's the news across the nation" number. He wrote all the musical "play-ons" that introduced comedy sketches like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann, the little girl who sat in a giant rocking chair, and Arte Johnson's old man character, Tyrone, who always got hit with a purse. He also appeared in many of the cocktail scenes where he directed the band as they stopped and started between jokes. Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often appeared on-camera, accompanying Johnson, Buzzi, Worley, or Sues, on a golden grand piano. Barnes was the creator of the famous Billy Barnes Revues of the 1950s and 1960s, and composed such popular hits as "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair", recorded by Barbra Streisand and the jazz standard "Something Cool" recorded by June Christy.
Post-production
The show was recorded at NBC's Burbank facility using two-inch quadruplex videotape. As computer-controlled online editing had not been invented at the time, post-production video editing of the montage was achieved by the error-prone method of visualizing the recorded track with ferrofluid and cutting it with a razor blade or guillotine cutter and splicing with adhesive tape, in a manner similar to film editing. This had the incidental benefit of ensuring the preservation of the master tape, as a spliced tape could not be recycled for further use. Laugh-In editor Arthur Schneider won an Emmy Award in 1968 for his pioneering use of the "jump cut" – the unique editing style in which a sudden cut from one shot to another was made without a fade-out.
When the series was restored for airing by the Trio Cable Network in 1996, the aforementioned edits became problematic for the editors, as the adhesive used on the source tape had deteriorated during 20+ years of storage, making many of the visual elements at the edit points unusable. This was corrected in digital re-editing by removing the problematic video at the edit point and then slowing down the video image just before the edit point; time-expanding the slowed-down section long enough to allot enough time to seamlessly reinsert the audio portion from the removed portion of video.
Recurring sketches and characters
Sketches
Frequently recurring Laugh-In sketches included:
"Sock it to me"; Judy Carne was often tricked into saying the phrase ("It may be rice wine to you, but it's still sake to me!"), which invariably results in her (or other cast members) falling through a trap door, being doused with water, or playfully assaulted in various other manners. The phrase was also uttered by many of the cameo guest stars, most notably Richard Nixon, though they were almost never subjected to the same treatment as Carne.
"The Cocktail Party", attended by the cast and guest stars, to which Dan and Dick invite the audience. The orchestra plays a few bars of a wild dance song, then temporarily stops for the delivery of a brief joke.
"The Joke Wall", near the end of every episode, the regulars and guests poke their heads out of doors in the psychedelically decorated wall or floor and exchange one-liners, or brief dialogues with Rowan and Martin. In the sixth season, instead of coming in and out of view, the entire cast just hung out of the holes (as most of the wall doors were removed) and told their jokes and one-liners.
"Mod, Mod World" comprised brief sketches on a theme interspersed with film footage of female cast members (most often Hawn, Carne, Brown, Graves and Rodgers) go-go dancing in bikinis, their bodies painted with punchy phrases and clever wordplay. On occasion, a cast member (superimposed on the screen) would cast off a one-liner while the dancing took place. Usually, there was also a song which the entire cast sang, paying tribute to the theme.
"The Farkel Family", a couple with numerous children, all of whom had bright red hair and large freckles similar to their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel (Dick Martin). The sketch employed diversion humor, the writing paying more attention to the lines said by each player, using alliterative tongue-twisters ("That's a fine-looking Farkel flinger you found there, Frank"). Dan Rowan played father Frank Farkel the Third, Jo Anne Worley, Barbara Sharma and Patti Deutsch played his wife Fanny Farkel, Goldie Hawn played Sparkle Farkel, Arte Johnson played Frank Farkel the Fourth, and Ruth Buzzi played Flicker Farkel, who would only say "HIIIIII!" in a very high-pitched voice. Two of the children were twins named Simon and Gar Farkel, played by cast members of different races (Teresa Graves and Pamela Rodgers in the third season, Johnny Brown and Dennis Allen in the fourth season). All of the Farkel skits were written or co-written by David Panich.
"Here Comes the Judge", originally portrayed by British comic Roddy Maude-Roxby, was a stuffy magistrate with a black robe and oversized judge's wig. Each sketch featured the judge trading barbs with a defendant brought him; on delivery of the punch line, he would strike the defendant with an inflated bladder balloon tied to the sleeve of his robe. For a time guest star Flip Wilson or Sammy Davis Jr. would introduce the sketch saying "Here come da judge!", which was a venerable catchphrase by nightclub comedian Pigmeat Markham. Surprised that his trademark had been appropriated, Markham asked producer George Schlatter to let him play the Judge himself; Schlatter agreed and Markham presided for one season. After Markham left, the sketch was briefly retired until Sammy Davis Jr. donned the judicial robe and wig during his guest appearances, introducing each sketch with a rap that always finished with "Here come da judge, here come da judge...".
"Laugh-In Looks at the News", a parody of network newscasts, introduced by the female cast members in a highly un-journalistic production number. The sketch was originally called the Rowan and Martin Report (a take-off on the Huntley-Brinkley Report). The sketch itself featured Dick humorously reporting on current events, which then segued into Dan reporting on "News of the Past" and "News of the Future". The latter of these segments, on at least two occasions, correctly predicted future events, one being that Ronald Reagan would be president, and another that the Berlin Wall would finally come down in 1989. This segment was influenced by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, and in turn inspired Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segments (SNL creator Lorne Michaels was a Laugh-In writer early in his career). The News segments were followed by "Big Al" (Alan Sues) and his sports report in seasons 2–5. After Sues left the show, Jud Strunk took over the sports segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine") by featuring films of oddly-named events which were actual sports films played backwards. An example is the "Cannonball Catch", featuring a backwards film of a bowling tournament where the "cannonballs" (bowling balls) are caught one-handed by the catcher (the bowler) after rolling up the alley.
"New Talent Time" also called "Discovery of the Week" in later seasons. Introduced oddball variety acts (sometimes characters played by regular cast members)
Tin Pan Alley musician Tiny Tim - The most notable of these acts, was introduced in episode 1 & shot to fame. Returned in the Season 1 finale & made several guest appearances after.
Actor Paul Gilbert (adoptive father of actress Melissa Gilbert) appeared in two episodes as an inept French juggler, introduced as "Paul Jill-BEER".
6'2" actress Inga Neilsen made appearances as a bugle/kazoo player who could only play one note of "Tiger Rag" & had to deal with Martin's advances. Martin, who hated all of the other New Talent acts would enthusiastically cheer her on despite the obvious lack of talent.
Ventriloquist Paul Winchell appeared 3 times as "Lucky Pierre", whose puppets would fall apart or die on him.
Arte Johnson would appear as his Pyotr Rosmenko character looking for big American break, singing gibberish in a Russian accent
Murray Langston, who later achived fame as the Gong Show's "Unknown Comic"
Laugh-In writer Chris Bearde took the "New Talent" concept and later developed it into The Gong Show.
"The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" sardonically recognized actual dubious achievements by public individuals or institutions, the most frequent recipients being members or branches of the government. The trophy was a gilded left hand mounted on a trophy base with its extended index finger adorned with two small wings.
"The Wonderful World of Whoopee Award" was a counterpart to the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award", described by Rowan as a citation "for the little man who manages to outfight or outfox the bureaucracy"; the statue was similar to the Finger of Fate, only it was a right hand (without wings on the index finger) pointing straight up, and with a hidden mechanism that when activated caused the finger to wave in a circular motion.
"The C.F.G. Automat"; a vending machine whose title was an inside joke for cast members who referred to producer Schlatter as "Crazy (bleeping) George". The vending machine would distribute oddball items that were a play on the name. Examples: The 'pot pie' produced a cloud of smoke when the door was opened, then the pie floated away. The 'ladyfingers' was a woman's hand reaching out & tickling Arte's face while another 'ladyfingers' door opened & picked his pocket.
Many episodes were interspersed with a recurring, short wordless gag in which an actor repeatedly tried to accomplish some simple task like entering an elevator, opening a window or door, watering a plant, etc., which would fail each time in a different, surprising way (the object would move unexpectedly, another part of the wall or room would move, water would squirt the actor in the face from the object, etc.)
Another recurring wordless gag involved one or more actors walking around the street in a jerky fashion (using stop-motion or low shutter speed filming) holding and turning a bare steering wheel, as if they were driving a car or actually were a car, with various sound effects to simulate honking, back-ups, collisions with each other, etc.
From season four on, a variety of sketches or jokes used the word "Foon," usually as part of the name of imaginary products or persons (e.g., Foon detergent, Mr. Foonman). (They did this with "Nern" in earlier seasons)
Characters
Dan Rowan, in addition to hosting, provided the "news of the future" & appears as a character known as General Bull Right, a far-right-wing representative of the military establishment and outlet for political humor.
Dick Martin, in addition to hosting would also play a drunk Leonard Swizzle, husband of an equally drunk Doris Swizzle (Ruth Buzzi) & a character always buzzing for an elevator on which the doors never closed in a normal way
Announcer Gary Owens regularly stands in an old-time radio studio with his hand cupped over his ear, making announcements, often with little relation to the rest of the show, such as (in an overly-dramatic voice), "Earlier that evening ..."
Arte Johnson:
Wolfgang the German soldier – Wolfgang would often peer out from behind a potted palm and comment on the previous gag saying "Verrry interesting", sometimes with comments such as "... but shtupid!" He eventually closed each show by talking to Lucille Ball, as well as the cast of Gunsmoke — both airing opposite Laugh-In on CBS; as well as whatever was on ABC. Johnson later repeated the line while playing Nazi-themed supervillain Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Johnson also reprised his Wolfgang character in a series of skits for the second season of Sesame Street (1970–1971), and in 1980 for a series of small introductory skits with a plant on 3-2-1 Contact, during the "Growth/Decay" week.
Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH", presumably to satisfy the censors) was a dirty old man coming on to Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi) seated on a park bench, who almost invariably clobbers him with her purse. Both Tyrone and Gladys later became animated characters (voiced by Johnson and Buzzi) in "The Nitwits" segments of the 1977 Saturday morning animated television show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.
Pyotr Rosmenko, a Russian man, stands stiffly and nervously in an ill-fitting suit while commenting on differences between America and "the old country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In old country, television watches you!" This type of joke has come to be known as the Russian reversal.
Rabbi Shankar (a pun on Ravi Shankar) was an Indian guru who dresses in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudomystical Eastern wisdom laden with bad puns. He held up two fingers in a peace sign whenever he spoke.
An unnamed character in a yellow raincoat and hat, riding a tricycle and then falling over, was frequently used to link between sketches. The character was portrayed by many people besides Johnson, including his brother Coslough (a writer for the show), Alan Sues, and Johnny Brown.
The Scandanavian Storyteller - spoke gibberish, including non-sensical 'Knock Knock' jokes in the Joke Wall. No one could ever understand him. Possibly inspiration for the Muppets' Swedish Chef character.
Ruth Buzzi:
Gladys Ormphby – A drab, relatively young spinster, she is the eternal target of Arte Johnson's Tyrone; when Johnson left the series, Gladys retreated into recurring daydreams, often involving marriages to historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin (both played by Alan Sues). She typically hit people repeatedly with her purse. The character was recreated, along with Tyrone, in Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi also performed as Gladys on Sesame Street and The Dean Martin Show, most notably in the Celebrity Roasts.
Doris Swizzle – A seedy barfly, she is paired with her husband, Leonard Swizzle, played by Dick Martin.
Agnes Gooch – An exceedingly friendly hooker, commonly seen in sketches or at the cocktail party propositioning people while leaning against a lamppost.
Busy Buzzi – A cold and heartless old-style Hedda Hopper-type Hollywood gossip columnist.
Kathleen Pullman - A wicked parody of televangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. This always helpful but overdramatic woman is always eager to help people.
Henry Gibson:
The Poet held an oversized flower and nervously read offbeat poems. (His stage name was a play on the name of playwright Henrik Ibsen).
The Parson – A character who makes ecclesiastical quips. In 1970, he officiated at a near-marriage for Tyrone and Gladys.
Would frequently just pop up & utter the phrase "Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?".
Goldie Hawn is best known as the giggling "dumb blonde", stumbling over her lines, especially when she introduced Dan's "News of the Future". In the earliest episodes, she recited her dialogue sensibly and in her own voice, but as the series progressed, she adopted a Dumb Dora character with a higher-pitched giggle and a vacant expression, which endeared her to viewers. Frequently did a Donald Duck voice at inappropriate times, such as when she was expected to sing or doing ballet.
Lily Tomlin:
Ernestine/Miss Tomlin – An obnoxious telephone operator, she has no concern at all for her customers & constantly mispronounced their names. Her close friend is fellow telephone operator, Phenicia; and her boyfriend, Vito. She would boast of being a high school graduate. Tomlin later performed Ernestine on Saturday Night Live and Happy New Year, America. She also played the Ernestine character for a comedy album called This Is A Recording. At the suggestion of CFG, Ernestine began dialing with her middle finger in Season 4, sometimes blatantly flipping 'the bird' to the camera as a result. Censors never caught on - "we know she's doing something wrong, we just can't put our FINGER on it!"
Edith Ann – A -year-old child, she ends each of her short monologues with: "And that's the truth", followed by blowing a raspberry. Tomlin performs her skits in an oversized rocking chair that makes her appear small. Tomlin later performed Edith Ann on children's shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
Mrs. Earbore (the "Tasteful Lady") – A prim society matron, Mrs. Earbore expressed quiet disapproval about a tasteless joke or remark, and then rose from her chair with her legs spread, getting doused with a bucket of water or the sound of her skirt ripping.
Dotty – A crass and rude grocery checker who tended to annoy her customers at the store where she worked.
Lula – A loud and boisterous woman with a Marie Antoinette hair-do who always loved a party.
Suzie Sorority of the Silent Majority – clueless hippie college student who ended each bit with "Rah!"
The Babbler – A character given to speaking exuberantly and at great length while digressing after every few words and never staying on one subject, producing an unbroken, incomprehensible monologue.
Judy Carne had two characters known for their robotic speech and movement:
Mrs. Robot in "Robot Theater" – A female companion to Arte Johnson's "Mr. Robot".
The Talking Judy Doll – She is usually played with by Arte Johnson, who never heeded her warning: "Touch my little body, and I hit you!"
The Sock-It-To-Me Girl in which she would usually end up being splashed with water and/or falling through a trap door and/or getting conked on the head by a large club or mallet and/or knocked out by a boxing glove on a spring.
Jo Anne Worley sometimes sings off-the-wall songs using her loud operatic voice or displaying an advanced state of pregnancy, but is better remembered for her mock outrage at "chicken jokes" and her melodic outcry of "Bo-ring!". At the cocktail parties, she would talk about her never-seen married boyfriend/lover "Boris" (who, according to her in a Season 3 episode, was finally found out by his wife).
Alan Sues:
Big Al – A clueless and fey sports anchor, he loves ringing his "Featurette" bell, which he calls his "tinkle".
He would dress in drag as his former co-star, Jo Anne Worley, including skits where he appeared as a "fairy godmother" imitating Worley's boisterous laugh and offering help or advice to a Cinderella-type character in a conversation full of double entendres.
Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal – A short-tempered host of a children's show, he usually goes on the air with a hangover: "Oh, kiddies, Uncle Al had a lot of medicine last night." Whenever he got really agitated, he would yell to "Get Miss Twinkle on the phone!"
Grabowski - a benchwarmer football player obviously not cut out for the sport. Ex: "He pushed me! He pushed me!... they ALL pushed me!" & "No, you can't wear your ballet slippers on the field, Grabowski!"
Boomer – A self-absorbed "jock" bragging about his athletic exploits.
Ambiguously gay saloon patron – while Dan & Dick ordered whiskey, he would saunter up to the bar and ask for a fruit punch or frozen daiquiri
In the last season where he was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off (replacing Judy Carne as the one who always got drenched).
Pamela Rodgers - "your man in Washington", she would give 'reports' from the Capitol that were usually double entendres to give the impression that the Congressmen were fooling around with her.
Jeremy Lloyd - scrunched himself into an ultra-short character who wandered around
Dennis Allen:
Lt. Peaches of the Fuzz – a stumble-bum police officer.
Chaplain Bud Homily – a droll clergyman who often falls victim to his own sermons.
Eric Clarified – a correspondent for Laugh-In Looks at the News who further muddles up obfuscatory government statements he has been asked to clarify. Rowan would often throw to another correspondent (played by Sues) to analyze Eric Clarified's statements in turn.
Barbara Sharma:
The Burbank Metre Made – a dancing meter maid who tickets anything from trees to baby carriages.
An aspiring actress who often plays foil in cocktail-party segments to another "high-society" character (Tomlin).
In season four, a Ruby Keeler-esque dancer (and arch-nemesis of Johnson's Wolfgang) who often praises Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Johnny Brown lent his impersonations of Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Ralph Kramden and the Kingfish from Amos 'n' Andy.
Ann Elder as Pauline Rhetoric (spoofing Nancy Dickerson), the chief interviewer for the Laugh-In News segments.
Moosie Drier & Todd Bass - Drier did the "kids news for kids" segment of the Laugh-In news. Bass teamed with Drier in Season 6 to read letters from a treehouse
Larry Hovis - the Senator, the Texan, David Brinkley, Father Time
Richard Dawson - W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Hawkins the Butler, who always started his piece by asking "Permission to ...?" and proceeded to fall over.
Roddy Maude Roxby & Pigmeat Markham - Here Come Da Judge (Roxby for Season 1, Markham for Season 2)
Dave Madden - would always throw confetti after "a naughty thought", usually a punch line that was a double-entendre. Once while kissing Carne, confetti erupted around him
Memorable moments
The first season featured some of the first music videos seen on network TV, with cast members appearing in films set to the music of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the First Edition.
During the September 16, 1968, episode, Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared for a few seconds with a disbelieving vocal inflection, asking "Sock it to me?" Nixon was not doused or assaulted. An invitation was extended to Nixon's opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, but he declined. According to George Schlatter, the show's creator, "Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election", and "[Nixon] said the rest of his life that appearing on Laugh-In is what got him elected. And I believe that. And I've had to live with that." In an episode of the ill-fated 1977 revival, Rich Little as Nixon says, "I invited the American people to sock-it-to-me.... you can stop now".
After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower, Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in the third episode of the fourth season. She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona.
On multiple occasions, producer George Schlatter attempted to get William F. Buckley Jr. to appear on the show, only to be refused each time until he suddenly agreed to an appearance. In the episode that aired December 28, 1970, Buckley appeared in an unusual sit-down segment (portions of which were scattered throughout the episode) flanked by Rowan and Martin and fielding questions from the cast (which included Lily Tomlin doing her Babbler & Ernestine shticks) and giving humorous answers to each. Near the end, when Rowan asked Buckley why he finally agreed to appear on the show, Buckley explained that Schlatter had written him "an irresistable letter" in which he promised to fly Buckley out to Burbank "in an airplane with two right wings". At the end, Rowan thanked him for appearing, noting that "you can't be that smart without having a sense of humor, and you have a delightful one".
The 100th episode featured John Wayne, Tiny Tim & the return of several former cast members. Wayne, with his ear cupped, read the line "and me, I'm Gary Owens" instead of Owens himself. Wayne also shook Tiny Tim's hand, pretending that his grip was too overpowering.
Catchphrases
In addition to those already mentioned, the show created numerous catchphrases:
"Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (a lesser-known set of reference books whose phonetically funny name helped both Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to poke fun at NBC censors)
"You bet your sweet bippy!"
"Ring my chimes!"
"Beautiful downtown Burbank" (various actors/characters, referring tongue-in-cheek to the Los Angeles suburb in which the NBC studios (and thus the program) were located; the same term was frequently used by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
"One ringy-dingy ... two ringy-dingies ..." (Ernestine's mimicking of the rings while she was waiting for someone to pick up the receiver on the other end of the telephone lines)
"A gracious good afternoon. This is Miss Tomlin of the telephone company. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" Ernestine's greeting to people whom she would call. She would then mispronounce the names of famous people: Gore Vidal was "Mr. Veedle", WIlliam F. Buckley was "Mr. F'buckley". Richard Nixon was simply "Milhouse".
"I just wanna swing!" Gladys Ormphby's catchphrase
"Was that another chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley's outraged cry, a takeoff on Polish jokes
"Sock it to me!" experienced its greatest exposure on Laugh-In although the phrase had been featured in songs such as Aretha Franklin's 1967 "Respect" and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels' 1966 "Sock It To Me, Baby!"
"Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere."
"Now, that's a no-no!"
"Morgul the Friendly Drelb" – a pink Abominable Snowman-like character that was introduced in the second episode and bombed so badly, his name was used in various announcements by Gary Owens for the rest of the series (usually at the end of the opening cast list - "Yours truly, Gary Owens, and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!") and credited as the author of a paperback collection of the show's sketches. On the spin-off "Letters To Laugh-In", "Morgul" would reach out of the podium & hand Owens the card containing the next category in a manner similar to Thing on The Addams Family.
"Want a Walnetto?" was a pick-up line Tyrone would try on Gladys, which always resulted in a purse drubbing.
"Here come da Judge"
"Verrry Interesting"
"And that's the truth – PFFFFT!"
"Go to your room!" - "Big kid" Dan's response to a particularly bad joke, as if to put that cast member in time out like a child.
"He pushed me!" – usually said by Sues when another cast member would bump him.
"Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'" - uttered by Gibson randomly between sketches.
"How does that grab you?"
"Oh... THAT Henny Youngman" - preceded by cast members quoting a series of his punch lines in succession, but without the jokes leading up to them.
"He was a much better person for that" – as "Sock it to me!" was phased out following Carne's departure, this became the line used for similar sketches
"Well, I'll drink to that", "I did not know that!", "Whatever turns you on" and "That's funny, so did she" – Martin
"Goodnight, Lucy." During the first three seasons, Laugh-In was scheduled opposite Lucille Ball's third television series, Here's Lucy. At the end of the show, one or more cast members would say, "Goodnight, Lucy." Dick Martin had been a regular cast member in the first season of Ball's second series, The Lucy Show.
"Goodnight, Dick" - the closing portion of each episode of Seasons 1 & 2 began with the guest star & numerous cameos all saying "Goodnight, Dick". Occasionally, one of the cameo actors would say "Who's Dick?".
"Gotcha!"
"Wr-r-r-ong!" - spoken in a cameo by Otto Preminger, subsequent cameo actors would repeat the line, mimicking Preminger's delivery of it.
"How would I know? I've never been out with one"
"I think I've got it too" - running gag where the person would say this & start scratching themselves for no particular reason.
"Blah! Blah!" - staff writer Chet Dowling would appear at random in various episodes wearing a tux & this was all he'd ever say.
"That's not funny"
"Wacker!" - this name became used often in sketches after the Bobby Darin episode of Season 2. Darin had done a sketch with Martin & hilariously proceeded to call him 'Wacker' throughout the rest of the show
Merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs
A humor magazine tie-in, Laugh-In Magazine, was published for one year (12 issues: October 1968 through October 1969—no issue was published December 1968), and a 1968-1972 syndicated newspaper comic strip was drawn by Roy Doty and eventually collected for a paperback reprint.
The Laugh-In trading cards from Topps had a variety of items, such as a card with a caricature of Jo Anne Worley with a large open mouth. With a die-cut hole, the card became interactive; a finger could be inserted through the hole to simulate Worley's tongue. Little doors opened on Joke Wall cards to display punchlines.
On Letters to Laugh-In, a short-lived spin-off daytime show hosted by Gary Owens, cast members read jokes sent in by viewers, which were scored by applause meter. The eventual winning joke was read by actress Jill St. John: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a jar of peanut butter? A 500 pound sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth!"
A cross-promotional episode of I Dream of Jeannie ("The Biggest Star in Hollywood", February 1969) features Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens, and producer George Schlatter playing themselves in a story about Jeannie being sought after to appear on Laugh-In.
In 1969, a Laugh-In View-Master packet was issued by General Aniline and Film (GAF); The packet featured 21 3D images from the show.
The horror spoof film The Maltese Bippy (1969) starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was loosely related to the series. Pamela Rodgers was the only Laugh-In cast member to co-star in the film.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson. Made to capitalize on the popularity of the series, the short was made for Sears salesmen to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. A dancing, bikini-clad Carne provided the opening titles with tattoos on her body.
Two LPs of material from the show were released: the first on Epic Records (FXS-15118, 1968); the second, entitled Laugh-In '69, on Reprise Records (RS 6335, 1969).
DVD releases
Between 2003 and 2004, Rhino Entertainment Company (under its Rhino Retrovision classic TV entertainment brand), under license from the rightsholder at the time, SFM Entertainment, released two The Best Of releases of the show, each containing six episodes presented in its original, uncut broadcast version. In 2003, Rhino, through direct-response marketing firm Guthy-Renker, also released a series of DVDs subtitled The Sock-It-To-Me Collection, with each DVD containing two episodes.
On June 19, 2017, Time Life, another direct-response marketer, released Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1, in a deal with current rightsholder Proven Entertainment. The 38-disc set contains all 140 episodes of the series, complete and uncut, restored and remastered as well as many bonus features and a special 32-page collector's book.
On September 5, 2017, Time Life began releasing individual complete season sets on DVD, beginning with the first season. This was followed by the second season on January 9, 2018, and the third season on March 6, 2018. The fourth season was released on May 8, 2018. Season 5 was released on July 10, 2018. Finally, Season 6 was released on September 4, 2018.
Ratings
TV season, ranking, average viewers per episode
1967–1968: #21 (21.3)
1968–1969: #1 (31.8)
1969–1970: #1 (26.3)
1970–1971: #13 (22.4)
1971–1972: #22 (21.4)
1972–1973: #51 (16.7)
Revival
In 1977, Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials – titled simply Laugh-In – with a new cast. The standout was a then-unknown Robin Williams, whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one year later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979. Also featured were Wayland Flowers and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, Good Times actor Ben Powers and Bill Rafferty of Real People. Rowan and Martin, who owned part of the Laugh-In franchise, were not involved in this project. They sued Schlatter for using the format without their permission, and won a judgment of $4.6 million in 1980.
In 2019, Netflix produced a special tribute to the original series entitled, Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate. Tomlin, Buzzi and Worley appeared in the special.
Awards and honors
Emmy Awards
Won:
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Program, George Schlatter (for the September 9, 1967 special)
1968: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series, George Schlatter
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, Chris Bearde, Phil Hahn, Jack Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Jr., Digby Wolfe
1968: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1969: Outstanding Musical or Variety Series – Paul Keyes (producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Dick Martin (star), Dan Rowan (star)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Arte Johnson
1971: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Mark Warren (episode #4.7 with Orson Welles)
Nominated:
1968: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Bill Foster (pilot episode)
1968 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music, Gordon Wiles
1968: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety, – Larry Hovis, Paul Keyes, Jim Mulligan, David Panich, George Schlatter, Digby Wolfe (pilot episode)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances), Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – Gordon Wiles (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 February 1969)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music – Billy Barnes (special material)
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Ruth Buzzi
1969: Special Classification Achievements – Individuals (Variety Performances) – Goldie Hawn
1969: Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design – Ken Johnson
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – John Teele and Bruce Verran (video tape editors)
1969: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production – Arthur Schneider (tape editor)
1970: Outstanding Variety or Musical Series – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 3 November 1969 with Buddy Hackett)
1970: Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music – various writers (For episode on 20 December 1969 with Nancy Sinatra)
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Goldie Hawn
1970: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals, Arte Johnson
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (composer) (For episode with Carol Channing)
1970: Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design – Michael Travis
1971: Outstanding Variety Series, Musical – George Schlatter (executive producer), Carolyn Raskin (producer), Paul Keyes (producer), Dan Rowan (star), Dick Martin (star)
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Arte Johnson
1971: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – Individuals – Lily Tomlin
1971: Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork – Marvin Ault (cameraman), Ray Figelski (cameraman), Louis Fusari (technical director), Jon Olson (cameraman), Tony Yarlett (cameraman)
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Ruth Buzzi
1972: Outstanding Achievement by a Performer in Music or Variety, Lily Tomlin
1972: Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material – Billy Barnes (For episode with Liza Minnelli)
1973: Outstanding Achievement by a Supporting Performer in Music or Variety – Lily Tomlin
1978: Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music, Bea Arthur (for episode on 25 October 1977)
1978: Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Series – Ed. J. Brennan (editor) (For show #6–8 February 1978)
Golden Globe Award
Won:
1973: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Ruth Buzzi
1969: Best TV Show
Nominated:
1972: Best Supporting Actress – Television, Lily Tomlin
1971: Best Supporting Actor – Television, Henry Gibson
1970: Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy
1968: Best TV Show
International and U.S. re-broadcasts
The first four seasons were broadcast on BBC2 from January 1969 to November 1971. Some episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 were retransmitted during late 1983 and early 1984. Early broadcasts had to be shown with a black border, as technology was not available to render the 525-line NTSC video recording as a full-screen 625-line PAL picture. This issue was fixed for later broadcasts.
The series was broadcast on RTÉ One.
The series originally aired on the 0-10 Network in the 1960s and 1970s. It later appeared in re-runs on the Seven Network in the early 1980s.
CTV aired the series at the same time as the NBC run.
1983 saw the first 70 one-hour shows syndicated to broadcast stations (the pilot, first three seasons and the first four episodes of season 4). Alternate recut half-hour shows were syndicated through Lorimar Television to local stations in 1983 and later on Nick at Nite in 1987 through August 1990.
The Vivendi Universal-owned popular arts/pop culture entertainment cable network Trio started airing the show in its original one-hour form in the early 2000s; the same abbreviated 70 episode package was run.
In September 2016, digital sub-network Decades started airing the show twice a day in its original one-hour format, complete with the NBC Peacock opening and 'snake' closing. The entire 6 season run was supplied by Proven Entertainment.
In 2018, the original series became available in full on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020, the complete series became available on Tubi. The show is currently seen on IMDb TV.
References
External links
FBI review of an episode devoted to the agency, quoted by Harper's Magazine in 2006
FBI file on Rowan and Martins Laugh-In TV Show
1968 American television series debuts
1973 American television series endings
1960s American sketch comedy television series
1960s American variety television series
1970s American sketch comedy television series
1970s American variety television series
Atco Records artists
English-language television shows
Epic Records artists
NBC original programming
Nielsen ratings winners
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series winners
Television shows adapted into comics
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[
"\"To the Morning\" is the debut single by American folk/soft rock singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg. It was written by Fogelberg with strings arranged by Glenn Spreen. It is the first song on Side 1 of his debut album, Home Free. The song is about waking up every day and knowing that it's going to be a new day, regardless of anything else, no matter what happens in life. (\"It's going to be a day/There's really no way to say no to the morning\".) Musically, it is built around piano, with emphasis placed on Fogelberg's vocals while he is singing and the piano or strings during instrumental sections. The song is peculiar in his canon for featuring no guitar.\n\nThough the track length is listed as 6:34 on the CD issue of the album, the length is actually 6:11.\n\nThe song was covered by Lani Hall on her 1979 album Double or Nothing.\n\nReferences\n\n1972 debut singles\nDan Fogelberg songs\nSongs written by Dan Fogelberg\n1972 songs",
"Young & Full of the Devil is the second studio album by Australian rock band, Magic Dirt. It was released in April 1998 and peaked at number 100 on the ARIA Charts.\n\nReception\nReviewed in Rolling Stone Australia at the time of release, it was said that the album was devoid of the band's previous dalliances with pop music. All the songs were, \"very long and either loud, quiet, or alternating both.\" The album was described as unsatisfying, and it was noted, \"Massive guitar onslaughts get boring, and frankly there's not much else going on in the way of either psychology or playfulness.\"\n\nTrack listing\n \"Babycakes\" - 6:45\n \"She-Riff\" - 5:06\n \"Rabbit with Fangs\" - 2:40\n \"Shrinko\" - 2:44\n \"What Have I Done?\" - 3:09\n \"These Drugs are Really Starting to Fuck Me Over\" - 5:29\n \"Short Black\" - 1:24\n \"X-Ray\" - 7:05\n \"Ascot Red\" - 7:22\n \"Babycakes You Always Freeze Me Up\" - 18:27\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n1998 albums\nMagic Dirt albums"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation"
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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What was little richard's sexual orientation?
| 1 |
What was Little Richard's sexual orientation?
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Little Richard
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Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life".
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
African-American Christians
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
African-American rock singers
African-American songwriters
American male pianists
American male singer-songwriters
American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
American rock pianists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
American Seventh-day Adventists
American soul singers
Bisexual men
Bisexual musicians
Brunswick Records artists
Converts to Adventism
Deaths from bone cancer
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT Protestants
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
Mercury Records artists
Modern Records artists
Musicians from Macon, Georgia
Oakwood University alumni
Okeh Records artists
People self-identified as ex-gay
RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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[
"A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation, also published with the subtitle How Biology Makes Us Gay, is a 1996 book about the development of sexual orientation by the journalist Chandler Burr. It received mainly positive reviews, commending it as a useful discussion of scientific research on sexual orientation and the politics surrounding the issue.\n\nSummary\n\nBurr discusses biological research on sexual orientation by scientists such as the neuroscientist Simon LeVay, the psychiatrist Richard Pillard, the psychologists J. Michael Bailey, Heino Meyer-Bahlburg, and Anke Ehrhardt, and the geneticist Dean Hamer. He writes that a neuroanatomical study published in 1991 was the \"first major biological investigation of sexual orientation\", and that it was followed by research into genes and hormones. He also discusses the views of critics of the research, such as the evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin.\n\nPublication history\nA Separate Creation was published by Hyperion in 1996, under the full title A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation. The book was published as A Separate Creation: How Biology Makes Us Gay by Bantam Press in 1997.\n\nReception\n\nMainstream media\nA Separate Creation received positive reviews from Ray Olson in Booklist, Genevieve Stuttaford in Publishers Weekly, the neurologist Richard Cytowic in The Washington Post, the historian Jonathan Kirsch in the Los Angeles Times, the philosopher Michael Ruse in The Times Literary Supplement, and W. P. Anderson in Choice, a mixed review from Gail Vines in New Scientist, and a negative review from the historian Roy Porter in The New York Times Book Review. The book was also reviewed by Jon Turney in the Times Higher Education Supplement, and discussed by Norman Podhoretz in Commentary.\n\nOlson credited Burr with writing about science well and with covering the arguments of both supporters and critics of biological explanations of sexual orientation and the associated political issues. He suggested that the arguments of scientists who think some findings are \"either not so significant, misleading, or downright erroneous\" were often more convincing than those of scientists on the other side of the debate. He concluded that A Separate Creation might be \"both the gay studies book of the year and the popular-science book of the year.\" Stuttaford described the book as a \"detailed, elegantly written report\" on scientific research on sexual orientation, crediting Burr with dispassionately reviewing the scientific and political controversy created by LeVay's 1991 hypothalamus study. Cytowic credited Burr with \"disclosing the political meaning of sexual-orientation research\" and with \"revealing the media's absurd questions and abysmal grasp of science.\" Kirsch called the book \"enlightening\" and an \"earnest and mostly successful\" effort to explain the findings of genetic research. He credited Burr with providing a \"compelling profile\" of the scientists involved in sexual orientation research and with explaining the politics of the issue.\n\nRuse considered A Separate Creation a good discussion of its topic. He noted that it had appeared at the same time as several other books about biological research on homosexuality, suggesting that this showed that \"publishers know a good thing when they see it.\" Anderson wrote that Burr provided an \"absorbing and comprehensive\" discussion of biological research on sexual orientation, and a clearly written \"reader-friendly interpretation\" of the topic, with a broad presentation of recent findings. He concluded that A Separate Creation would be interesting to both scientists and the general public. Vines described A Separate Creation as a \"racy paean to the putative gay gene\" and \"a masterpiece of American journalese\". She wrote that A Separate Creation contained \"little analysis and lots of hype\", but credited Burr with speaking to many researchers interested in searching for a biological basis to homosexuality, and concluded that the book was worth reading, \"If you can stomach this sort of thing\". Porter called A Separate Creation a dispiriting comment on the state of science, writing that sexual orientation researchers have made exaggerated claims based on limited and sometimes flawed evidence.\n\nPodhoretz described the book as a \"breathless account\" of its topic.\n\nGay media\nA Separate Creation received a positive review from the physician Lawrence D. Mass in Lambda Book Report. The book was also reviewed by Stephen H. Miller in the New York Native. An excerpt appeared in The Advocate. Burr's \"Gay Gene\" website, based on his book, was listed as a \"hot web site\" by The Advocate in 1998. Tom Moon discussed Burr's views in the San Francisco Bay Times.\n\nMass considered Burr a \"gay-positive essentialist\" and A Separate Creation \"a valuable historical document\" comparable to the journalist Randy Shilts' And the Band Played On (1987).\n\nOther evaluations and responses\nRon Good and Mark Hafner discussed A Separate Creation in The American Biology Teacher.\n\nThe feminist Germaine Greer and the evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk praised A Separate Creation. However, the book was criticized by the philosophers Timothy F. Murphy and Edward Stein. Murphy wrote that Burr incorrectly stated that LeVay's 1991 neuroanatomical report on the hypothalamus was the first major biological investigation of sexual orientation. He noted that scientific study of the determinants of sexual orientation dates to the 19th century and that many investigations of the possible biological basis of homosexuality preceded LeVay's work. Stein, who noted that Burr was a journalist by background, called him \"unsophisticated\" for failing to discuss social constructionist views and accepting claims about the factors that cause homosexuality in fruit flies, including the discovery of a single gene that supposedly controls courtship behavior between male flies. He argued that such animal research commits the fallacy of anthropomorphism and is irrelevant to understanding sexual orientation in humans.\n\nThe psychologist Louis A. Berman described Burr's evaluation of the biological evidence as optimistic. Berman, who believes that writers supportive of gay rights have ignored professional literature dealing with efforts to change sexual orientation, noted in this connexion that though Burr conducted a two-hour interview with the psychoanalyst Charles Socarides, Burr does not mention this. According to Burr, his argument that in A Separate Creation that sexual orientation is innate prompted a call by Southern Baptists to boycott Disney films and theme parks because the book was published by Hyperion, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.\n\nSee also\n Biology and sexual orientation\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\nBooks\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\nJournals\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\nOnline articles\n\n \n \n \n\n1996 non-fiction books\nAmerican non-fiction books\nBooks by Chandler Burr\nEnglish-language books\nHyperion Books books\nNon-fiction books about same-sex sexuality\nPopular psychology books",
"Sexual relationship disorder was listed in the tenth edition of the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Diseases, the ICD-10, the most widely used diagnostic manual by psychiatrists and psychologists worldwide. It was described as a disorder where a person has difficulties forming or maintaining a sexual relationship because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. In 2014 it was determined that there was no justification for the existence of this mental disorder category, and the diagnosis was not included in the ICD-11, which went into effect in January 2022.\n\nHistory \nSexual relationship disorder, along with ego-dystonic sexual orientation and sexual maturation disorder, was introduced to the ICD in 1990, replacing the ICD-9 diagnosis of homosexuality. The following note was applied to the entirety of part F66, the section in which these three diagnoses appeared: \"Sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder.\"\n\nRemoval from ICD \nAs part of the development of the ICD-11, the WHO appointed a Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health to make recommendations on the disease categories related to sexual orientation (part F66). The working group recommended the entire part F66 be deleted due to a lack of clinical utility, a lack of usefulness in public health data, and the potential for negative consequences, including the risk that these categories might lend support to \"ineffective and unethical treatment\" such as conversion therapy. It noted that there is no evidence that non-heterosexual sexual orientation is itself a cause of distress; instead, there is robust empirical evidence that psychological symptoms in non-heterosexual people are the product of discrimination, social rejection, and stigma. \n\nIn reference to sexual relationship disorder specifically, the working group noted that difficulties in sexual relationships are common and have many causes, and concluded that \"there is no justification for creating a mental disorder category that is specifically based on the co-occurrence of relationship problems with sexual orientation or gender identity issues\" when no other causes of relationship difficulties receive a diagnostic category. \n\nAccordingly, the ICD-11 does not include any diagnostic categories that can be applied to people on the basis of sexual orientation, bringing the ICD in line with the DSM-5.\n\nSee also \n Ego-dystonic sexual orientation\n Homosexuality and psychology\n Mixed-orientation marriage\n Homosexuality in the DSM\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nAnxiety disorders\nSexual orientation and psychology"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\"."
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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Did he have any male lovers of note?
| 2 |
Did Little Richard have any male lovers of note?
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Little Richard
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Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
African-American Christians
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
African-American rock singers
African-American songwriters
American male pianists
American male singer-songwriters
American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
American rock pianists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
American Seventh-day Adventists
American soul singers
Bisexual men
Bisexual musicians
Brunswick Records artists
Converts to Adventism
Deaths from bone cancer
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT Protestants
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
Mercury Records artists
Modern Records artists
Musicians from Macon, Georgia
Oakwood University alumni
Okeh Records artists
People self-identified as ex-gay
RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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[
"The 'Lovers of Modena' are a pair of human skeletons discovered in 2009 by archaeologists in present-day Modena, Italy. The two skeletons were buried with their hands interlocked and are believed to have been buried between the 4th and 6th century CE. Originally it was assumed that the two were composed of a male and a female, but upon scientific analysis of enamel peptides by the University of Bologna it was confirmed that the skeletons belong to two males. The pair are now on display at the Civic Museum of Modena.\n\nSee also \n Lovers of Cluj-Napoca\n Lovers of Valdaro\n Embracing Skeletons of Alepotrypa\n Hasanlu Lovers\n Lovers of Teruel\n\nReferences \n\n2009 archaeological discoveries\nArchaeology of Italy\nHuman remains (archaeological)\nSame-sex couples\nSkeletons",
"Garci Sánchez de Badajoz (1460?–1526?) was a Spanish writer and poet. He was an author of lovers' complaints which were popular with the poets of the Renaissance. He is said to have died mad.\n\nReferences\n\nSpanish male writers\nPeople from Écija\nDate of birth unknown\nDate of death unknown\nYear of birth uncertain"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\".",
"Did he have any male lovers of note?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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Did he ever marry or date a woman for "cover"?
| 3 |
Did Little Richard ever marry or date a woman for "cover" for being gay?
|
Little Richard
|
Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls.
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
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RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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[
"Bride kidnapping () is a practice of kidnapping a woman for marriage purposes in Kazakhstan. The consent to marry is often imposed by cultural considerations.\n\nHistory\nThe custom of kidnapping the bride to marry her was rarely practiced in Kazakhstan. This did not mean the possibility of a free choice of a partner, usually marriages were arranged and the woman's family received a dowry for her. Under the common law of Kazakhs, it was possible to kidnap a woman with her consent, especially when the man's family was too poor to pay a dowry. However, in the post-Soviet times, kidnapping of women intensified not only without consent, but often by men completely unknown to them. After the \"fiancée\" is brought home, she is encouraged by the man's mother or grandmother to put on a white headscarf, which is a symbol of consent to the wedding, and then to write a letter to her parents in which she agrees to marry. The letter is then forwarded to the parents who visit the daughter and ask for confirmation.\n\nThe number of kidnappings is increasing in the southern parts of Kazakhstan. They are divided into two types: kidnapping without the consent of the woman (kelisimsiz alyp qashu) and voluntary kidnapping (kelissimmen alyp qashu). According to the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, kidnapping can be sentenced to 10 to 15 years imprisonment. However, if the kidnapper voluntarily surrenders the abductee, he is released from criminal liability.\n\nCultural conditions\nA kidnapped woman, even if she escapes, is stigmatized in her village. In the Islamic tradition, according to which a girl must keep her virginity until marriage. She cannot spend the night at another man's house if he is not her father or brother, which would put her virginity in doubt. Thus, her only social option is to escape the kidnapper's house before dark or agree to marry.\n\nIn popular culture\nIn 2004, Peter Lom made a documentary called Ala Kachuu; Bride Kidnapping. The director earned a doctorate in political philosophy from Harvard and an associate professor at the George Soros Central European University in the defense of human rights and philosophy. Since 2003, he has been a freelance director of documentaries devoted to the defense of human rights.\n\nReferences\n\nKazakhstani culture",
"Jackal or Tiger? is an Indian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Olive Fairy Book.\n\nSynopsis\nA king and queen, at bed at night, heard a howl. The king thought it was a tiger, and the queen a jackal. They argued. The king said that if it were a jackal, he would leave the kingdom to her; if it were a tiger, he would send her away and marry another woman. Then he summoned the guards to settle it. The guards decided they had to agree with the king or get in trouble, so they said it was a tiger.\n\nThe king abandoned the queen in the forest. A farmer gave her shelter, and she gave birth to a son, Ameer Ali. When he was eighteen, Ameer Ali set out to have adventures. He shot at a pigeon and broke an old woman's pot, so he gave her the brass pot he carried, and fetched water for her. He briefly saw a beautiful young woman in her hut. In the morning, she told him that if he ever needed aid, he would call the fairy of the forest. He thought only of the beautiful young woman.\n\nHe went to the king's palace and entered his service. One stormy night, a woman was heard wailing outside. The king ordered a servant to find out what it was, but the servant begged to be let off. Ameer Ali offered to go. He found a woman wailing beneath a gallows, though she was in reality an ogress. She told Ameer Ali that the body was her son's. When he tried to get it down for her, she tried to catch him, but he stabbed her and she fled, leaving behind an anklet. He told the king his story. The king gave the anklet to his proud and spoiled daughter.\n\nShe had two talking birds, a parrot and a starling. The starling thought the anklet became her. The parrot said her legs did not match. The princess demanded of her father a matching anklet. The king ordered Ameer Ali to find another within a month or die. With only a week left, Ameer Ali thought to call on the fairy of the forest. The beautiful young woman appeared. She told him to arrange wands, and then cut off her foot; the blood would make jewels. Then he would put back the foot and switch the wands, and she would be well again. Unwillingly, he obeyed her, and got the jewels. He was easily able to find someone to set them.\n\nThe starling admired the pair, but the parrot said she had all the beauty at one end. The princess demanded a necklace and bracelets from her father, and the king demanded them of Ameer Ali. By the same means, he had them made.\n\nThe parrot now complained that she dressed up for herself alone; she should marry. The princess told her father that she wanted to marry Ameer Ali. He agreed. Ameer Ali refused, and the king threw him into prison, although he thought his daughter should still marry, so he sent for men fit for a bridegroom and a royal heir.\n\nThe farmer joined the throng and made a petition: telling the king to remember that the tiger lived in the forest while the jackals hunted anywhere food could be found. He explained how he had found the queen and Ameer Ali was her son, and the king was ashamed of himself. He gave his throne to his son, who married the beautiful young fairy.\n\nSee also\nThe Boy Who Found Fear At Last\n\nExternal links\n – at the Educational Technology Clearinghouse, University of South Florida\n\nIndian fairy tales\nIndian folklore\nIndian literature"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\".",
"Did he have any male lovers of note?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he ever marry or date a woman for \"cover\"?",
"He later told a columnist, \"I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls."
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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Was he ever attacked for being gay?
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Was Little Richard ever attacked for being gay?
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Little Richard
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Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15.
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
African-American Christians
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
African-American rock singers
African-American songwriters
American male pianists
American male singer-songwriters
American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
American rock pianists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
American Seventh-day Adventists
American soul singers
Bisexual men
Bisexual musicians
Brunswick Records artists
Converts to Adventism
Deaths from bone cancer
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT Protestants
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
Mercury Records artists
Modern Records artists
Musicians from Macon, Georgia
Oakwood University alumni
Okeh Records artists
People self-identified as ex-gay
RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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[
"Victoria \"Porkchop\" Parker, stage name of Victor Bowling, is an American drag performer and actor who came to international attention on the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race, and for being the first contestant eliminated from the series. Parker has been called one of the most successful drag queens in their post-RuPaul's Drag Race careers, and has been brought back to the show by RuPaul several times in homage to being the first elimination in the show's history. Bowling has appeared on television as both himself and Porkchop, and as a backup dancer for Miley Cyrus. Parker has also won over 100 pageants and toured internationally as a drag queen.\n\nEarly life \nBowling was born in Anderson, South Carolina, and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He attended E.E. Smith High School. He was kicked out of his parents' home for being gay.\n\nCareer\n\nPageants \nParker started doing drag pageants in 1990, with his first being the Miss Gay USofA at Large 1990. He has won over 100 pageants, including Miss'd America 2013.\n\nFilm and television \nParker was in the documentary Trantasia, which debuted in 2006. \nIn 2008, he appeared in the documentary film Pageant with Alyssa Edwards and other queens detailing their experience on Miss Gay America.\n\nIn 2015, Parker made a minor appearance along with Chad Michaels in an episode of 2 Broke Girls. He was a backup dancer with 30 other drag queens for Miley Cyrus's 2015 VMA Awards performance.\n\nParker was on the E! show Botched (Season 3, Episode 4) to fix the silicone problems with his nose, including a point where the skin was starting to decay.\n\nRuPaul's Drag Race \n\nParker was announced as one of the nine contestants for the inaugural season of RuPaul's Drag Race on February 2, 2009. He has been described as the season's only older and plus-sized queen. Parker was eliminated during the first episode, becoming the very first contestant ever eliminated in the history of the show. He was sent home by Akashia. Because of this, RuPaul always addresses him with \"Hey Porkchop\" during all of the Drag Race live reunions, starting with season 4.\n\nParker has been brought back on the show by RuPaul several times, in homage to being the first contestant ever eliminated. He appeared during the recap episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 2 and was featured in winning queen Alaska's rap. Parker was also brought back for the first episode of season 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race to help judge the mini-challenge. In 2019 she appeared as a guest for the first challenge in the premiere of season eleven of Drag Race posing with Soju.\n\nIn the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 3, Vanessa Hudgens lip synced against \"Porkchop\", an actual pork chop, which RuPaul said was Parker.\n\nIn March 2018, Variety said that Parker was one of the 10 most successful queens in their careers after the show. He has toured internationally.\n\nAs of 2018, Parker was still publicly vying for a spot on RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars. Daniel Welsh of Huffington Post wrote \"we're surprised contestants like Jessica Wild, Ongina and even Victoria \"Porkchop\" Parker are still sitting on the shelf, waiting to be plucked up for All Stars.\"\n\nPersonal life\nBowling was attacked at a gay bar which resulted in a gunshot wound and acid damage on his face, requiring surgery. He had silicone injections done by an unlicensed nurse in 1999, resulting in granuloma.\n\nHe was blocked by former President Donald Trump on Twitter.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nMusic videos\n\nWeb series\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n\nLiving people\nAmerican drag queens\nPeople from Fayetteville, North Carolina\nVictoria \"Porkchop\" Parker\nPeople from Anderson, South Carolina\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"George (died 29 April 2007) was a pet dog in Taranaki, New Zealand, that was credited with sacrificing his life to save local children from a dog attack. George's heroism was internationally recognized, and he received posthumous awards from New Zealand and British animal charities.\n\nBiography\nA -tall Jack Russell Terrier with \"a heart condition\", George lived in Manaia, Taranaki, New Zealand with his owner, widower Alan Gay (born ). George previously lived with Gay's neighbours, but they offered the dog to Gay when they moved away because \"the dog spent so much time at his place.\"\n\nDefensive action\nThe Sydney Morning Herald and The New Zealand Herald reported that on 29 April 2007, five children in Manaia were walking home when they were attacked by two pit bulls. Nine-year-old (born ) George defended the children, but was severely injured by the melee. Gay's veterinarian recommended euthanising George, and while Gay reluctantly agreed with the course of action, he later came to regret the decision. The pit bulls were also euthanised, and their owner prosecution for owning dangerous and uncontrolled dogs.\" Six months later, the Stratford Press reported that it had been one pit bull versus a 14-year-old (born ) George protecting three children. In February 2009, Sky News reported that George had been 14 years old when he faced off two pit bulls to defend five children aged 3–12.\n\nIn the aftermath, George was praised and memorialised for his bravery and sacrifice. The Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals awarded him a medal for bravery, the first awarded to a dog in 17 years, and the first non-police dog to ever receive it; Gay was to receive George's medal at the children's school. Jerrell Hudman, a United States Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, was so impressed by George's actions, he told the Taranaki Herald that he would send Gay one of his three Purple Hearts. In spring 2007, a bronze statue of George was unveiled in Manaia, the work of New Plymouth's Fridtjof Hanson. In 2009, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals awarded George the PDSA Gold Medal, a decoration Sky News described as \"the animal equivalent of the George Cross\"; the medal was hung about the neck of George's statue by Anand Satyanand, then-Governor-General of New Zealand.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2007 animal deaths\ndeaths due to dog attacks\nindividual animals in New Zealand\nindividual dogs"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\".",
"Did he have any male lovers of note?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he ever marry or date a woman for \"cover\"?",
"He later told a columnist, \"I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls.",
"Was he ever attacked for being gay?",
"Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15."
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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Was he abused otherwise at home?
| 5 |
Was Little Richard abused otherwise at home?
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Little Richard
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Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father.
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
African-American Christians
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
African-American rock singers
African-American songwriters
American male pianists
American male singer-songwriters
American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
American rock pianists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
American Seventh-day Adventists
American soul singers
Bisexual men
Bisexual musicians
Brunswick Records artists
Converts to Adventism
Deaths from bone cancer
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT Protestants
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
Mercury Records artists
Modern Records artists
Musicians from Macon, Georgia
Oakwood University alumni
Okeh Records artists
People self-identified as ex-gay
RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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[
"Walter Dempster Jr. (May 20, 1924 – June 24, 2005), better known by his alias Walterina Markova, was a Filipino gay man who was forced as a \"comfort gay\" (sex slave) for Imperial Japanese Army soldiers during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II.\n\nBiography\nAfter Markova left home, he joined a group of six cross-dressing performers. It was as part of this group that he was arrested by Japanese soldiers, and taken to a camp which is now the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. For several years he and his companions, and other \"comfort gays\", were put to forced labor and abused sexually by Japanese soldiers, as the \"comfort women\" were abused.\n\nHis story was made into a movie called Markova: Comfort Gay in 2000, directed by Gil Portes. It was included in the 2002 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.\n\nPersonal\nHe spent the last years of his life at the Home for the Golden Gays in Pasay. He died at the age of 81 when he was accidentally hit by a racing cyclist.\n\nHe was quoted as saying: \"As humans, we won’t live long. Revealing my own story is my way of inspiring other gays who continue to be oppressed today. By my act, I may have probably given freedom to many other gay people.\"\n\nSee also\nRosa Henson\nJusto Justo\nHome for the Golden Gays\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\n1924 births\n2005 deaths\nPedestrian road incident deaths\nMale-to-female cross-dressers\nLGBT people from the Philippines\nFilipino slaves\nFilipino people of American descent\nViolence against gay men\nViolence against men in Asia\n20th-century slaves\n20th-century LGBT people",
"Barbie MacLaurin (born 1964) is a BAFTA and GRIERSON nominated producer and director.\n\nDirector\nMacLaurin started directing on the BBC's Holiday and Airport television series'. Thereafter, she filmed several documentaries including Final Chance to Save Tigers. In 2008 MacLaurin was nominated for two awards for her work on Paul Merton in China. Her most recent work includes Richard E. Grant's Hotel Secrets for Sky Atlantic, The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital for the BBC which was nominated for a Grierson and won Feature of the Year at the Medical Journalist Awards 2017, and The Abused, a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary for Channel 5 which was nominated for a BAFTA and won Best Documentary at the Edinburgh TV Festival 2019.\n\nFilmography\n\nAwards and nominations\n2008: Nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Factual Series or Strand with Paul Sommers, Mark Chapman and Paul Merton for Paul Merton in China.\n2008: Nominated for a Broadcast Award for Paul Merton in China.\n2017: Winner Feature of the Year, Medical Journalist Awards for The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital\n2017: Nominated Best Science Documentary, Grierson Awards for The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital\n2018: Winner Best Science Program, Banff Awards for The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital\n2018: Nominated Best Documentary, Broadcast Awards for The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital\n2019: Winner Best Documentary, Edinburgh Festival TV Awards for The Abused\n2019: Winner Best Domestic Affairs, International Broadcasters Awards for The Abused\n2020: Nominated Best Documentary, Broadcast Awards for The Abused\n2020: Nominated Best Single Documentary, BAFTA for The Abused\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nBarbie MacLaurin official website\n\nBarbie MacLaurin at the British Film Institute\nBarbie MacLaurin at Directors UK\n\n1963 births\nLiving people\nPeople educated at Strathallan School\nBritish television producers\nBritish women television producers\nBritish television directors\nWomen television directors"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\".",
"Did he have any male lovers of note?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he ever marry or date a woman for \"cover\"?",
"He later told a columnist, \"I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls.",
"Was he ever attacked for being gay?",
"Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15.",
"Was he abused otherwise at home?",
"wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father."
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
|
Did he support any gay charities after he came out?
| 6 |
Did Little Richard support any gay charities after he came out?
|
Little Richard
|
Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
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RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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[
"There has been only one player who has publicly come out as gay or bisexual while being an active player in the National Football League (NFL): Carl Nassib, who revealed himself as gay on June 21, 2021. Six former NFL players have come out publicly after they retired. Michael Sam was selected by the St. Louis Rams in the 2014 NFL Draft, and thus became the first publicly gay player drafted in the league, but was released before the start of the regular season. He became the first publicly gay player to play in the Canadian Football League in August 2015.\n\nIn college football, Division III player Conner Mertens came out as bisexual in January 2014, becoming the first active college football player at any level to publicly come out as bisexual. In August 2014, Arizona State player Chip Sarafin became the first publicly out active Division I player when he came out as gay. In 2017, Scott Frantz publicly came out as gay, joining My-King Johnson as two of the first openly gay players in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. Later that same year, Frantz became the first openly gay college football player to play in a game for an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision school. In 2018, Bradley Kim of the Air Force Academy came out as gay, thus becoming the first openly gay football player to play for any military academy in the United States; open homosexuality was forbidden in the U.S. Armed Forces until 2011. Also in 2018, Division II Wyatt Pertuset of Capital University became the first openly gay college player to score a touchdown.\n\nYears earlier in women's football in 2001, Philadelphia Liberty Belles player Alissa Wykes of the National Women's Football Association (NWFA) came out publicly as lesbian.\n\nReception\nThe generally masculine environment that exists in football, along with the hypermasculinity promoted by sportscasters, make it difficult for a player to come out. Heterosexuality is flaunted in NFL locker rooms with the passing of pornographic magazines and videos, and visits to strip clubs. Anti-gay slurs are sometimes used in the locker room. Fear of backlash from employers, teammates and fans has stopped players from coming out.\n\nWhile Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi was known to treat his players roughly in practices and during games, he insisted on unconditional respect for gay players and front office staff. Demanding \"Nothing But Acceptance\" from players and coaches toward all people, Lombardi would fire a coach or release a player should they insult the sexual orientation of anyone. During his time in Washington, Lombardi's assistant general manager, David Slatterly, was gay, as was PR director Joe Blair, who was described as Lombardi's \"right-hand man.\" According to son Vince Lombardi, Jr., \"He saw everyone as equals, and I think having a gay brother (Hal) was a big factor in his approach...I think my father would've felt, 'I hope I've created an atmosphere in the locker room where this would not be an issue at all. And if you do have an issue, the problem will be yours because my locker room will tolerate nothing but acceptance.\" Upon his arrival in Washington, Lombardi was aware of tight end Jerry Smith's gay sexual orientation. \"Lombardi protected and loved Jerry\", said former teammate Dave Kopay. Lombardi brought Smith into his office and told him that his sexual orientation would never be an issue as long as he was coaching the Redskins; Smith would be judged solely on his on-the-field performance and contribution to the team's success. Under Lombardi's leadership Smith flourished, becoming an integral part of Lombardi's offense, and was voted a First Team All-Pro for the first time in his career, which was also Lombardi's only season as Redskin head coach. Lombardi invited other gay players to training camp, and would privately hope they would prove they could earn a spot on the team. At the Washington Redskins training camp in 1969, Ray McDonald was a gay player, with sub-par skills, who was trying to make the Redskin roster again, but this time with Lombardi as the Redskins' new head coach. True to his word, Lombardi told running back coach, George Dickson, \"I want you to get on McDonald and work on him and work on him – and if I hear one of you people make reference to his manhood, you'll be out of here before your ass hits the ground.\"\n\nPrior to Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, San Francisco 49ers player Chris Culliver on media day during an interview with The Artie Lange Show, was asked if he thought any gay players were on his team which he replied, \"No, we don't got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do ... Can't be with that sweet stuff.\" He also opined that any gay players should wait 10 years after retiring before coming out. Culliver received backlash for his comments. Then-Baltimore Ravens player Brendon Ayanbadejo, an advocate for same-sex marriage, estimated that 50 percent of the league agreed with Culliver, 25 percent disagreed, and 25 percent were accepting of everyone even if they were not in complete support of issues such as gay marriage. Culliver later apologized for his \"ugly comments\" that were \"not what I feel in my heart\".\n\nThe new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2011 contained added protections banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2013, the NFL Rookie Symposium planned for the first time to have speakers on the issue of sexual orientation. That same year, NFL player Chris Kluwe was released by the Minnesota Vikings, which he believed was due to his being outspoken in support of same-sex marriage. He said that special teams coach Mike Priefer in 2012 made homophobic remarks and criticized the player for his views on same-sex marriage, a charge Priefer denied. Kluwe also alleged that head coach Leslie Frazier told him to stop speaking out on same-sex marriage. In December, former teammates on the 1993 Houston Oilers said that at least two key players on the roster were generally known by the team to be gay, and were accepted by the team. Teammate Bubba McDowell said showering with the gay teammates was \"no big deal\". In 2014, ESPN reported on Michael Sam's showering habits in the St. Louis Rams locker room, but later apologized that it \"failed to meet the standards we have set in reporting on LGBT-related topics in sports.\"\n\nNFL player Ryan O'Callaghan came out publicly as gay in 2017; he came out to then-Kansas City Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli before his NFL career ended in 2011. In 2019 O'Callaghan said, \"I think it's safe to say there's at least one on every team who is either gay or bisexual. A lot of guys still see it as potentially having a negative impact on their career.\"\n\nPlayers coming out\n\nAfter NWFA player Alissa Wykes came out as lesbian in the December/January 2002 edition of Sports Illustrated for Women, the league's owner, Catherine Masters, condemned her for pursuing her own \"personal agenda\", stating that the league had received \"hundreds of phone calls. Gay people were saying it was horrible. Straight people were saying it was great.\" In 2003, as a panel member at the first National Gay/Lesbian Athletics Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Wykes joked that she felt \"great empathy for the women on my team who are straight. I mean—a straight female football player?\"\n\nDivision II college football player Brian Sims came out as gay to his team in 2000 while playing for Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, and publicly told his story in 2009. Alan Gendreau was openly gay to his Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football team from 2008 through 2011, but they made no mention of it to the media. Otherwise, he could have been the first publicly out gay active player in Division I college football. Outsports, a Web site specializing in LGBTQ people in sports, released his story about being a gay football player on April 23, 2013. In January 2014, Conner Mertens of the Division III Willamette Bearcats publicly came out as bisexual, becoming the first active college football player at any level to publicly come out as bisexual.\n\nAfter he retired, NFL player David Kopay in 1975 was the first major professional team-sport athlete to come out as gay. Prior to Carl Nassib's coming out, many experts believed that the first openly gay active NFL player would not be a current athlete, but instead an already out high school or college player who ends up in the NFL. CBSSports.com reported in April 2013 that one NFL team had a player that was not openly gay, but his teammates were aware that he was gay and did not care. That same month, Ayanbadejo said there were up to four NFL players who were considering coming out as gay on the same day with the hope that any backlash would be shared and the pressure on one person reduced. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell emphasized that sexual orientation discrimination was unacceptable in the NFL. His statement came after players said they were asked during the NFL Scouting Combine if they liked girls. In November 2018, former player Jeff Rohrer became the first known current or former NFL player to be in a same-sex marriage.\n\nIn February 2014, Sam publicly came out as gay after his college career had ended, and became the first publicly gay player drafted in the NFL when he was selected in the seventh round of the 2014 draft. Six months later, Chip Sarafin came out as gay, becoming the first active Division I player to come out as gay. The following season another Division I offensive lineman, Mason Darrow of Princeton, also came out as gay publicly. In August 2015, Sam became the first publicly gay player to play in a Canadian Football League (CFL) regular season game.\n\nIn 2017, Scott Frantz publicly came out as gay, joining My-King Johnson as two of the first openly gay players in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. Later that same year, Frantz became the first openly gay college football player to play in a game for an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision school.\n\nIn 2018, Bradley Kim of the Air Force Academy came out as gay, thus becoming the first openly gay football player to play for any military academy in the United States; open homosexuality was forbidden in the U.S. Armed Forces until 2012.\n\nIn August 2019, free agent Ryan Russell came out publicly as bisexual in an essay he penned for ESPN.\n\nIn June 2021, Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay via Instagram. He announced a $100,000 donation to the Trevor Project as part of the post. Nassib was entering his sixth NFL season and the second year of his three-year contract with the Las Vegas Raiders. He became the first openly gay player to play in an NFL regular-season game.\n\n* Posthumously outed\n Selected in the NFL Draft, never played in the league\n Placed on injured reserve, never played in the league\n Practice squad member, never played in the league\n\nSee also\n\nHomosexuality in sports in the United States\nHomosexuality in modern sports\nList of LGBT sportspeople\nList of LGBTQ+ American football players\n\nReferences\n\nHistory of American football\nAmerican Football\nNational Football League controversies\nCollege football controversies",
"The homosexual sports community in the United States, much like the LGBT community at large, has struggled with recognition, rights, and acceptance. This struggle for acceptance comes from both sport fan bases as well as from within the various sports organizations, associations, federations, etc. However, following the Stonewall riots there has been marginal and gradual improvement in the rights and acceptance of homosexual athletes coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In the past, an athlete who made the decision to come out was, in essence, committing career suicide, and would risk losing support from fans who come from more conservative or intolerant backgrounds. As such, there where no openly gay athletes in the United States until 2012-2013.\n\nIndividual sports\nThe study of the relationship between sports and homosexuality did not emerge until around the 1990s, when Brian Pronger and Michael Messner began interviewing athletes about their views on homosexuality. Neither researcher was able to find a male athlete who was openly gay and active competitors in both individual and team sports. They suggested that it was not that there were no such athletes during this period in time, but they were just too afraid to admit to it due to their teammates’ opposition to homosexuality. Messner reiterated this opposition in his 1992 study: “The extent of homophobia in the sports world is staggering. Males (in sports) learn early that to be gay, to be suspected of being gay, or even to be unable to prove one’s heterosexual status is not acceptable.\"\n\nNaturalized U.S. citizen Martina Navratilova was openly lesbian while still playing tennis, as was Billie Jean King, though previously married.\n\nTeam sports\n\nA member of the United States women's national soccer team, Megan Rapinoe, came out in 2012. Several other members and alumni of the team, including Adrianna Franch, Tierna Davidson, Abby Wambach, Sarah Huffman, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger, are also openly homosexual. Harris and Krieger are a couple; Wambach and Huffman were once married but have since divorced.\n\nIn 2013, soccer's Robbie Rogers and basketball's Jason Collins publicly came out as gay. Several athletes declared their support for both Rogers and Collins; also President Barack Obama contacted both athletes offering his support. Thierry Henry, at the time playing in Major League Soccer, was quoted in a column for New York Daily News as saying \"he (Rogers) is a human being, first of all. And that’s good enough.\" Rogers then made his historic debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy in May 2013 and became the first openly gay male athlete to compete on a professional sporting team in North America. In basketball, Sheryl Swoopes came out in 2005, Brittney Griner came out in 2013, and Elena Delle Donne came out in 2016.\n\nIn 2014, Michael Sam, an openly gay college football player, was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the 2014 NFL Draft, becoming both the first openly gay National Football League athlete and the first athlete in any sport to be drafted into a major league while already openly gay (rather than coming out after they were already playing in the league).\nIn June 2021, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay via Instagram.\n\nResearcher Eric Anderson found \"more openly gay runners and swimmers than football and baseball players.\" He then hypothesized that this occurred because gay men likely abandoned the more macho sports in favor of sports that were more accepting of homosexuality. In 2006, a Sports Illustrated poll of roughly 1,400 professional athletes found that a majority would be willing to accept a gay teammate. Although an aggressive and often violent sport, professional hockey (NHL) athletes seemed to be the most accepting of such teammates as 80% of its players approved of having a gay teammate.\n\nNearly a quarter of those in the U.S. polled believe that openly gay athletes hurt sports in general, while over half think being openly gay hurts the athlete's career.\n\nIn 2002, the National Gay Flag Football League was founded.\n\nSee also\n\n Homosexuality in modern sports\n Transgender people in sports\n List of LGBT sportspeople\nTraining Rules, a documentary film\n\nReferences\n\nLGBT in the United States\nUnited States\nSports in the United States"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\".",
"Did he have any male lovers of note?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he ever marry or date a woman for \"cover\"?",
"He later told a columnist, \"I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls.",
"Was he ever attacked for being gay?",
"Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15.",
"Was he abused otherwise at home?",
"wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father.",
"Did he support any gay charities after he came out?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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When he announced he was gay was his career effected?
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When Little Richard announced he was gay, was his career affected?
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Little Richard
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Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances.
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
African-American Christians
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
African-American rock singers
African-American songwriters
American male pianists
American male singer-songwriters
American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
American rock pianists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
American Seventh-day Adventists
American soul singers
Bisexual men
Bisexual musicians
Brunswick Records artists
Converts to Adventism
Deaths from bone cancer
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT Protestants
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
Mercury Records artists
Modern Records artists
Musicians from Macon, Georgia
Oakwood University alumni
Okeh Records artists
People self-identified as ex-gay
RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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"Rayvon Owen (born June 27, 1991) is an American musician from Richmond, Virginia and came in fourth place in the fourteenth season of American Idol. He released his EP Cycles August 26, 2014 prior to the contest, and his official single \"Can't Fight It\" in February 2016. Owen served as the host for TBS's reality competition series The Sims Spark'd.\n\nEarly life\nRayvon Owen was born in Richmond, Virginia living with his single mother and one sister. He graduated from the Henrico High School Center for the Arts and Belmont University and worked as a singer and vocal coach.\n\nMusic career\n\n2014: Early career \nRayvon has his own music video, \"Sweatshirt\" which premiered in November 2014. He also has a debut EP Cycles.\n\n2015: American Idol \nHe auditioned for the fourteenth season of American Idol with \"Wide Awake\" by Katy Perry and was chosen for Top 24 and eventually Top 12. After being in the bottom three in the top 11, (which guaranteed two people would be eliminated), Owen was deemed safe. Owen was in the bottom two for five consecutive weeks, but emerged victorious, thanks to the Idol Twitter Fan Save, where the bottom two perform and fans vote on Twitter for who should advance. Owen was the only recipient of the fan save in the entire season earning him the nicknames \"Twitter King\" and \"Comeback Kid\". Owen finished in fourth place and was included on the Idols Live Tour.\n\nPerformances and results\n\n When Ryan Seacrest announced the results in the particular night, Owen was in the bottom 3, but was the only contestant declared safe as both Adanna Duru and Maddie Walker were eliminated.\n When Ryan Seacrest announced the results for this particular night, Owen was in the bottom 2, but was declared safe by Twitter vote as Daniel Seavey was eliminated.\n When Ryan Seacrest announced the results for this particular night, Owen was in the bottom 2, but was declared safe by Twitter vote as Qaasim Middleton was eliminated.\n When Ryan Seacrest announced the results for this particular night, Owen was in the bottom 2, but was declared safe by Twitter vote as Joey Cook was eliminated.\n When Ryan Seacrest announced the results for this particular night, Owen was in the bottom 2, but was declared safe by Twitter vote as Quentin Alexander was eliminated.\n When Ryan Seacrest announced the results for this particular night, Owen was in the bottom 2, but was declared safe as Tyanna Jones was eliminated.\n\n2016-present: New music \nOn the Valentine's Day weekend of 2016, Owen debuted a new single, \"Can't Fight It\" written with Mylen, Nate Merchant, and Isaiah Tejada. The accompanying music video acts as his official \"coming out\" as gay, sharing a kiss at the end with LGBT activist Shane Bitney Crone. Owen told Billboard: \"You’d be surprised at the amount of times I tried to pray the gay away from me or tried to tell God to take this away from me. No kid should have to do what I did and pray to not be who they are. That’s why I think it’s important even in 2016 to say this.\"\n\nIn January 2018, Owen was picked as Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month. He was featured on the Today where he performed his single \"Gold.\"\n\nPersonal life\nOn February 14, 2016, Owen premiered a music video for his song \"Can't Fight It\", at the end of which he kisses a man. That same day, Owen's interview with Billboard was published in which he came out as gay. One day later Shane Bitney Crone, who is featured as the romantic lead in the music video, announced that he and Owen are a couple. On March 3, 2018, they announced they would be getting married, after Crone proposed to Owen on stage at a Demi Lovato concert.\n\nDiscography\n\nEPs\n\nSingles\n2016: \"Can't Fight It\"\n2018: \"Gold\"\n2020: \"Space Between\" (with Blair St. Clair)\n\nDigital singles\n\nReferences\n\n1991 births\nLiving people\nAmerican Idol participants\nAmerican gay musicians\nLGBT African Americans\nLGBT people from Virginia\nLGBT singers from the United States\nMusicians from Richmond, Virginia\nHenrico High School alumni\n20th-century LGBT people\n21st-century LGBT people\n21st-century African-American male singers",
"Michael R. Nelson is an American politician who served as Mayor of Carrboro, North Carolina from 1995 to 2005 and as a county commissioner for Orange County from 2006 to 2009. Nelson, who is a co-founder of Equality North Carolina, was the first openly gay mayor in North Carolina. At the time of his inauguration, he was one of five openly gay mayors in the United States. When he left his mayoral office in 2005, he was the longest-serving mayor in Carrboro's history.\n\nEarly life \nMike Nelson grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina. His father was an attorney for the United States Marine Corps and his mother was a teacher. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and came out as gay his sophomore year. He graduated in 1989 with a degree in political science and eventually became a production manager for a clothing manufacturing company in Chapel Hill.\n\nPolitical career \nIn 1987 Nelson campaigned for Joe Herzenberg, who was elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council. He then decided to start his own political career in the nearby town of Carrboro, and in 1989 he sought election to the town's board of aldermen, losing by 30 votes. In 1990 he participated in local campaign efforts for the Democratic Party and thereafter co-founded North Carolina Pride PAC for Lesbian and Gay Equality, a political action committee which lobbied for the repeal of North Carolina's anti-sodomy law.\n\nIn 1993 he again sought election to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and won with backing from the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. During his tenure convinced the board to pass two measures to recognize domestic partnerships, including the offering of health benefits to domestic partners of town employees. In 1995 he sought election as Mayor of Carrboro, downplaying his sexuality and focusing on environmental issues, development, and taxation. He defeated two other candidates in the November election, earning almost 50 percent of the votes. Nelson was seated as Mayor on December 5, 1995. His inauguration made him one of five openly gay mayors in the United States at the time and the first openly gay mayor in North Carolina. In 1997 he and the aldermen agreed to purchase the building of the former Carrboro Baptist Church, which was subsequently turned into town offices and an events center. The following year the town created a Fête de la Musique committee, with Nelson serving as a founding member.\n\nNelson left office in 2005, departing as the longest-serving mayor in Carrboro's history. The following year he was elected to a seat on the Orange County Board of Commissioners. In 2007 he registered as a candidate for a seat in the North Carolina General Assembly, but withdrew when incumbent Eleanor Kinnaird announced her intention to seek re-election. In 2009 he announced his decision to not seek reelection to the county commission. In 2017 he signed an open letter endorsing the Durham–Orange Light Rail Transit project.\n\nReferences\n\nWorks cited \n \n\nLiving people\nDate of birth missing (living people)\nCounty commissioners in North Carolina\nGay politicians\nLGBT mayors of places in the United States\nLGBT people from North Carolina\nMayors of places in North Carolina\nNorth Carolina Democrats\nPeople from Jacksonville, North Carolina\nUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\".",
"Did he have any male lovers of note?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he ever marry or date a woman for \"cover\"?",
"He later told a columnist, \"I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls.",
"Was he ever attacked for being gay?",
"Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15.",
"Was he abused otherwise at home?",
"wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father.",
"Did he support any gay charities after he came out?",
"I don't know.",
"When he announced he was gay was his career effected?",
"Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances."
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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Did his sexuality effect his music?
| 8 |
Did Little Richard's sexuality affect his music?
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Little Richard
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Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to."
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
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Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
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[
"The \"Bambi effect\" in LGBT slang denotes a young gay man's foray into heterosexuality: \"the turning of a young (otherwise homosexual) man's fancy to (heterosexual) love\" by reference to \"the 'twitter-pated' Bambi\" leaving Thumper in the 1942 movie Bambi. In The Gay Report, it was described as the effect \"where the young males in spring all suddenly turn their attention away from each other towards females with puffy cheeks, red lips, batting eyelashes, etc.—where even Bambi and Thumper don't need each other any more\".\n\nSee also \n Bi-curious\n Sexual fluidity\n\nReferences \n\nBambi\nLGBT slang\nMetaphors referring to people\nBisexuality\nAdolescent sexuality\nMen and sexuality\nSame-sex sexuality",
"Queering The Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology is a 1994 book edited by Phillip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas. It was published in the United States by Routledge and focuses on the impact of factors such as sexuality or race has on a musician's music.\n\nSynopsis \nThe book's chapters examines how sexuality in the American Musicological Society (AMS) as well as the differences on how the musician's sexuality and the sexuality defines the musician's music along with gender, race, class and nationality.\n\nReception \nThe book has received reviews from multiple outlets, which includes the Journal of the American Musicological Society, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Musicology Australia, and Notes.\n\nReferences \n\n1994 non-fiction books\n1990s LGBT literature\nMusic books\nLGBT non-fiction books\nRoutledge books"
] |
[
"Little Richard",
"Sexual orientation",
"What was little richard's sexual orientation?",
"Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying \"I've been gay all my life\".",
"Did he have any male lovers of note?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he ever marry or date a woman for \"cover\"?",
"He later told a columnist, \"I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls.",
"Was he ever attacked for being gay?",
"Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15.",
"Was he abused otherwise at home?",
"wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father.",
"Did he support any gay charities after he came out?",
"I don't know.",
"When he announced he was gay was his career effected?",
"Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances.",
"Did his sexuality effect his music?",
"In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, \"I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to.\""
] |
C_77dfb97bd2734ddeaf7d18e113090d8f_0
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Did being gay effect how he could practice his religion?
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Did being gay affect how Little Richard could practice his religion?
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Little Richard
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Little Richard stated that as a child, he only played with girls and felt feminine, which was the source of jokes and homophobic ridicule at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was brutally punished by his father. He began having sexual encounters with boys by his teen years and also occasionally had sex with older women. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15. As Richard later explained in 2010, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay." He first became involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. He was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car occupied by Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia. During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a drag performer in various burlesque shows. By the time he entered the Chitlin' Circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended his brand of makeup to him, Pancake 31. Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, he made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. He later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Though he was gay, Little Richard recalled female fans sending him naked photos and their phone numbers. While attending Oakwood College, Richard recalled a male student exposed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, he was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at men's toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his return to secular music in the 1960s. In 1984, while he claimed homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual". CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as "the architect of rock and roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. His performances during this period resulted in integration between White Americans and African Americans in his audience. In 1962, during a five-year period in which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs and taught the band's member Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works. Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest".
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932, the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church at a young age. Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.
His family was very religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days". He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk". As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers. Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade. While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
1947–1955: Beginnings
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show. After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88". In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener".
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia""sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne". In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies. Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine. After Richard began to find success later in the 1950s, RCA Victor reissued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. Richard's father, Bud was killed in 1952 after a confrontation outside his club. Richard continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tiajuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted despite his growing reputation for his high energy antics onstage. Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management. In '54, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Richard told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest,
(although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement and pushed Richard's voice forward Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
1956–1962: Initial success and conversion
Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas. Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."
Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later Producer H.B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt. Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing his souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".
Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist. Richard's show would stop several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him. Overall, Richard would produce seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It. That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.
Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 2, 1956. Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis. Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry. Richard would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were "holding it up". At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken". Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.
Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted". After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology. Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he did not know the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings. Specialty continued to release Richard recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959. Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with. His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung". While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.
1962–1979: Return to secular music
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show, leading to boos from the audience expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits. The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg. During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations. Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.
In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice. In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S. Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations. In November/December 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.
In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. In the Spring of 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.
Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.
Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi (however, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard as "you can't live on promises when you're on the road, so I had to cut that mess aloose". Hendrix had not been paid "for five-and-a-half weeks" and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials. Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966. His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love" and Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts. Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.
Richard felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform in huge venues overseas such as in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit. Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings. Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers which caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music. Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At". Richard was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970 and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years. In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track. It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.
On American TV, Richard announced that he would be in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day ). He also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized. By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry where he'd come on stage and announce himself "the king of rock and roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.
Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.
Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel -rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").
1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best, to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada ), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man". He worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay Wolfman Jack he planned on releasing a new album, with he and Sly Stone . (Never
materialized ). In 1976, he decided to retire again, physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again recutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they would not use new arrangements but original arrangements. Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits, for K-Tel Records, in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
1984–1999: Comeback
In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Richard. In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Richard to the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track. In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."
In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs , including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)" , "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ". He told Otis' story and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey , Hey Baby".
In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Throughout the 1990s, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke. In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.
2000–2020: Later years
In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance. In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Richard was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013. In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. "I am done, in a sense, because I don't feel like doing anything right now", he told the magazine, adding, "I think my legacy should be that when I started in showbusiness there wasn't no such thing as rock'n'roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's when rock really started rocking." Richard would perform one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up. Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture. In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards. In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s, including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, clean-shaven and without make-up and dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, in a wheelchair, and discussed his lifelong Christian faith.
On October 23, 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music. Richard claimed in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. Richard proposed marriage to Robinson but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel and became a stripper and socialite. Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened. Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's claims as they went back and forth. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores as he could not enter any due to the color of his skin.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin claimed it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and his sexuality. Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's claims that he was gay and Richard believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days". During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Richard said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing. The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to." Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers. Groupies began throwing undergarments at Richard during performances.
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Richard later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard. Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Richard withdrew from the college. In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ." In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual". In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard did, however, also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!" Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house." The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.
Religion
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian which coincided with his return to religion. Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Richard's shows. Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord." In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
In 2017, Penniman returned to his spiritual roots and appeared in a lengthy televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.
Health problems and death
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
In 2007, Penniman began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued, he was brought onstage by wheelchair, and was only able to play sitting down. On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine." Even though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.
On May 9, 2020, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer, after a two-month illness. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time of his death. In the following days, Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona. He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Legacy
Music
Richard was nicknamed "the architect of rock and roll". His music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk, respectively. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.
Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".
James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s funk.
Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."
Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works. As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Barnum also stated that Richard's "charisma was a whole new thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed. In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
Influence
Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that Richard was "an innovator whose influence spans America's musical diaspora from Gospel, the Blues & R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop." James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction of Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name. Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Richard early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style and Richard's.
The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Richard and singer Rick Richards. The members of the Beatles were heavily influenced by Richard, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down". "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public. McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it." During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little Richard), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also profoundly influenced by Richard, with Jagger citing him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the originator and my first idol". Late 1960s hard rock and heavy metal pioneer John Kay of Steppenwolf, as a young teen who did not understand the English language in East Prussia in the mid-1950s, was first inspired by rock 'n' roll music upon hearing Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' on a U.S. Armed Forces station on a homemade radio in 1956. Kay would later state, "it was unlike anything I ever heard before and it was instant 'chicken skin time' - I mean goosebumps from head to toe. From that time on my focus was to hear as much of that stuff as possible, and after a while it became a kind of adolescent dream that someday would be on the other side of the ocean, would learn how to speak English, and this music is something that I would play." Richard was also the first rock n roll influence on Rod Stewart, Peter Wolf, and Robert Plant. Plant was not interested in listening to music until he heard Little Richard on record, later stating, "I was a 13-year-old boy in Kidderminster when I heard Little Richard for the first time. My parents shielded me from anything that was worldly. I spent my time searching feverishly through my stamp collection or working on my Meccano, and then someone played me Good Golly, Miss Molly. The sound! It was fantastic, indescribable." David Bowie called Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. Lou Reed referred to Richard as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Richard and his saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally". Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life." Patti Smith said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on. Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on." The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Richard, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Richard's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Richard's piano. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Richard's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Richard's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars declared that Richard was one of he and his performer father's primary early influences. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard". Prior to his death in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Richard via the Beatles.
Honors
In the early 1990s, a portion of Mercer University Drive (between Telfair and College Streets) in Macon was renamed "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard". Just south of the easternmost portion of the renamed boulevard lies Little Richard Penniman Park.
In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojos The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll". In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
In 2010, Time magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The UK issue of GQ named Richard its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.
Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University in May 2013. The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Richard's childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and named the Little Richard Penniman—Pleasant Hill Resource House, a meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as provided by residents.
In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia, began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Richard be erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.
On March 14, 2021, Bruno Mars with Anderson .Paak performed at the 2021 Grammy Award ceremony to honor Little Richard. The performance was reported in the media to be the highlight of the show.
Awards
Although Richard never won a competitive Grammy (his classic run of hits ended before the Grammy's commenced), he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. His album Here's Little Richard and three of his songs ("Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally") are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richard has received various awards for his key role in the formation of popular music genres.
1956: He received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
1984: He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
1986: He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.
1990: He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994: He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
1997: He received the American Music Award of Merit.
2002: Along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, he was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
2002: He was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
2003: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: He was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
2008: He received a star on Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.
2009: He was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
2010: He received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
2015: He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.
2015: He received the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music.
2019: He received the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards.
Discography
Main albums
Here's Little Richard (1957)
Little Richard (1958)
The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)
Pray Along with Little Richard (1960)
Pray Along with Little Richard (Vol 2) (1960)
The King of the Gospel Singers (1962)
Little Richard Is Back (And There's A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) (1964)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits (1965)
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Live! (1967, live)
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1967, compilation)
The Explosive Little Richard (1967)
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! (1967, live)
The Rill Thing (1970)
Mr. Big (1971, compilation)
The King of Rock and Roll (1971)
Friends from the Beginning – Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972, compilation)
The Second Coming (1972)
Right Now! (1974)
Talkin' 'bout Soul (1974, compilation)
Little Richard Live (1976)
God's Beautiful City (1979)
Lifetime Friend (1986)
Shake It All About (1992)
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka (1992)
Southern Child (2005, recorded in 1972)
Filmography
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Little Richard Booking Agency
1932 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
African-American Christians
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
African-American rock singers
African-American songwriters
American male pianists
American male singer-songwriters
American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
American rock pianists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
American Seventh-day Adventists
American soul singers
Bisexual men
Bisexual musicians
Brunswick Records artists
Converts to Adventism
Deaths from bone cancer
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT Protestants
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
Mercury Records artists
Modern Records artists
Musicians from Macon, Georgia
Oakwood University alumni
Okeh Records artists
People self-identified as ex-gay
RCA Records artists
Rock and roll musicians
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
| false |
[
"Tony Carroll, LCSW, (Sept. 11, 1941, Murfreesboro AR – Dec. 29, 2015, New York City) established a psychotherapy practice in the Neartown area of Houston, Texas in 1983, making it the oldest LGBT psychotherapy practice in the city. He served as the first openly gay president of the Texas Society for Clinical Social Work and conducted one of the first studies on the stability of gay couples, though his research was never published. He practiced psychotherapy in Neartown in the same building as his spouse, Bruce W. Smith, DDS.\n\nPersonal life\nCarroll was raised in a small town in Arkansas by a religious family and later studied music at Hendrix College, where he began to question his sexuality. He discovered the book The Sixth Man by Jess Stearn, which suggested to Carroll that communities of productive gay people actually existed, causing him to question the prevailing attitudes about homosexual people. During his junior year of undergraduate school, he was engaged to a female vocalist in a trio for which he was the keyboardist. However, she broke off their engagement because she believed he was in love with the third member of the trio, a male vocalist, rather than her. This became Carroll's first gay relationship, and it lasted eight years, despite tremendous opposition from the parents on both sides.\n\nIn August 1968, Carroll took a choral department job in Houston and settled in the Neartown area of Houston. He later decided to abandon music in favor of pursuing a degree in social work, so he began to research long-term gay couples in graduate school at the University of Houston. He described the motivating force behind this decision as deriving from his \"20 years in the chair\" himself: he had difficulties finding therapists willing to work with a gay patient and later, gay couples, so he decided to help the gay community through this venue.\n\nCarroll first met Dr. Bruce W. Smith, a Houston-area dentist, at a Log Cabin Republican Convention in 1995. In 2003, they were married in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Carroll has said that although the marriage is not valid in the United States, he and his husband felt it was important to them to have their marriage recognized, and that it was an \"amazing\" and \"emotional\" experience. Carroll believed that religion's stronghold on America's politics and society is the main reason the US has not granted homosexuals the right to marry, while Canada and other countries have. He did believe, however, that the US would legalize gay marriage, and that people are infinitely more accepting of gays now than they were.\n\nCarroll and Smith continually presented themselves as a publicly gay couple because they believed that it provides a role model for others in the gay community. They claimed that their image as a professional gay couple is one of their greatest accomplishments to Houston's gay community. Their friends affectionately have called them \"Dental and Mental\" because their practices are located in the same building.\n\nCareer\nCarroll was a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LSCW), and did run his own practice since the 1980s. He was also a certified Imago relationship therapist, although he did not practice the teachings of this theory. Most recently, his psychotherapy practice was devoted to adults in both individual and couples, so although he had particular interest in working with the GLBT individuals and couples, his practice also included a large number of straight clients. He treated many people with concerns about anxiety, depression, mood disturbances, intimacy, relationships, grief and loss, mid-life, sexuality, self-esteem, growth, and couples' issues. He was voted Best Mental Health Therapist for the years 2003-2009 by Houston's OutSmart magazine. Carroll co-founded the Psychotherapy Resource Group, a training group for mental health professionals. He also taught the medical staff of several hospitals and organizations in how to deal with emotional crises in the hospital. He was the first openly gay president of Texas Society for Clinical Social Work and a diplomat of the International Congress for the Advancement of Private Practice.\n\nHe was active not only as a therapist but also for Houston's GLBT community. He said that \"most gay people know very early on that they are different and that they need to hide those differences. Remaining closeted and hiding the truth from the world becomes self defeating behavior, and invisibility makes it easier to perpetuate myths about gay people\". Therefore, he worked with the gay community to help them learn to accept themselves for who they are through his therapy sessions.\n\nIn 1983, Carroll conducted a study on stability in gay relationships, one of the first in America at the time. AIDS became a topic of national concern in the early 1980s, creating social stigma against anyone who identified with the gay community. By sending out an ad through the magazine This Week in Texas, he found forty homosexual couples from Houston who had been together a minimum of six years. Though he never published his research, it showed that homosexual relationships were just as stable as heterosexual relationships, despite the stereotype that homosexuals cannot have stable relationships. He also studied the integrated-ness of gay couples in the wider community, and found that these well-established couples tended not to interact with the inner-city bar scene, but instead referred to their heterosexual neighbors as their closest friends.\n\nSee also\nLGBT rights in Texas\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n http://www.houstontherapist.com\n\nUniversity of Houston alumni\n1941 births\n2015 deaths\nLGBT rights activists from the United States\nLGBT people from Arkansas\nAmerican psychotherapists",
"Brett Krutzsch (born September 17, 1979) is a scholar of religion at the Center for Religion and Media at New York University, where he serves as Editor of the online magazine the Revealer and teaches in NYU's Department of Religious Studies. He is the author of the 2019 book, Dying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual Politics from Oxford University Press. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsday, the Advocate, and he has been featured on NPR.\n\nEducation and personal life \nKrutzsch received his B.A. from Emory University and M.A. from New York University. He earned his Ph.D. in religion from Temple University, studying under Rebecca Alpert. In 2013, Krutzsch married Kevin Williams. They live in Manhattan, New York.\n\nCareer\nBefore he joined NYU's Center for Religion and Media in 2019, Krutzsch taught at Haverford College as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion, and at the College of Wooster as the Walter D. Foss Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.\n\nKrutzsch is an expert on LGBTQ history and religion in America. His first book, Dying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual Politics, from Oxford University Press examines how religion shaped LGBTQ political action in the United States. The book explores how LGBTQ activists used the deaths of Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk, Tyler Clementi, Brandon Teena, F.C. Martinez, campaigns like the It Gets Better Project, and national tragedies like the Pulse nightclub shooting for political purposes to promote assimilation. In 2020, Dying to Be Normal was named a Lambda Literary Award finalist for best LGBTQ nonfiction book of the year.\n\nKrutzsch has published on religion and LGBTQ politics in several scholarly journals including Theology and Sexuality, the Journal of Popular Culture, and Biblical Interpretation. In 2015, Krutzsch received the LGBT Religious History Award for his research and writing on Matthew Shepard. His public scholarship about religion and LGBTQ issues has been featured in the Advocate, Medium, Indianapolis Star, NPR's \"On Point,\" and on multiple podcasts, including the Radio GAG (Gays Against Guns) show. In 2019, Krutzsch was selected for the inaugural Sacred Writes public scholarship fellows program funded by the Henry R. Luce Foundation.\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\nAmerican religion academics\nEmory University alumni\nNew York University alumni\nTemple University alumni\nGay academics\n21st-century American male writers\nAmerican gay writers\n1979 births\n21st-century LGBT people"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)"
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
What major event happened in that time period?
| 1 |
What major event happened with Macy Gray in the time period of 2001-2005?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
|
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| true |
[
"History of the Russian Revolution is a two-volume book by Leon Trotsky on the Russian Revolution of 1917. The first volume is dedicated to the political history of the February Revolution and the October Revolution, to explain the relations between these two events. The book was initially published in Germany in 1930. The original language is Russian, but it was translated into English by Max Eastman in 1932; in the English translation the second volume, originally consisting of two parts, is split into two volumes. The book was considered anti-stalinist in the Soviet Union and only made it to publication in Russia as late as in 1997.\n\nConcept and creation \nThe Russian Revolution of 1917 was a major event in history that changed the world. It was the first time in history that the toiled masses had successfully established their own rule. After the revolution the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was born, which further eliminated poverty, established free medicine and highly subsidized housing, free education, and job security. Famous American journalist John Reed described the Russian Revolution in the following words in his famous Ten Days That Shook the World book:No matter what one thinks of Bolshevism, it is undeniable that the Russian Revolution is one of the great events of human history, and the rise of the Bolsheviki a phenomenon of worldwide importance. Just as historians search the records for the minutest details of the story of the Paris Commune, so they will want to know what happened in Petrograd in November, 1917, the spirit which animated the people, and how the leaders looked, talked and acted.Leon Trotsky was a leading leader of the Bolshevik Revolution along with Vladimir Lenin. He was expelled from the party and exiled by Joseph Stalin. He tried to take refuge in different countries and was able to take refuge in Mexico but was finally murdered in 1940. During his exile period in Turkey, Trotsky wrote this book on the isle of Prinkipo.\n\nThe History of Russian Revolution recreates the story of the Bolshevik revolution. The important quality of this book is its ability to be a memory and an account of a major historical event by a participant and theorist. \n\nThe book is divided among three volumes which are: \"The Overthrow of Tzarism\", \"The Attempted Counter-Revolution\" and \"The Triumph of the Soviets\". Their brief description is as below;\n\n Volume one deals with the overthrow of the Tsar.\n Volume two covers the period from the 'July Days'.\n Volume three deals with the national question, the preparation of power, and the October insurrection.\n\nIt is considered an important and unique work as a history of a major event written by someone who took a leading role in it.\n\nPublication \nThe basic motivation of Trotsky behind writing this piece was to translate the experience of the revolution into both a teaching tool and a weapon in the revolution. Isaac Deutscher, Trotsky's biographer, described The History of the Russian Revolution as Trotsky's,\"Crowning work, both in scale and power and as the fullest expression of his ideas on revolution.\" Trotsky himself says \"The history of a revolution, like every other history, ought first of all to tell what happened and how. That however is, little enough. From the very telling it ought to become clear why it happened thus and not otherwise.\" In his note about the author in the first English translation, Eastman wrote that \"this present work [...] will take its place in the record of Trotsky's life [...] as one of the supreme achievements of this versatile and powerful mind and will\".In 2017, on the centennial of the Russian Revolution famous writer Tariq Ali reviewed the book and wrote that\"This passionate, partisan, and beautifully written account by a major participant in the revolution, written during his exile on the isle of Prinkipo in Turkey, remains one of the best accounts of 1917. No counter-revolutionary, conservative or liberal, has been able to compete with this telling.\"\n\nSee also\n Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War\n Leon Trotsky bibliography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n The History of the Russian Revolution. The whole book at the Marxists Internet Archive.\n\n1932 non-fiction books\nCommunist books\nBooks about the Russian Revolution\nRevolutions\nHistory books about the Russian Revolution\nWorks by Leon Trotsky\nBooks about Trotskyism",
"This article concerns the period 669 BC – 660 BC.\n\nEvents\n 669 BC: Taharqa, king of Kush, invades and reconquers Egypt from the Assyrian Empire.\n 669 BC: Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, dies in Harran on his way to recover Egypt.\n 668 BC: Ashurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, starts to rule Assyria.\n 668 BC: Shamash-shum-ukin, son of Esarhaddon, becomes King of Babylon.\n 668 BC: Nineveh, capital of Assyria becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Thebes in Egypt (estimation).\n 667 BC: Traditional date of the founding of Byzantium by Megaran colonists under Byzas.\n 666 BC: Ashurbanipal sends a small Assyrian army corps to Egypt which recovers Lower Egypt from Taharqa's forces.\n 664 BC: First naval battle in Greek recorded history, between Corinth and Corcyra.\n 664 BC: Tantamani succeeds his uncle Taharqa as king of Kush. He invades Egypt to try to take it back.\n 664 BC: Necho I, puppet Pharaoh of Egypt, is killed by invading Kushite forces under Tantamani.\n 663 BC: Assyrian army captures and sacks Thebes, Egypt, ending the Nubian period in Egypt.\n 660 BC: Traditional founding date of Japan by Emperor Jimmu on 11 February.\n 660 BC: First known use of the Demotic script.\n 660 BC: Mythical founding of the Japanese royal family.\n\nAt a slightly uncertain date in the latter part of this decade, there was an extreme solar particle event comparable with the event detected at AD 774/775 The exact date, and duration of the event is unclear due in part to an approximate 2-year residence time of the nuclei generated in the atmosphere, before they \"rained out\" to be incorporated into tree rings and glacial ice, but the event seems to have happened in the latter part of this decade. The possibility of there being a series of events spread over a period of time remains in consideration. What meteorological and astronomical phenomena would have accompanied this event remains an open question. The estimated \"brightness\" of the event is about 2 orders of magnitude stronger than any that has been instrumentally recorded since the dawn of the Space Age.\n\nReferences"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)",
"What major event happened in that time period?",
"In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,"
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
How was the album taken by the public?
| 2 |
How was Macy Gray's third studio album taken by the public?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
|
the album was not as well received by fans.
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| true |
[
"How the West Was Won may refer to:\n How the West Was Won (film), a 1962 American Western film\n How the West Was Won (TV series), a 1970s television series loosely based on the film\n How the West Was Won (Bing Crosby album) (1959)\n How the West Was Won (Led Zeppelin album) (2003)\n How the West Was Won (Peter Perrett album) (2017)\n How the West Was Won, a 2002 album by Luni Coleone\n \"How the West Was Won\", a 1987 song by Laibach from Opus Dei\n \"How the West Was Won\", a 1996 song by the Romo band Plastic Fantastic\n\nSee also\n How the West Was Fun, a 1994 TV movie starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen\n How the West Was One (disambiguation)\n \"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us\", a 1997 song by R.E.M.",
"No Time to Chill is the fifth studio album by German band Scooter. It was released on 20 July 1998. It contains three singles, \"How Much Is the Fish?\", \"We Are The Greatest/I Was Made For Lovin' You\" and \"Call Me Mañana\". It is the first album featuring Axel Coon.\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written and composed by H.P. Baxxter, Rick J. Jordan, Axel Coon, and Jens Thele; except \"I Was Made for Lovin' You\" written by Paul Stanley, Desmond Child, and Vini Poncia; \"Eyes Without a Face\" written by Billy Idol and Steve Stevens.\nAll lyrics written by The Radical MC H.P.\n\n\"Last Warning\" – 0:56\n\"How Much Is the Fish?\" – 3:45\n\"We Are the Greatest\" – 5:08\n\"Call Me Mañana\" – 3:54\n\"Don't Stop\" – 3:39\n\"I Was Made for Lovin' You\" – 3:32\n\"Frequent Traveller\" – 3:35\n\"Eyes Without a Face\" – 3:17\n\"Hands Up!\" – 4:05\n\"Everything's Borrowed\" – 5:13\n\"Expecting More from Ratty\" – 4:10\n\"Time and Space\" – 4:49\nNotes\n\"How Much Is the Fish?\" samples the song \"Zeven Dagen Lang\" by the Dutch band Bots. The melody originates from a traditional Celtic Son ar Chistr played on Alan Stivell's 1970 album Reflets. The title is derived from lyrics in the song \"Buffalo\" by Anglo-Irish indie group Stump, taken from the 1986 mini-album Quirk Out. The background music sample comes from the album version of the song Paradox from the German band 666.\n\"We Are The Greatest\" samples the 1982 single \"Street Dance\" by rap act Break Machine and the lyrics of the 1985 song \"Don't Stop The Rock\" by Freestyle.\nSingle version of \"Call Me Mañana\" samples the song \"James Brown Is Dead\" by Dutch rave duo L.A. Style, as well as Scooter's own song \"I'm Raving\".\n\"I Was Made For Lovin' You\" is a cover of the KISS song, taken from the 1979 album Dynasty.\n\"Eyes Without A Face\" is a cover of the Billy Idol song, taken from the 1983 album Rebel Yell.\n\"Expecting More From Ratty\" was the first mention of the group's future pseudonym 'Ratty', under which name they would release two singles and produce several remixes.\n\nCharts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n1998 albums\nEdel AG albums\nScooter (band) albums"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)",
"What major event happened in that time period?",
"In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,",
"How was the album taken by the public?",
"the album was not as well received by fans."
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
How did this affect Macy?
| 3 |
How did the fan's reception of her third studio album affect Macy?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
|
Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released:
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| true |
[
"Jesse Macy (June 21, 1842 – November 2, 1919) was an American political scientist and historian of the late 19th and early 20th century, specializing in the history of American political parties, party systems, and the Civil War. He spent most of his professional career at his alma mater, Grinnell College.\n\nLife\nJesse Macy, the thirteenth of fourteen children, was born to Quaker parents in Indiana, but the family moved to central Iowa in 1856 and started farming outside Lynnville, near the newly founded town of Grinnell. At age 17, he entered Iowa College, now Grinnell College. During the Civil War, he served in the Union army and he did not graduate until after the war, earning an A.B. in 1870.\n\nDuring the 1870s, Macy started what would become a long-term correspondence with James Bryce, a noted British jurist and politician. In 1884, he completed his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University. The next year, he returned to the Midwest to take a professorship at Iowa College. For the next forty-two years, Macy taught history and political science at the college.\n\nIn the 1890s, Macy defended radical aspects of the burgeoning social gospel taught at Iowa College by professor of Applied Christianity George Herron and college president George A. Gates. Macy supported liberal education in a newspaper article, saying:\n\nHe was also a leading author of political science textbooks. Macy's 1896 manual on American civil government, Our Government. How It Grew, What It Does, And How it Does It, was an influential primer for university students and his 1897 The English Constitution: A Commentary on its Nature and Growth was acclaimed for providing the necessary foundation in English law to correctly understand American law.\n\nIn his 1904 work Party Organization and Machinery Macy wrote, \"While our party system is without Old World models, it is strikingly in harmony with our other forms of political activity....\" and \"Various references to party and faction found in The Federalist illustrate the type of American ideas which prevailed before the American party system appeared\" (pp. xiv-xvi). The work also included a whole chapter entitled \"Effect of the City upon the Party System\".\n\nIn 1911, Grinnell awarded Macy an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.\n\nAfter retiring in 1912, Macy traveled widely and continued writing until his death in 1919.\n\nIn February 2008, Grinnell's board of trustees voted to name one of the college office buildings \"Jesse Macy House\" in memory of the long-serving professor. The building, at 1205 Park St., houses a number of interdisciplinary centers, including the Center for Peace Studies and the Rosenfield Program.\n\nMacy's descendants include SLAC physicist H. Pierre Noyes.\n\nPublications \n Institutional Beginnings in a Western State (1884), .\n Our Government. How It Grew, What It Does, And How it Does It (1886, 1890). Full text of 1901 edition\n The English Constitution: A Commentary on its Nature and Growth (1897). Full text\n Political Parties in the United States, 1846–1861 (1900, reprinted 1974). Full text\n Party Organization and Machinery (1904). Full text of 1912 edition\n The Anti-Slavery Crusade: a Chronicle of the Gathering Storm (1919). Full text\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n Jesse Macy: An Autobiography / edited and arranged by his daughter, Katharine Macy Noyes. Springfield, Ill. : C.C. Thomas, 1933.\n\nExternal links \n \n \n Jesse Macy Papers at the Grinnell College Archives, including some biographical information\n\n1842 births\nAmerican political scientists\nGrinnell College alumni\nJohns Hopkins University alumni\nGrinnell College faculty\nAmerican political writers\nAmerican male non-fiction writers\n1919 deaths",
"Susan Beth Macy (born May 13, 1954) is an American author. She writes young adult nonfiction, focusing mainly on women's history and sports. Her 2019 book, The Book Rescuer, won the American Library's Association's 2020 Sydney Taylor Book Award.\n\nEarly life and education\nMacy was born in New York City in 1954 and raised in Clifton, New Jersey. Macy is Jewish. Her father, Morris Macy, was a certified public accountant and her mother, Ruth Macy (née Narotsky), taught high school business classes until becoming a homemaker. In her youth, Macy's career interests leaned toward law, but after she won a scholarship in 1971 through her local newspaper to Northwestern University’s summer high school journalism institute her interests began to broaden to writing and journalism. The Northwestern University Journalism Institute enabled Macy to serve as a summer intern to the North Jersey Herald News for the next three years.\n\nMacy attended Clifton High School and Princeton University.\n\nCareer\nMacy's book, Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way), was published by the National Geographic Society and explores the impact of the bicycle on women's liberation in the 1890s. It was a finalist for the Young Adult Library Services Association's YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults in 2012. Maria Popova wrote on Brain Pickings that Wheels of Change is \"a remarkable National Geographic tome that tells the riveting story of how the two-wheel wonder pedaled forward the emancipation of women in late-nineteenth-century America and radically redefined the normative conventions of femininity.\"\n\nMacy's 2019 picture book, The Book Rescuer, is the story of Yiddish Book Center's founder Aaron Lansky. The Book Rescuer was a Parents' Choice Award winner and has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and The New York Times. The Book Rescuer was announced as the winner of the 2020 Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Picture Book category at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards on January 27, 2020.\n\nIn February 2020, the National Geographic Society released Macy's exploration of female athletes in the 1920s, entitled Breaking Through: How Female Athletes Shattered Stereotypes in the Roaring Twenties.\n\nBooks\n A Whole New Ball Game: The Story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (Henry Holt and Company, 1993)\n Winning Ways: A Photohistory of American Women in Sports (Henry Holt and Company, 1996)\n Play Like a Girl: A Celebration of Women In Sports (Henry Holt and Company, 1999) — edited with Jane Gottesman\n Girls Got Game: Sports Stories and Poems (Henry Holt and Company, 2001)\n Bull's Eye: A Photobiography of Annie Oakley (National Geographic Society, 2001)\n Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics (National Geographic Society, 2004)\n Freeze Frame: A Photographic History of the Winter Olympics (National Geographic Society, 2006)\n Bylines: A Photobiography of Nellie Bly (National Geographic Society, 2009)\n Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) (National Geographic Society, 2011)\n Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women’s Hoops on the Map (Holiday House, 2011) — illustrated by Matt Collins\n Roller Derby Rivals (Holiday House, 2011) — illustrated by Matt Collins\n Sally Ride: Life on a Mission (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2014)\n Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster, 2016) — illustrated by C.F. Payne\n Trudy's Big Swim: How Gertrude Ederle Swam the English Channel and Took the World By Storm (Holiday House, 2017) — illustrated by Matt Collins\n Motor Girls: How Women Took the Wheel and Drove Boldly Into the Twentieth Century (National Geographic Society, 2017)\n The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster, 2019) — illustrated by Stacy Innerst\n Breaking Through: How Female Athletes Shattered Stereotypes in the Roaring Twenties (National Geographic Society, released in February 2020)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nVoice of America Interview: Author Sue Macy Discusses History of US Women Athletes|\n\n21st-century American women writers\nPeople from Clifton, New Jersey\nPeople from Englewood, New Jersey\n20th-century American historians\nClifton High School (New Jersey) alumni\nPrinceton University alumni\n1954 births\nLiving people\nAmerican writers of young adult literature\nWriters from New York City\nSports historians\nWomen's historians\nAmerican women historians\n21st-century American historians\nHistorians from New Jersey\n20th-century American women writers\nJewish American historians\nHistorians from New York (state)\n21st-century American Jews"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)",
"What major event happened in that time period?",
"In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,",
"How was the album taken by the public?",
"the album was not as well received by fans.",
"How did this affect Macy?",
"Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released:"
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
How did the live album do?
| 4 |
How did Macy Gray's live album do?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| false |
[
"VH1: Storytellers is a live album by Meat Loaf. Meat Loaf told humorous stories of his career as a singer and how he unfolded into rock stardom. The DVD version has two additional songs. Some songs on the CD are taken from Meat Loaf's Hard Rock Live performance (also for VH1). Others were taken from the pre-show soundcheck. The album peaked at No. 129 on the Billboard 200, making it his lowest charting album in the United States.\n\nThe show was to have been Meat and Jim Steinman together. However, due to Jim falling ill, Meat had to do the show alone. This worried the producers, as Storytellers is about the concept of each song that an artist wrote that they were about to perform, and Meat did not write his own songs. To counter this, according to the liner notes of the CD, Meat improvised several things, such as the actions on the Radio Broadcast portion of Paradise by the Dashboard Light. For the stories, he instead goes into detail about how the hit album Bat Out of Hell was conceived, with each song preceded by him discussing how the song fit into the making of the album and the difficulties that came into making, producing, and publishing the album. Meat also pitched a solution to how to get around the length of the songs: break up songs into two television segments, with stopping the song for a commercial, then finishing the song once they returned.\n\nTrack listing\n\"All Revved Up with No Place to Go\"\n\"Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back\" – Hard Rock Live version\n\"Story\" (Audience Member talks to Meat)\n\"You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)\"\n\"Story\" (Meat answers \"What is 'That'?\" when talking about I'd Do Anything for Love)\n\"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)\" – Hard Rock Live version\n\"Lawyers, Guns and Money\" – Hard Rock Live version\n\"Story\" (How Meat met Jim Steinman)\n\"More Than You Deserve\"\n\"Story\" (Meat discussing pitching an album, which would become Bat Out of Hell)\n\"Heaven Can Wait\" – Soundcheck before the show\n\"Story\" (Meat discusses the difficulties of demoing Bat, getting a record deal, and how long Steinman's songs were before being published)\n\"Paradise by the Dashboard Light\"\n\"Story\" (How Meat hates going on television, and what song \"broke\" Bat)\n\"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad\" – Hard Rock Live version\n\"Story\" (What the title song of Bat was written for)\n\"Bat Out of Hell\" – Soundcheck before the show\n\"Is Nothing Sacred\" – Bonus Track feat. Patti Russo\n\nDVD exclusive tracks\n\"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad\" – Alternate version\n\"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)\" – Alternate version\n\"Heaven Can Wait\" – Alternate version\n\"Bat Out of Hell\" – Alternate version\n\"A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste\"\n\"Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through\"\n\nPersonnel\n Meat Loaf – lead vocals, guitar\n Patti Russo – female lead vocals\n Damon La Scot – lead guitar\n Ray Anderson – rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals\n Kasim Sulton – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, musical director\n Tom Brislin – piano, vocals\n John Miceli – drums\n Pearl Aday – backing vocals\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\nMeat Loaf albums\n1999 live albums\n1999 video albums\nLive video albums\nVH1 Storytellers",
"\"How Do I Make You\" is a song composed by Billy Steinberg and recorded by Linda Ronstadt in 1980, reaching the top 10 in the United States.\n\nWriting and recording\nSteinberg stated that he was \"a little bit influenced\" by the Knack hit \"My Sharona\" in writing \"How Do I Make You\". He originally recorded the song with his band Billy Thermal as one of several demos produced while the band was signed to Planet Records. The label ultimately did not release these songs. However, several Billy Thermal demos, including \"How Do I Make You\", were eventually included on a Billy Thermal EP released by Kinetic Records, a Los Angeles-based independent label.\n\nAccording to Steinberg, the song's later rise to fame was born from a relationship between Billy Thermal's guitarist, Craig Hull, and Wendy Waldman, a backing vocalist for Linda Ronstadt's live shows: \"without asking my permission or anything, Wendy and Craig played the Billy Thermal demos for Linda Ronstadt, and Linda liked the song 'How Do I Make You.'\"\n\nRelease\n\"How Do I Make You\", which featured Nicolette Larson on backing vocals, was released as an advance single from the album Mad Love. It exemplified Ronstadt's change to a harder-edged style, propelling her stardom briefly in the direction of new wave. Shipped on January 15, 1980, \"How Do I Make You\" hit number 6 on the Cash Box Top 100 chart. On the Billboard Hot 100, it reached a peak of number 10.\n\nA non-album track, Ronstadt's version of the traditional \"Rambler Gambler\", was the B-side of \"How Do I Make You\" and was serviced to C&W radio, charting on the Billboard C&W chart at number 42.\n\n\"How Do I Make You\" appeared in the U.S. Top 10 for several weeks during March and April 1980. The track hit number 1 on many AOR (Album Oriented Rock) stations' charts. The single was also successful in Australia (number 19) and New Zealand (number 3).\n\nA live version, recorded for an HBO special in April 1980, is included in the 2019 release \"Live In Hollywood\".\n\nCritical reception\nAllMusic critic Mike DeGagne assessed \"How Do I Make You\" as \"a far cry from the ballads, the love songs, and the ample amount of cover versions that [Ronstadt] had charted with in the past\" saying \"[the track's] quick tempo and pulsating pace had Ronstadt showing some new wave spunk mixed with a desire to rock out a little.\" However, Rolling Stone critic Stephen Holden, felt that on \"How Do I Make You\" Ronstadt \"frankly imitates Deborah Harry,\" the lead vocalist of defining new wave act Blondie. He further described the song as \"Buddy Holly-like\" and that it roughly brackets \"How Do I Make You\" with earlier Ronstadt hits \"That'll Be the Day\" (1976) and \"It's So Easy\" (1977), both remakes of Buddy Holly records.\n\nCover version\nThe 1980 album Chipmunk Punk by Alvin and the Chipmunks featured a cover of How Do I Make You, with Simon Seville singing the lead.\n\nIn 2019, Australian hard rock band Baby Animals released a version as the lead single from their first greatest hits album.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLinda Ronstadt songs\nBaby Animals songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\n1980 singles\n2019 singles\nSong recordings produced by Peter Asher\n1979 songs\nAsylum Records singles\nAlvin and the Chipmunks songs"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)",
"What major event happened in that time period?",
"In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,",
"How was the album taken by the public?",
"the album was not as well received by fans.",
"How did this affect Macy?",
"Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released:",
"How did the live album do?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
What was the title of her album?
| 5 |
What was the title of Macy Gray's live album?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
|
Live in Las Vegas
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| true |
[
"{{Infobox album\n| name = Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'\n| type = studio\n| artist = Lainey Wilson\n| cover = Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'.jpg\n| alt =\n| released = \n| recorded =\n| venue =\n| studio = Neon Cross Studios \n| genre = {{hlist|Country|<ref name=\"Allmusic\">{{cite web |title=Sayin' What I'm Thinkin: Lainey Wilson: Songs, reviews, credits |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sayin-what-im-thinkin-mw0003470520 |website=AllMusic |access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref>|classic country}}\n| length = 37:57\n| label = BBR\n| producer = Jay Joyce\n| prev_title = Redneck Hollywood\n| prev_year = 2019\n| next_title =\n| next_year =\n| misc = \n}}Sayin' What I'm Thinkin' is a studio album by American country singer–songwriter Lainey Wilson. It was released on February 19, 2021 via the BBR Music Group and contained 12 tracks. The album was the third studio collection released in Wilson's music career and the first issued on a major record label. The disc has since spawned two singles: \"Dirty Looks\" (2019) and \"Things a Man Oughta Know\" (2020). The latter release became Wilson's breakout single, reaching chart positions on the country music surveys in North America. Sayin' What I'm Thinkin has since been met with favorable reviews from critics and writers.\n\nBackground\nLainey Wilson had been attempting a career as a country music artist for several years. She had previously released the studio album Tougher and played a variety of shows while networking along the way. After signing a publishing deal, she would sign her first major record label contract with the BBR Music Group. In 2019, BBR issued the extended play (EP) Redneck Hollywood. Several of the songs that would appear on Sayin' What I'm Thinkin first appeared on Redneck Hollywood. In crafting the album, Wilson would continually ask herself if the music was \"saying what I'm thinking\". The phrase was used often enough that she decided to name the album Sayin' What I'm Thinkin.\n\nRecording and content\nSayin' What I'm Thinkin was recorded at the Neon Cross Studio, which was located in Nashville, Tennessee. The project was produced by Jay Joyce, aslong with assistance from Court Blankenship. In regards to production, Wilson explained that she and Joyce were \"kindred spirits\". A total of 12 songs comprised the collection and were all co-written by Wilson. In addition, Jason Nix and Brent Anderson are featured writers on multiple songs in the track listing. Several of the songs on the project were composed as far back as 2018 when Wilson first landed a publishing deal with Sony ATV. \"That’s when I started figuring out who I was more—what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to say it,\" she reflected. \n\nIn developing the album's sound, Wilson wanted it to sound \"fresh\" and \"familiar\". In an interview with Rolling Stone, Wilson explained that she wanted the disc to have the \"pureness of Lee Ann Womack\" and the \"sassiness of Dolly Parton\". Four of the disc's tracks were originally released on Redneck Hollywood: \"WWDD\", \"Dirty Looks\", \"LA\" and \"Things a Man Oughta Know\". The remaining eight songs were previously not released. The opening track \"Neon Diamonds\" was chosen as the lead song because it had similarities to a concert opener, according to Wilson. The song \"LA\" was derived from Wilson explaining to people that she was Louisiana (LA) and not Los Angeles. \"I’d meet people and they’d say, 'Where in the world are you from?' as soon as I’d open my mouth. And I’d say 'LA.' And they’d say, 'There’s no way you’re from Los Angeles.',\" she commented. \n\nThe song \"Pipe\" was described by Wilson as being her \"redneck rulebook\". The eighth track \"Keeping Bars in Business\" was composed after Wilson and her co-writers all experienced different personal tragedies: \"We were talking about how even though we were going through things in life, they don’t stop the world from turning,\" she stated. The tenth track \"WWDD\" (what would Dolly do) was a written as tribute to Dolly Parton, whom Wilson has been influence by: \"Dolly is an international icon and role model for a lot of folks around the world, so it’s an easy song for a lot of people to relate to.\" The eleventh track \"Rolling Stone\" was based off the breakup of Wilson and her high school boyfriend. After seven years of dating, the couple realized they were longer compatible. \n\nCritical reception\nSayin' What I'm Thinkin was met with favorable reviews from critics. Mark Deming of AllMusic commented that the album \"boasted more polished production but didn't dilute her style.\" Jon Freeman of Rolling Stone commented, \"It sounded like little else this year, and seemed particularly reflective of her singular, unabashedly Southern personality.\" Jeremy Chua compared Wilson's style on the album to that of Miranda Lambert and Kellie Pickler. Chua further added that \"Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin is a strong, cohesive introduction to who Lainey Wilson is. A force to be reckoned with, the Louisianan’s stellar album seals her position as a mainstay in country music.\"\n\n''Taste of Countrys Billy Dukes also gave the album a positive response. He praised Wilson's songwriting and her \"raspy\" voice. He also found the album to be genuine in both its production and vocal delivery: \"'Authentic' is a one-word review of Sayin' What I'm Thinkin, an album that's intentionally frayed at the edges. Beyond writing and recording songs that satisfy country music fans, she succeeds at introducing her whole self through the music.\" Pip Ellwood-Hughes of the United Kingdom-based Entertainment Focus praised her songwriting and the honesty in her lyrics. Ellwood-Hughes concluded by saying, \"Lainey Wilson has everything a breakout Country star needs and then some, and with any justice this will go down as one of the best records of 2021.\"\n\nRelease, chart performance and singlesSayin' What I'm Thinkin was originally released on February 19, 2021 on the BBR Music Group label. It was originally available to digital and streaming sites. It was later released as both a compact disc and as a vinyl LP. It was the third studio album released in Wilson's music career and her first to be released on a major label. The album was Wilson's second to reach the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Spending eight weeks on the list, the record peaked at number 40 in October 2021. Two songs had previously been issued as a singles prior to the album's release. The first single was \"Dirty Looks\", originally issued on October 3, 2019. The second was \"Things a Man Oughta Know\", which was released on August 24, 2020. The song became her breakout hit in the country field, reaching the top spot of the Billboard Country Airplay chart and the top five of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.\n\nTrack listing\nCD and digital versions\n{{Track listing\n| headline = Sayin' What I'm Thinkin (CD and digital versions)\n| title1 = Neon Diamonds\n| writer1 = \n| length1 = 3:06\n| title2 = Sunday Best\n| writer2 = \n| length2 = 3:13\n| title3 = Things a Man Oughta Know\n| writer3 = \n| length3 = 3:23\n| title4 = Small Town, Girl\n| writer4 = \n| length4 = 3:02\n| title5 = LA\n| writer5 = \n| length5 = 2:49\n| title6 = Dirty Looks\n| writer6 = \n| length6 = 3:14\n| title7 = Pipe\n| writer7 = \n| length7 = 2:49\n| title8 = Keeping Bars in Business\n| writer8 = \n| length8 = 3:45\n| title9 = Straight Up Sideways\n| writer9 = \n| length9 = 2:56\n| title10 = WWDD\n| writer10 = \n| length10 = 2:20\n| title11 = Rolling Stone\n| writer11 = \n| length11 = 3:59\n| title12 = Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'\n| writer12 = \n| length12 = 3:21\n| total_length = 37:57\n}}\n\nVinyl version\n\nPersonnel\nAll credits are adapted from the liner notes of Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'''.\n\nBrent Anderson - background vocals\nTom Bukovac - electric guitar, Fender Rhodes, handclaps\nFred Eltringham - djembe, drums, bongo, percussion, shaker, tambourine, vibraslap, gang vocals, handclaps\nAslan Freeman - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, gang vocals, handclaps\nJason Hall - gang vocals, handclaps\nJedd Hughes - mandolin\nJoel King - bass guitar, gang vocals, handclaps\nJoanna Janét - background vocals\nJay Joyce - acoustic guitar, B-3 organ, clavinet, drum machine, electric guitar, Farfisa organ, Fender Rhodes, keyboards, Oberheim, piano, programming, gang vocals, handclaps\nBilly Justineau - B-3 organ, CP-70, piano\nJimmy Mansfield - gang vocals, handclaps\nRob McNelley - dobro, electric guitar, gang vocals\nMickey Raphael - harmonica, Jew's harp\nMatt Rogers - background vocals\nJonathan Singleton - harmony vocals, background vocals\nLainey Wilson - lead vocals, background vocals, gang vocals, handclaps\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2021 albums\nAlbums produced by Jay Joyce\nBBR Music Group albums\nLainey Wilson albums",
"\"Pieces of Dreams\" is a song from the 1971 film of the same name. It was composed by Michel Legrand, the lyrics were written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. It was performed by Peggy Lee as the title track on the film.\n\nIt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 43rd Academy Awards; it lost to \"For All We Know\" from the film Lovers and Other Strangers. Billboard magazine wrote that it was the \"most widely recorded\" of that years nominees for Best Original Song. The lyrics concern a \"little boy lost in search of little boy found\".\n\nJudith Crist writing in New York magazine in 1970, described the song as being featured on the soundtrack of the film over a \"magnified-snowflake blurred-focus winter-wonderland scene of lovers cavorting in the snow\" and that the song was one of a number of \"schmaltz score[s]\" by Legrand.\n\nJohnny Mathis's recording of \"Pieces of Dreams\" reached the Billboard Top 40 Easy Listening chart in October 1970.\n\nIt was recorded by Shirley Bassey for her 1971 album Something Else. Sarah Vaughan recorded the song for her 1974 album Sarah Vaughan with Michel Legrand, with an arrangement by Legrand. Barbra Streisand recorded it for her 1974 album The Way We Were and her 2011 album of songs with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, What Matters Most.\n\nStanley Turrentine recorded several instrumental versions of the song; it was the title track of his 1971 album Pieces of Dreams.\n\nReferences\n\n1970 songs\nBarbra Streisand songs\nJohnny Mathis songs\nSongs with lyrics by Alan Bergman\nSongs with lyrics by Marilyn Bergman\nSongs written for films"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)",
"What major event happened in that time period?",
"In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,",
"How was the album taken by the public?",
"the album was not as well received by fans.",
"How did this affect Macy?",
"Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released:",
"How did the live album do?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the title of her album?",
"Live in Las Vegas"
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
What songs were on the album?
| 6 |
What songs were on Macy Gray's Live in Las Vegas album?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| false |
[
"Followers is an album by the American contemporary Christian music (CCM) band Tenth Avenue North. It was released by Provident Label Group, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, under its Reunion Records label, on October 14, 2016. The album reached No. 5 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart, and No. 151 on the Billboard 200. Three singles from the album were released: \"What You Want\" in 2016, and \"I Have This Hope\" and \"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" in 2017, all of which appeared on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart.\n\nRelease and performance \n\nFollowers was released on October 14, 2016, by Provident Label Group LLC, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. It first charted on both the US Billboard Christian Albums and Billboard 200 on the week of November 5, 2016, peaking that week on both charts at No. 5 and No. 151, respectively.\n\nThree singles were released from the album. The first, \"What You Want\", was released five months in advance of the album on May 13, 2016, and charted on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs list, peaking at No. 17 on September 3, 2016. The other two were released in 2017 after the album, and reached the top 10 on Hot Christian Songs: \"I Have This Hope\" peaked at No. 5 on June 10, 2017, and \"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" peaked at No. 7 on January 13, 2018.\n\nReception \n\nCCM Magazine gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, and cited its \"killer vocal work on honest, relatable lyrics paired with ... strong songwriting.\"\n\nChristian review website JesusFreakHideout rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stars. The review said the album was \"pretty much what you would expect from a CCM release\" and wrote that \"What You Want\" was \"the most energetic song on the album\". It singled out the opening track as \"excellent\" and the closing track as \"powerful\", and characterized the remaining songs as \"eight solid but otherwise ordinary tracks.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\"Afraid\" (3:48)\n\"What You Want\" (3:37)\n\"Overflow\" (3:40)\n\"I Have This Hope\" (3:24)\n\"One Thing\" (3:28)\n\"Sparrow (Under Heaven's Eyes)\" (3:59)\n\"No One Can Steal Our Joy\" (3:40)\n\"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" (4:08)\n\"Fighting for You\" (3:22)\n\"I Confess\" (5:15)\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n2016 albums\nTenth Avenue North albums",
"\"Lies\" is a song written by Beau Charles and Buddy Randell, performed by The Knickerbockers; the single was produced by Jerry Fuller. It reached #20 on the U.S. pop chart in 1965. It was featured on their 1966 album Lies and is famous for often being mistaken for a Beatles track due to its similarities to their style and harmonies.\n\nBackground\nHere is what original Knickerbockers member Beau Charles said about the song's behind-the-scenes story:\n\n\"We desperately tried to write something that sounded like the British Invasion'. We wrote 'Lies' in less than one half hour. We demo-ed it in New York.\" After a Jerry Fuller inspired re-arrangement, the track was recorded at Sunset Sound in West Hollywood with Bruce Botnick as the Engineer. Things were not quite right, so the multi-track master was taken to Leon Russell's house in Hollywood Hills. Jerry Fuller knew Leon and \"Leon had this great little studio - just a four track\". The band recorded the vocals there and overdubbed a new guitar part that was recorded from a beat up old Fender guitar amp that gave the guitar sound a meaty, edgy feel\".\n\nOther versions\nThe Ventures on their 1965 album Where the Action Is.\nNancy Sinatra on her 1966 album Boots.\nThe T-Bones on their 1966 album No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In).\nGary Lewis & the Playboys on their 1967 album Gary Lewis & the Playboys.\nLulu on her 1966 album From Lulu...with Love.\nStyx on their 1974 album Man of Miracles.\nTarney/Spencer Band on their 1979 album Run for Your Life.\nLinda Ronstadt on her 1982 album Get Closer.\nThe Delmonas on their 1985 album Dangerous Charms.\nThe Undead on their 1986 album Never Say Die!\nThe Landlords on their 1987 EP Our Favorite Songs!\nThe Basement Wall on their 1993 compilation album There Goes the Neighborhood! Volume 2 Featuring The Basement Wall.\nThe Fireballs on their 2006 compilation album Firebeat! The Great Lost Vocal Album.\nThe Brymers on their 2007 compilation album Sacrifice.\nThe Black Belles as the B-side to their 2010 single \"What Can I Do?\"\n\nSee also\n List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States\n\nReferences\n\n1965 songs\n1965 singles\nThe Ventures songs\nNancy Sinatra songs\nGary Lewis & the Playboys songs\nLulu (singer) songs\nStyx (band) songs\nLinda Ronstadt songs\nThe Fireballs songs\nSong recordings produced by Jerry Fuller"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)",
"What major event happened in that time period?",
"In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,",
"How was the album taken by the public?",
"the album was not as well received by fans.",
"How did this affect Macy?",
"Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released:",
"How did the live album do?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the title of her album?",
"Live in Las Vegas",
"What songs were on the album?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
Did anything else happen during that time frame?
| 7 |
Besides the release of Macy Gray's third studio album did anything else happen during the time frame of 2001-2005?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
|
Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| true |
[
"Anything Can Happen is a 1952 comedy-drama film.\n\nAnything Can Happen may also refer to:\n\n Anything Can Happen (album), by Leon Russell, 1994\n \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2019 song by Saint Jhn \n Edhuvum Nadakkum ('Anything Can Happen'), a season of the Tamil TV series Marmadesam\n \"Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour\", or \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2007 song by Enter Shikari\n Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour (EP), 2004\n\nSee also\n \"Anything Could Happen\", a 2012 song by Ellie Goulding \n Anything Might Happen, 1934 British crime film\n Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, a 1996 American documentary film\n \"Anything Can Happen on Halloween\", a song from the 1986 film The Worst Witch \n Anything Can Happen in the Theatre, a musical revue of works by Maury Yeston\n \"The Anything Can Happen Recurrence\", an episode of The Big Bang Theory (season 7)\n The Anupam Kher Show - Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai ('The Anupam Kher Show — Anything Can Happen') an Indian TV show",
"Tunnel vision is a term used when a shooter is focused on a target, and thus misses what goes on around that target. Therefore an innocent bystander may pass in front or behind of the target and be shot accidentally. This is easily understandable if the bystander is not visible in the telescopic sight (see Tunnel vision#Optical instruments), but can also happen without one. In this case, the mental concentration of the shooter is so focused on the target, that they fail to notice anything else.\n\nMarksmanship\nShooting sports"
] |
[
"Macy Gray",
"The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself (2001-2005)",
"What major event happened in that time period?",
"In 2003, Gray released her third studio album,",
"How was the album taken by the public?",
"the album was not as well received by fans.",
"How did this affect Macy?",
"Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released:",
"How did the live album do?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the title of her album?",
"Live in Las Vegas",
"What songs were on the album?",
"I don't know.",
"Did anything else happen during that time frame?",
"Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album"
] |
C_5970105d60de46e7a3f5df91aad65611_0
|
What did she do on the album?
| 8 |
What did Macy Gray do on Marcus Miller's 2005 album?
|
Macy Gray
|
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been due to The Id being released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amore (Sexo)", for his album Shaman. Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti. She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition. In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You", became a radio hit in the US and a top forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys". She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'." CANNOTANSWER
|
a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys".
|
Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.
Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single "I Try", taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.
Early life
Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones . Her stepfather was a steelworker, and her sister is a biology teacher. She has a younger brother, Nate, who owns a gym in West Philadelphia and was featured on the season five finale of Queer Eye. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name. She was late developing and did not learn to hold conversation until just before her tenth birthday.
Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.
She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting.
Musical career
While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.
She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo's studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Although Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Label Group Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on "Love Won't Wait," a song on the Black Eyed Peas' debut album Behind the Front.
1999–2001: On How Life Is
Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. The first single "Do Something" stalled on the charts, but the second single "I Try" made the album a success. "I Try" (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn't You Call Me" ensured the album became triple platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Try", which was also nominated for "song of the year" and "record of the year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours," from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.
2001–2005: The Id and The Trouble with Being Myself
Gray's The Id featured appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the single "Sweet Baby" (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo). The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200. It fared even better in the UK, where it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI.
In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man and contributed a remix of her song "My Nutmeg Phantasy" to its accompanying soundtrack. Gray also worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)," for his album Shaman.
Also in 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD in tribute to Nigerian Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. She appeared on a remake of Kuti's classic track "Water No Get Enemy" alongside prominent neo soul, hip hop and R&B artists, D'Angelo, the Soultronics, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove, and Kuti's son, Femi Kuti.
She recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like the Sun (From Out of Nowhere)", which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in the soundtrack to 8 Mile. A cartoon based on Gray's childhood was being developed, but it never came to fruition.
In 2003, Gray released her third studio album, The Trouble with Being Myself, to rave reviews. The lead single, "When I See You," became a radio hit in the US and a top-forty hit in the UK, although the album was not as well received by fans. Nevertheless, it became Gray's third top twenty album in the UK. A greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released: The Very Best of Macy Gray (2004) and Live in Las Vegas (2005). Additionally, Gray was featured on Marcus Miller's 2005 album Silver Rain, on a cover of Prince's 1986 song "Girls & Boys." She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Chicago with Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim on "Cell Block Tango/He Had it Comin'."
2007–2010: Return to music and Big
Gray began 2007 by being kicked off-stage at a concert in Barbados for profanity (which was part of the show), but she was not aware that it was against the law in that country. She gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest.
In March, Gray released her fourth studio album (sixth overall), Big. Two singles, "Finally Made Me Happy" and "Shoo Be Doo," were released from the album. "What I Gotta Do," another track from the album, is featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. It has been considered Gray's comeback album, after a four-year hiatus since her last studio album. The album was critically acclaimed and seen by some as her best work to date. It features collaborations with Natalie Cole, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, and will.i.am, who co-executive produced the album with Gray. It was moderately successful in the US, where it debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200, becoming Gray's highest-charting album since The Id. Big reached number 62 on the albums chart in the UK, her lowest-charting UK album, but it achieved some success in several other countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Finland, reaching the Top 40 on their album charts.
PBS's Soundstage live concert series premiered a Gray concert on July 5.
On July 7, 2007, Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert."
In 2008, Gray launched a new campaign under the name "Nemesis Jaxson," with the single "Slap a Bitch."
Early in 2009, Gray recorded the song "Don't Forget Me" for the soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic.
2010–2011: The Sellout
The first single from Gray's fifth studio album The Sellout, "Beauty in the World," is featured in the final sequence of the series finale, "Hello Goodbye," of the ABC television series, Ugly Betty. "Beauty in the World" was also used as the theme in multiple videos created by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 9. Both singles released from the album ("Beauty in the World" and "Lately") were top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart.
Upon its release, The Sellout received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 57, based on 15 reviews; Andy Gill of The Independent gave it three out of five stars; while AllMusic writer John Bush shared a similar sentiment and panned Gray's songwriting.
However, The Boston Globes James Reed commended its production, and Jeremy Allen of NME gave the album a 7/10 rating.
2011–2015: Covered, Talking Book, and The Way
In 2011, Gray signed a deal with 429 Records and started recording a series of covers for her next studio album Covered. The album was officially released on March 26, 2012. The album's first single was "Here Comes the Rain Again" (originally performed by Eurythmics). On February 16, 2012, Gray participated in the Sanremo Festival as a guest, performing alongside Gigi D'Alessio and Loredana Bertè.
For the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Stevie Wonder album Talking Book, Gray covered the entire record and released her Talking Book as a tribute.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now, Gray opened up about her problems with drug abuse, stating that she was ill-prepared for the level of fame she received. The interview coincided with the release of her album The Way, released in October 2014 on Kobalt Records. A world tour was announced shortly after its release.
2016–present: Stripped
In 2016, Gray's career continued with an album produced by Chesky Records, the record label founded by Grammy-nominated composer and musician David Chesky. Stripped was released September 9, 2016 and garnered unanimous praise from critics. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Earlier that year, she was featured on Ariana Grande's song "Leave Me Lonely" from her third studio album Dangerous Woman.
Other work
Gray appeared in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing for Habitat for Humanity. She finished in third place.
In 2001, she was the voice for Seeiah Owens in the video game SSX Tricky.
Gray sang the theme song for the Nickelodeon animated series As Told by Ginger, composed by Jared Faber and Emily Kapnek.
Gray also performed the song on the short-lived UPN romantic comedy Second Time Around starring Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker in 2004.
In August 2008, Gray headlined at the 2008 Summer Sundae music festival in Leicester, England, performing cover versions of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" and Radiohead's "Creep." For the gig, her band wore pink Andy Warhol wigs.
On September 28, 2008, Gray sang the American national anthem as part of the Israeli flag-raising ceremony at the Israeli consulate of Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gray collaborated with Australian DJ and singer Kaz James on the song "Can't Hold Back." The single was released in early 2009 in Australia and is credited to Kaz James featuring Macy Gray.
In 2009, Gray briefly competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. They were eliminated in a double elimination in week one.
In 2012, she performed the Michael Jackson song "Rock with You" for a special performance of the West End musical Thriller – Live for BBC Children in Need Pop Goes the Musical.
In 2015, Gray was featured on the song "Into the Deep" by Galactic.
In 2016, Gray was featured on the song "Leave Me Lonely" by Ariana Grande.
In 2018, Gray was featured alongside Dolly Parton on a re-recording of "Two Doors Down" for the Dumplin' soundtrack.
In 2020, Gray was featured on the single "Out Of Love" by Canadian band Busty and the Bass. The band also released a notable cover of Gray's "I Try" in 2016.
In 2021, Gray competed in season three of the Australian version of The Masked Singer as "Atlantis".
On February 20, 2022, Gray performed The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
Personal life
Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about two years, but they divorced prior to her rise to prominence. They have three children: Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.
Discography
Studio albums
On How Life Is (1999)
The Id (2001)
The Trouble with Being Myself (2003)
Big (2007)
The Sellout (2010)
Covered (2012)
Talking Book (2012)
The Way (2014)
Stripped (2016)
Ruby (2018)
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Awards and nominations
Gray won five of seventeen nominations, including Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Brit Awards.
References
External links
1967 births
Living people
African-American record producers
Record producers from Ohio
African-American women singer-songwriters
American video game actresses
Ballad musicians
Brit Award winners
Geffen Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Actresses from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Participants in American reality television series
People with bipolar disorder
Musicians from Canton, Ohio
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Atlantic Records artists
Epic Records artists
Concord Records artists
African-American actresses
American television actresses
American film actresses
American voice actresses
Actors from Canton, Ohio
American contemporary R&B singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
Mack Avenue Records artists
American neo soul singers
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
| false |
[
"What You Need is the tenth studio album by American contemporary R&B singer Stacy Lattisaw, released October 17, 1989 via Motown Records. It did not chart on the Billboard 200, but it peaked at #16 on the Billboard R&B chart. It was also Lattisaw's final album before she retired from the music industry.\n\nFour singles were released from the album: \"What You Need\", \"Where Do We Go from Here\", \"Dance for You\" and \"I Don't Have the Heart\". \"Where Do We Go from Here\" was the most successful single from the album, peaking at #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart in 1990.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n1989 albums\nStacy Lattisaw albums\nAlbums produced by Timmy Regisford\nMotown albums",
"What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is the debut album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the UK four days after his nineteenth birthday on 14 May 1965, through Pye Records (catalog number NPL 18117). Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, and Geoff Stephens produced the album. The album was released in the US as Catch the Wind on Hickory Records in June 1965. Hickory Records changed the title to match that of Donovan's debut single.\n\nHistory \nIn late 1964, Peter Eden and Geoff Stephens offered Donovan a recording contract with Pye Records in the UK. Donovan had performed around Britain and had become well known in British folk circles before his record contract. His 1964 demo tapes (released as Sixty Four in 2004) show a great resemblance to both Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, which probably prompted the \"British answer to Bob Dylan\" press line that was subsequently released. What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is notable because it captures Donovan at a point where his style and vision were starting to diverge significantly from those of Guthrie and Dylan.\n\nThe music primarily consists of Donovan singing and playing mouth harp and acoustic guitar, much like his live performances of the time. He still had some vestiges of Woody Guthrie's style, and here covers Guthrie's \"Riding In My Car\" (titled here as \"Car Car\"). What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid also includes British folk (\"Tangerine Puppet\") and even some jazz (\"Cuttin' Out\").\n\nDonovan re-recorded \"Catch the Wind\" for the album, which was initially released as his debut single in the UK on 12 March 1965.\n\nOther musicians featured on the album are Brian Locking on bass, Skip Alan (who joined the Pretty Things later the same year) on drums, and Gypsy Dave on kazoo.\n\nReissues \n On 13 September 1968, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid was reissued in an edited form (Marble Arch Records MAL 795) in the UK. \"Car Car\" and \"Donna Donna\" were both removed from the album, possibly because they were not written by Donovan.\n On 26 February 1996, Sequel Records reissued What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid in the US under its US title Catch the Wind on compact disc. Three bonus tracks were added to the track listing. The first bonus track, \"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\", was released as the B-side to Donovan's UK debut single. The second bonus track is the A-side of Donovan's UK debut single. The third bonus track, \"Every Man Has His Chain\", was originally released on Donovan's Catch the Wind EP in France.\n On 22 January 2002, Sanctuary Records reissued the complete What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid for the first time on compact disc. The US version of the CD titled Catch the Wind was released six years earlier. The CD features four bonus tracks. The first two tracks are Donovan's debut single \"Catch the Wind\" (a different take than the album track) and its b-side \"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\". The third bonus track \"Every Man Has His Chain\" was once a rare track in Donovan's discography, and was originally released on the French EP Catch the Wind in 1965. Donovan's second single \"Colours\" is also released here, in a version different from the one included on the Fairytale album.\n\nTrack listing\n\nOriginal album (UK)\nSide 1\n\"Josie\" (Donovan Leitch) – 3:28\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Remember the Alamo\" (Jane Bowers) – 3:04\n\"Cuttin' Out\" (Leitch) – 2:19\n\"Car Car\" (Woody Guthrie) – 1:31\n\"Keep on Truckin'\" (traditional; arranged by Leitch) – 1:50\n\nSide 2\n\"Goldwatch Blues\" (Mick Softley) – 2:33\n\"To Sing for You\" (Leitch) – 2:45\n\"You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond\" (traditional; arranged by Leitch) – 4:04\n\"Tangerine Puppet\" (Leitch) – 1:51\n\"Donna Donna\" (Aaron Zeitlin, Sholom Secunda, Arthur S Kevess, Teddi Schwartz) – 2:56\n\"Ramblin' Boy\" (Leitch) – 2:33\n\n1996 Sequel Records CD-reissue (Title: Catch the Wind)\nThe original album plus the following bonus tracks:\n\"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\" (Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Leitch) – 2:18\n\"Every Man Has His Chain\" (Leitch) – 2:09\n\n2002 Sanctuary Records CD-reissue\nThe original album plus the following bonus tracks:\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Single version with strings) (Leitch) – 2:18\n\"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\" (Single b-side) (Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Every Man Has His Chain\" (French EP track) (Leitch) – 2:12\n\"Colours\" (Single version) (Leitch) – 2:45\n\nPersonnel \n Donovan – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica\n Brian Locking – bass\n Skip Alan (Alan Skipper) – drums\n Gypsy Dave (David Mills) – kazoo\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid – Donovan Unofficial Site\n Sanctuary Records\n\n1965 debut albums\nDonovan albums\nPye Records albums\nHickory Records albums\nSanctuary Records albums"
] |
[
"Dinosaur Jr.",
"Formation"
] |
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When did the group form?
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When did the group Dinosaur Jr. form?
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Dinosaur Jr.
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Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis' college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal...and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff". Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country". The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties. CANNOTANSWER
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formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts.
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Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists
| true |
[
"The Philippines national futsal team represents the Philippines in various international futsal competitions under the Philippine Football Federation and is affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation.\n\nHistory\nAn informal form of futsal is being played in the Philippines as early as the 1960s to the 1980s, which is usually played as part of a cross training for footballers during rainy weather using regular association football rules. It was only in the late 1990s, that official futsal international tournaments were held and during this time the Philippine national team is already playing international friendlies under coaches Noel Casilao and Hans Smit.\n\nCompetition records\n\nFIFA Futsal World Cup\n 1989 to 1992 – Did not enter\n 1996 – Did not qualify\n 2000 – Did not enter\n 2004 – Did not qualify\n 2008 – Did not enter\n 2012 to 2016 – Did not qualify\n 2020 – Did not enter\n\nAFC Futsal Championship\n 1999 to 2003 – Did not enter\n 2004 to 2005 – Group stage\n 2006 – Did not enter\n 2007 – Group Stage\n 2008 – Did not enter\n 2010 to 2016 – Did not qualify\n 2018 – Did not enter\n 2020 – Did not enter\n\nAFF Futsal Championship\n 2001 to 2005 – Group stage\n 2006 – Did not enter\n 2007 to 2008 – Group stage\n 2009 to 2010 – Fourth place\n 2011 – Canceled\n 2012 to 2015 – Group stage\n 2016 – Did not enter\n 2017 – Group stage\n 2018 – Withdrew\n 2019 – Did not enter\n\nSoutheast Asian Games\n 2007 - Group stage\n 2011 – Group stage\n 2013 to 2017– Did not enter\n\nCoaches\n Esmaeil Sedigh (2007–2012)\n Baltazar Avelino (2013–2016)\n Christian Dominquez (2017)\n\nReferences\n\nAsian national futsal teams\nFutsal\nFutsal in the Philippines",
"The Environmental Integrity Group (EIG) is a negotiation group consisting of 6 parties to the UNFCCC. When it was formed in 2000, it only consisted of Switzerland, Korea, and Mexico.\n\nHistory \nThe Environmental Integrity Group was initiated by Switzerland during the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol, where only party groups were allowed to negotiate. Switzerland was not part of any group and they did not want to join the Umbrella Group. So Switzerland declared to form the EIG and invited other independent parties to join.\n\nJoint Submissions \n 2016 on matters of the Global Stock Take (GST)\n\nMembers \n 2000 (founding member)\n 2000 (founding member)\n 2000 (founding member)\n 20?? \n 20?? \n 2017\n\nLiterature and References\nLiterature\nEmily Laur: Who is the Environmental Integrity Group?, In: Digital Lotus: Thursday, March 24, 2016.\n\n'References\n\nUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change"
] |
[
"Dinosaur Jr.",
"Formation",
"When did the group form?",
"formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts."
] |
C_0b78922b700d484ab0ed16af5a0f9e77_1
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How did they decide on the name?
| 2 |
How did the group Dinosaur Jr. decide on the name?
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Dinosaur Jr.
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Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis' college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal...and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff". Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country". The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties. CANNOTANSWER
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The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus
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Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists
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[
"August 15th (Ba yue shi wu) is a 2008 short Chinese film, directed by Jiang Xuan. It has been screened in various international film festivals, including Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, Cannes Film Festival in May 2008, and the Expresión en Corto Film Festival of Mexico in June 2008.\n\nPlot summary \nBased on a true story, passengers on a city bus must decide what they are willing to sacrifice for their own safety after it is hijacked by a couple of countryside crooks. It is based on two real events, both involved women being raped, one in a train and the other in a bus, while a crowd of people stood by and did nothing to intervene. On the bus, the crooks take over and the passengers must decide how much they are willing to risk for their own safety.\n\nAccolades\nThe film received the Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It is available for download from online sources, including iTunes Store, Netflix, and Xbox Live Marketplace. It was also screened at the International Critics' Week of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\nChinese short films\nChinese films\n2008 films",
"\"None of Your Concern\" is a song by American singer Jhené Aiko, released as the second single on November 15, 2019 for her third studio album Chilombo (2020). The song features American rapper Big Sean and uncredited vocals from Ty Dolla Sign.\n\nBackground \nThe song is the second collaboration between Jhené Aiko and Big Sean since they broke up, the first being on Sean's song \"Single Again\". The ex-couple reflect on their failed relationship and decide how to move on. Sean talks about the pain of seeing Aiko move on and how he misses her.\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences \n\n2019 singles\n2019 songs\nJhené Aiko songs\nBig Sean songs\nDef Jam Recordings singles\nAmerican contemporary R&B songs\nSongs written by Jhené Aiko\nSongs written by Big Sean"
] |
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C_0b78922b700d484ab0ed16af5a0f9e77_1
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Did they sign onto a label?
| 3 |
Did the group Dinosaur Jr. sign onto a label?
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Dinosaur Jr.
|
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis' college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal...and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff". Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country". The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists
| false |
[
"Wasiem Taha (), better known as Massiv (born 9 November 1982), is a gangsta rapper living in Berlin. During his early career Taha was signed to the label Horrorkore Entertainment, but later he left and signed to major label Sony BMG. He acts in the German TV-Series 4 Blocks (TV series)\n\nLife and career\n\nEarly life \nTaha had been influenced by hip-hop from an early age. He visited Berlin for the first time in 1996, where he would struggle to find a job having not finished school.\n\n2006: Early career and debut album \n\nIn July 2006 Taha's debut album, Blut gegen Blut, was released. On 22 August, Taha left the Horrorkore Entertainment label and signed to Sony BMG. Reasons for the separation were not mentioned.\n\nThe label has reportedly invested 250,000 euros into Taha's career. Frankfurt-based rapper Azad said in an interview that he was interested to sign Taha onto his label, Bozz Music.\n\nShooting \nIn January 2008, Taha was purportedly shot three times by a masked man while talking on a cell phone near his car. Taha was subsequently hospitalized and lost a lot of blood, but was apparently able to leave the hospital later that same night. The Independent reported a rumor that the incident was a publicity stunt.\n\nDiscography\n\nSolo\n\nSingles\n\nFree tracks and other releases\n\nSee also\n\nReferences\n\nGerman rappers\nGerman people of Palestinian descent\nShooting survivors\n1982 births\nLiving people\nGangsta rappers",
"Phonogenic Records is a record label currently under the RCA Label Group, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The label was originally conceived under BMG UK & Ireland. Acts currently signed to the label include: Natasha Bedingfield, Ross Copperman and The Script. Josh Krajcik, who came in second place on \"The X Factor\" U.S. in 2011, has signed a deal with Phonogenic Records. Sources say that Krajcik had offers from Sony Music labels Columbia Records and RCA Records, but Krajcik chose to sign with the smaller, boutique Phonogenic Records.\nThere were hints that Krajcik might sign with Phonogenic when he said on Twitter that he and Kipner were working together on Krajcik's 2012 album. The album's title and release date are to be announced. Krajcik is also collaborating with songwriters/producers Andrew Frampton and Julian Bunetta, who have also worked with Bedingfield. In 2008, Phonogenic Records partnered with Clikthrough Inc Official Site, to launch their artists on Clikthrough's interactive video platform. In December 2008, they launched with the first interactive video, \"Breakeven\" by The Script Breakeven Clickable Video. Subsequently, they released three more interactive videos:\nThe Script - \"Talk You Down\"\nThe Script - \"The Man Who Can't be Moved\"\nNatasha Bedingfield - \"Soulmate\" The label's albums are distributed by Epic Records in the US.\n\nSee also\n List of record labels\n\nExternal links\n Official site\n Last.FM\n RCA Label Group (UK)\n\nBritish record labels\nPop record labels\nSony Music"
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Dinosaur Jr.
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Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis' college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal...and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff". Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country". The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties. CANNOTANSWER
|
After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young.
|
Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists
| true |
[
"The Gurus were an American psychedelic rock band from the 1960s. They were among the first to incorporate Middle Eastern influences, maybe more than any other band of that era. The band broke up without making a large impact on the music scene of the time, although they did release two singles on United Artists Records in 1966 and 1967. Their album, The Gurus Are Hear, failed to be released in 1967, which was noted as the reason for the band splitting up.\n\nThe album was finally released in 2003.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican psychedelic rock music groups",
"Microwave Jenny is an Australian pop/folk/jazz duet that consists of Tessa Nuku on vocals and Brendon Boney on guitar and vocals. They both have Indigenous backgrounds with Brendon having been born and raised in Wagga Wagga, and Tessa having been born in Ulladulla, New South Wales before moving to and growing up in Umina Beach, New South Wales Brendon was the singing voice for the character Willie in film Bran Nue Dae. The phrase 'Microwave Jenny' comes from the 1997 film The Castle. The duo are married and have a daughter. Brendon has a solo alternative, hip/hop project called The Magpie Swoop.\n\nLive performance \nThe band play live in multiple formats either as an Acoustic Duet, Trio, Quartet or full band. The duo feature heavily on the Australian music festival circuit with notable live performances including Bluesfest, Woodford Folk Festival, Peats Ridge Festival and Nannup Music Festival.\n\nThey also supported Thirsty Merc on their 2011 national tour of Australia.\n\nInfluences \n\nMicrowave Jenny have cited James Taylor, Janis Ian, Bill Withers and Van Morrison as musical influences.\n\nAwards and nominations\nThey were recipients of the 2009 Peter Garrett Breathrough Grant. Brendon won an APRA Professional Development Award in 2011 for his songwriting and composing. In 2009, Microwave Jenny was nominated for a Deadly Award for Most Promising New Artist but did not win.\n\nDiscography \nThey have released two EPs\n\nSummer \n\n1. \"Mellow\" – 3:59\n2. \"Mr Man in the Moon\" – 3:47\n3. \"I'll Never Learn\" – 5:02\n4. \"Summer\" – 3:35\n\nCrazy, Crazy Things \n\n1. \"Stuck on the Moon\" – 3:06\n2. \"Homemade Lemonade\" – 3:52\n3. \"Lyin\" – 3:18\n4. Locked in the Closet\" – 3:54\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n http://www.microwavejenny.com\n\nAustralian pop music groups"
] |
[
"Chen Guangcheng",
"Early life and family"
] |
C_2babf542876349009bcde12e321b5028_1
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When was he born?
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When was Chen Guangcheng born?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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"Since the first human spaceflight by the Soviet Union, citizens of 42 countries have flown in space. For each nationality, the launch date of the first mission is listed. The list is based on the nationality of the person at the time of the launch. Only 3 of the 42 \"first flyers\" have been women (Helen Sharman for the United Kingdom in 1991, Anousheh Ansari for Iran in 2006, and Yi So-yeon for South Korea in 2008). Only three nations (Soviet Union/Russia, U.S., China) have launched their own crewed spacecraft, with the Soviets/Russians and the American programs providing rides to other nations' astronauts. Twenty-seven \"first flights\" occurred on Soviet or Russian flights while the United States carried fourteen.\n\nTimeline\nNote: All dates given are UTC. Countries indicated in bold have achieved independent human spaceflight capability.\n\nNotes\n\nOther claims\nThe above list uses the nationality at the time of launch. Lists with differing criteria might include the following people:\n Pavel Popovich, first launched 12 August 1962, was the first Ukrainian-born man in space. At the time, Ukraine was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.\n Michael Collins, first launched 18 July 1966 was born in Italy to American parents and was an American citizen when he went into space.\n William Anders, American citizen, first launched 21 December 1968, was the first Hong Kong-born man in space.\n Vladimir Shatalov, first launched 14 January 1969, was the first Kazakh-born man in space. At the time, Kazakhstan was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.\n Bill Pogue, first launched 16 November 1973, as an inductee to the 5 Civilized Tribes Hall of Fame can lay claim to being the first Native American in space. See John Herrington below regarding technicality of tribal registration.\n Pyotr Klimuk, first launched 18 December 1973, was the first Belorussian-born man in space. At the time, Belarus was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.\n Vladimir Dzhanibekov, first launched 16 March 1978, was the first Uzbek-born man in space. At the time, Uzbekistan was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.\n Paul D. Scully-Power, first launched 5 October 1984, was born in Australia, but was an American citizen when he went into space; Australian law at the time forbade dual-citizenship.\n Taylor Gun-Jin Wang, first launched 29 April 1985, was born in China to Chinese parents, but was an American citizen when he went into space.\n Lodewijk van den Berg, launched 29 April 1985, was born in the Netherlands, but was an American citizen when he went into space.\n Patrick Baudry, first launched 17 June 1985, was born in French Cameroun (now part of Cameroon), but was a French citizen when he went into space.\n Shannon Lucid, first launched 17 June 1985, was born in China to American parents of European descent, and was an American citizen when she went into space.\n Franklin Chang-Diaz, first launched 12 January 1986, was born in Costa Rica, but was an American citizen when he went into space\n Musa Manarov, first launched 21 December 1987, was the first Azerbaijan-born man in space. At the time, Azerbaijan was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.\n Anatoly Solovyev, first launched 7 June 1988, was the first Latvian-born man in space. At the time, Latvia was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.\n Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov became Russian rather than Soviet citizens while still in orbit aboard Mir, making them the first purely Russian citizens in space.\n James H. Newman, American citizen, first launched 12 September 1993, was born in the portion of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands that is now the Federated States of Micronesia.\n Talgat Musabayev, first launched 1 July 1994, was born in the Kazakh SSR and is known in Kazakhstan as the \"first cosmonaut of independent Kazakhstan\", but was a Russian citizen when he went into space.\n Frederick W. Leslie, American citizen, launched 20 October 1995, was born in Panama Canal Zone (now Panama).\n Andy Thomas, first launched 19 May 1996, was born in Australia but like Paul D. Scully-Power was an American citizen when he went to space; Australian law at the time forbade dual-citizenship.\n Carlos I. Noriega, first launched 15 May 1997, was born in Peru, but was an American citizen when he went into space.\n Bjarni Tryggvason, launched 7 August 1997, was born in Iceland, but was a Canadian citizen when he went into space.\n Salizhan Sharipov, first launched 22 January 1998, was born in Kyrgyzstan (then the Kirghiz SSR), but was a Russian citizen when he went into space. Sharipov is of Uzbek ancestry.\n Philippe Perrin, first launched 5 June 2002, was born in Morocco, but was a French citizen when he went into space.\n John Herrington, an American citizen first launched 24 November 2002, is the first tribal registered Native American in space (Chickasaw). See also Bill Pogue above.\n Fyodor Yurchikhin, first launched 7 October 2002, was born in Georgia (then the Georgian SSR). He was a Russian citizen at the time he went into space and is of Pontian Greek descent.\n Joseph M. Acaba, first launched 15 March 2009, was born in the U.S. state of California to American parents of Puerto Rican descent.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nCurrent Space Demographics, compiled by William Harwood, CBS News Space Consultant, and Rob Navias, NASA.\n\nLists of firsts in space\nSpaceflight timelines",
"This is a list of notable books by young authors and of books written by notable writers in their early years. These books were written, or substantially completed, before the author's twentieth birthday. \n\nAlexandra Adornetto (born 18 April 1994) wrote her debut novel, The Shadow Thief, when she was 13. It was published in 2007. Other books written by her as a teenager are: The Lampo Circus (2008), Von Gobstopper's Arcade (2009), Halo (2010) and Hades (2011).\nMargery Allingham (1904–1966) had her first novel, Blackkerchief Dick, about smugglers in 17th century Essex, published in 1923, when she was 19.\nJorge Amado (1912–2001) had his debut novel, The Country of Carnival, published in 1931, when he was 18.\nPrateek Arora wrote his debut novel Village 1104 at the age of 16. It was published in 2010.\nDaisy Ashford (1881–1972) wrote The Young Visiters while aged nine. This novella was first published in 1919, preserving her juvenile punctuation and spelling. An earlier work, The Life of Father McSwiney, was dictated to her father when she was four. It was published almost a century later in 1983.\nAmelia Atwater-Rhodes (born 1984) had her first novel, In the Forests of the Night, published in 1999. Subsequent novels include Demon in My View (2000), Shattered Mirror (2001), Midnight Predator (2002), Hawksong (2003) and Snakecharm (2004).\nJane Austen (1775–1817) wrote Lady Susan, a short epistolary novel, between 1793 and 1795 when she was aged 18-20.\nRuskin Bond (born 1934) wrote his semi-autobiographical novel The Room on the Roof when he was 17. It was published in 1955.\nMarjorie Bowen (1885–1952) wrote the historical novel The Viper of Milan when she was 16. Published in 1906 after several rejections, it became a bestseller.\nOliver Madox Brown (1855–1874) finished his novel Gabriel Denver in early 1872, when he was 17. It was published the following year.\nPamela Brown (1924–1989) finished her children's novel about an amateur theatre company, The Swish of the Curtain (1941), when she was 16 and later wrote other books about the stage.\nCeleste and Carmel Buckingham wrote The Lost Princess when they were 11 and 9.\nFlavia Bujor (born 8 August 1988) wrote The Prophecy of the Stones (2002) when she was 13.\nLord Byron (1788–1824) published two volumes of poetry in his teens, Fugitive Pieces and Hours of Idleness.\nTaylor Caldwell's The Romance of Atlantis was written when she was 12.\n (1956–1976), Le Don de Vorace, was published in 1974.\nHilda Conkling (1910–1986) had her poems published in Poems by a Little Girl (1920), Shoes of the Wind (1922) and Silverhorn (1924).\nAbraham Cowley (1618–1667), Tragicall History of Piramus and Thisbe (1628), Poetical Blossoms (published 1633).\nMaureen Daly (1921–2006) completed Seventeenth Summer before she was 20. It was published in 1942.\nJuliette Davies (born 2000) wrote the first book in the JJ Halo series when she was eight years old. The series was published the following year.\nSamuel R. Delany (born 1 April 1942) published his The Jewels of Aptor in 1962.\nPatricia Finney's A Shadow of Gulls was published in 1977 when she was 18. Its sequel, The Crow Goddess, was published in 1978.\nBarbara Newhall Follett (1914–1939) wrote her first novel The House Without Windows at the age of eight. The manuscript was destroyed in a house fire and she later retyped her manuscript at the age of 12. The novel was published by Knopf publishing house in January 1927.\nFord Madox Ford (né Hueffer) (1873–1939) published in 1892 two children's stories, The Brown Owl and The Feather, and a novel, The Shifting of the Fire.\nAnne Frank (1929–1945) wrote her diary for two-and-a-half years starting on her 13th birthday. It was published posthumously as Het Achterhuis in 1947 and then in English translation in 1952 as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. An unabridged translation followed in 1996.\nMiles Franklin wrote My Brilliant Career (1901) when she was a teenager.\nAlec Greven's How to Talk to Girls was published in 2008 when he was nine years old. Subsequently he has published How to Talk to Moms, How to Talk to Dads and How to Talk to Santa.\nFaïza Guène (born 1985) had Kiffe kiffe demain published in 2004, when she was 19. It has since been translated into 22 languages, including English (as Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow).\nSonya Hartnett (born 1968) was thirteen years old when she wrote her first novel, Trouble All the Way, which was published in Australia in 1984.\nAlex and Brett Harris wrote the best-selling book Do Hard Things (2008), a non-fiction book challenging teenagers to \"rebel against low expectations\", at age 19. Two years later came a follow-up book called Start Here (2010).\nGeorgette Heyer (1902–1974) wrote The Black Moth when she was 17 and received a publishing contract when she was 18. It was published just after she turned 19.\nSusan Hill (born 1942), The Enclosure, published in 1961.\nS. E. Hinton (born 1948), The Outsiders, first published in 1967.\nPalle Huld (1912–2010) wrote A Boy Scout Around the World (Jorden Rundt i 44 dage) when he was 15, following a sponsored journey around the world.\nGeorge Vernon Hudson (1867–1946) completed An Elementary Manual of New Zealand Entomology at the end of 1886, when he was 19, but not published until 1892.\nKatharine Hull (1921–1977) and Pamela Whitlock (1920–1982) wrote the children's outdoor adventure novel The Far-Distant Oxus in 1937. It was followed in 1938 by Escape to Persia and in 1939 by Oxus in Summer.\nLeigh Hunt (1784–1859) published Juvenilia; or, a Collection of Poems Written between the ages of Twelve and Sixteen by J. H. L. Hunt, Late of the Grammar School of Christ's Hospital in March 1801.\nKody Keplinger (born 1991) wrote her debut novel The DUFF when she was 17.\nGordon Korman (born 1963), This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall (1978), three sequels, and I Want to Go Home (1981).\nMatthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818) wrote the Gothic novel The Monk, now regarded as a classic of the genre, before he was twenty. It was published in 1796.\nNina Lugovskaya (1918–1993), a painter, theater director and Gulag survivor, kept a diary in 1932–37, which shows strong social sensitivities. It was found in the Russian State Archives and published 2003. It appeared in English in the same year.\nJoyce Maynard (born 1953) completed Looking Back while she was 19. It was first published in 1973.\nMargaret Mitchell (1900–1949) wrote her novella Lost Laysen at the age of fifteen and gave the two notebooks containing the manuscript to her boyfriend, Henry Love Angel. The novel was published posthumously in 1996.\nBen Okri, the Nigerian poet and novelist, (born 1959) wrote his first book Flowers and Shadows while he was 19.\nAlice Oseman(born 1994) wrote the novel Solitaire when she was 17 and it was published in 2014.\nHelen Oyeyemi (born 1984) completed The Icarus Girl while still 18. First published in 2005.\nChristopher Paolini (born 1983) had Eragon, the first novel of the Inheritance Cycle, first published 2002.\nEmily Pepys (1833–1877), daughter of a bishop, wrote a vivid private journal over six months of 1844–45, aged ten. It was discovered much later and published in 1984.\nAnya Reiss (born 1991) wrote her play Spur of the Moment when she was 17. It was both performed and published in 2010, when she was 18.\nArthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) wrote almost all his prose and poetry while still a teenager, for example Le Soleil était encore chaud (1866), Le Bateau ivre (1871) and Une Saison en Enfer (1873).\nJohn Thomas Romney Robinson (1792–1882) saw his juvenile poems published in 1806, when he was 13.\nFrançoise Sagan (1935–2004) had Bonjour tristesse published in 1954, when she was 18.\nMary Shelley (1797–1851) completed Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus during May 1817, when she was 19. It was first published in the following year.\nMattie Stepanek (1990–2004), an American poet, published seven best-selling books of poetry.\nJohn Steptoe (1950–1989), author and illustrator, began his picture book Stevie at 16. It was published in 1969 in Life.\nAnna Stothard (born 1983) saw her Isabel and Rocco published when she was 19.\nDorothy Straight (born 1958) in 1962 wrote How the World Began, which was published by Pantheon Books in 1964. She holds the Guinness world record for the youngest female published author.\nJalaluddin Al-Suyuti (c. 1445–1505) wrote his first book, Sharh Al-Isti'aadha wal-Basmalah, at the age of 17.\nF. J. Thwaites (1908–1979) wrote his bestselling novel The Broken Melody when he was 19.\nJohn Kennedy Toole (1937–1969) wrote The Neon Bible in 1954 when he was 16. It was not published until 1989.\nAlec Waugh (1898–1981) wrote his novel about school life, The Loom of Youth, after leaving school. It was published in 1917.\nCatherine Webb (born 1986) had five young adult books published before she was 20: Mirror Dreams (2002), Mirror Wakes (2003), Waywalkers (2003), Timekeepers (2004) and The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle (February 2006).\nNancy Yi Fan (born 1993) published her debut Swordbird when she was 12. Other books she published as a teenager include Sword Quest (2008) and Sword Mountain (2012).\nKat Zhang (born 1991) was 20 when she sold, in a three-book deal, her entire Hybrid Chronicles trilogy. The first book, What's Left of Me, was published 2012.\n\nSee also \nLists of books\n\nReferences \n\nBooks Written By Children and Teenagers\nbooks\nChildren And Teenagers, Written By\nChi"
] |
[
"Chen Guangcheng",
"Early life and family",
"When was he born?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_2babf542876349009bcde12e321b5028_1
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Does he have any siblings?
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Does Chen Guangcheng have any siblings?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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"An only child is a person who does not have any siblings, neither biological nor adopted.\n\nOnly Child may also refer to:\n\n Only Child (novel), a novel by Jack Ketchum\n Only Child, a 2020 album by Sasha Sloan",
"Now Look Here is a BBC situation comedy which ran for two series of seven episodes each during 1971 to 1973. It was written by Barry Cryer.\n\nIt starred Ronnie Corbett, who played a character of the same name. He was cast in a similar role to his character in the later, longer-running and better-known situation comedy, Sorry!, as an overgrown mother's boy who was trying to break away from his mother (played by Madge Ryan) but having some difficulty doing so. However, it differs from the later series in that he does leave home after a few episodes, although his new home is only a few doors away, his father is deceased and he does not have any siblings. In the second series, he was married, his wife being played by Rosemary Leach. His boss was played by Donald Hewlett.\n\nAll episodes still exist, although one of these survived in the American NTSC standard, from which it has been converted.\n\nSee also\n The Prince of Denmark – 1974 sequel with Corbett and Leach.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nBBC television sitcoms\n1971 British television series debuts\n1973 British television series endings\n1970s British sitcoms"
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where did he go to school?
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Where did Chen Guangcheng go to school?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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"Where Did We Go Wrong may refer to:\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" (Dondria song), 2010\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" (Toni Braxton and Babyface song), 2013\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\", a song by Petula Clark from the album My Love\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\", a song by Diana Ross from the album Ross\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\", a 1980 song by Frankie Valli",
"California Concordia College existed in Oakland, California, United States from 1906 until 1973.\n\nAmong the presidents of California Concordia College was Johann Theodore Gotthold Brohm Jr.\n\nCalifornia Concordia College and the Academy of California College were located at 2365 Camden Street, Oakland, California. Some of the school buildings still exist at this location, but older buildings that housed the earlier classrooms and later the dormitories are gone. The site is now the location of the Spectrum Center Camden Campus, a provider of special education services.\n\nThe \"Academy\" was the official name for the high school. California Concordia was a six-year institution patterned after the German gymnasium. This provided four years of high school, plus two years of junior college. Years in the school took their names from Latin numbers and referred to the years to go before graduation. The classes were named:\n\n Sexta - 6 years to go; high school freshman\n Qunita - 5 years to go; high school sophomore\n Quarta - 4 years to go; high school junior\n Tertia - 3 years to go; high school senior\n Secunda - 2 years to go; college freshman\n Prima - 1 year to go; college sophomore\n\nThose in Sexta were usually hazed in a mild way by upperclassmen. In addition, those in Sexta were required to do a certain amount of clean-up work around the school, such as picking up trash.\n\nMost students, even high school freshmen, lived in dormitories. High school students were supervised by \"proctors\" (selected high school seniors in Tertia). High school students were required to study for two hours each night in their study rooms from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Students could not leave their rooms for any reason without permission. This requirement came as quite a shock to those in Sexta (freshmen) on their first night, when they were caught and scolded by a proctor when they left their study room to go to the bathroom without permission. Seniors (those in Tertia) were allowed one night off where they did not need to be in their study hall.\n\nFrom 9:00 to 9:30 pm all students gathered for a chapel service. From 9:30 to 10 pm, high school students were free to roam, and sometimes went to the local Lucky Supermarket to purchase snacks. All high school students were required to be in bed with lights out by 10:00 pm. There were generally five students in each dormitory room. The room had two sections: a bedroom area and (across the hallway) another room for studying. Four beds, including at least one bunk bed, were in the bedroom, and four or five desks were in the study room\n\nA few interesting words used by Concordia students were \"fink\" and \"rack.\" To \"fink\" meant to \"sing like a canary\" or \"squeal.\" A student who finked told everything he knew about a misbehavior committed by another student. \"Rack\" was actually an official term used by proctors and administrators who lived on campus in the dormitories with students. When students misbehaved they were racked (punished). Proctors held a meeting once a week and decided which students, if any, deserved to be racked. If a student were racked, he might be forbidden from leaving the campus grounds, even during normal free time School hours were from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. After 3:30 pm and until 7:00 pm, students could normally explore the local area surrounding the school, for example, to go to a local store to buy a snack. However, if a student were racked for the week, he could not do so.\n\nProctors made their rounds in the morning to make sure beds were made and inspected rooms in the evening to ensure that students were in bed by 10:00 pm. Often after the proctors left a room at night, the room lights would go back on and students enjoyed studying their National Geographic magazines. Student might be racked if they failed to make their beds or did not make them neatly enough.\n\nAlthough California Concordia College no longer exists, it does receive some recognition by Concordia University Irvine. This is also the location of its old academic records.\n\nSources\n\nExternal links \n Photos of old campus\n\nEducational institutions disestablished in 1973\nDefunct private universities and colleges in California\nEducational institutions established in 1906\n1906 establishments in California\n1973 disestablishments in California\nUniversities and colleges affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod"
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Is he married?
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Is Chen Guangcheng married?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing,
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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"Laird of Burnbrae was a hereditary title in Scotland that was held by several generations in the Primrose family. The Lands of Burnbrae was situated near Kincardine, and has since been joined with Kincardine.\n\nThe book, Culross and Tulliallan, states that the Lands of Burnbrae were previously held by the Blaw family until it was passed on to the Primrose family when Margaret Blaw married Archibald Primrose, who then became the first proprietor of that name to hold the lands of Burnbrae. The Primrose family held the title to the Lands of Burnbrae for over two hundred years until it became incorporated with the Tulliallan estate.\n\nThe Lairds of Burnbrae resided in Tulliallan, formerly in Perthshire, Scotland although in some early sources Tulliallan is cited as part of Fife, where it currently lies. The family is related to the Lord Dalmeny (a subordinate title of the Earl of Rosebery), whose family surname is also Primrose.\n\nLairds of Burnbrae \nArchibald Primrose was the first Laird of Burnbrae. He was born about 1538 in Culross to Duncan Primrose and Helen Smyth. Archibald married Margaret Blaw about 1564 in Culross.\n\nPeter Primrose is the second known Laird of Burnbrae and uncle of the first Laird. He was born about 1512 and died in July 1584.\n\nHenry Primrose is the third known Laird of Burnbrae. He was born in 1536 to Peter Primrose. Henry married Margaret Beveridge in about 1558 and died in 1576.\n\nPeter Primrose is the fourth known Laird of Burnbrae. He was born in 1560 to Henry Primrose and Margaret Beverage. Peter married Margaret Callender and died in 1609.\n\nJohn Primrose is the fifth known Laird of Burnbrae. He was born about 1590 to Peter Primrose and Margaret Callender. It is unknown who the mother(s) of his children are but it is recorded that he married Elizabeth Sands on 20 September 1665 in Culross, Fife, Scotland. John died in December 1669.\n\nJohn Primrose is the sixth known Laird of Burnbrae. He was born about 1617 to John Primrose, and married Margaret Reiddock.\n\nJohn Primrose is the seventh known Laird of Burnbrae. He was christened on 26 December 1648 in Culross, Fife, Scotland to John Primrose and Margaret Reiddock. John married Christian Wannan on 24 October 1680.\n\nWilliam Primrose is the eighth known Laird of Burnbrae. He was born on 16 May 1685 to John Primrose and Christian Wannan. William married Janet Drysdale on 6 April 1716. Janet was born on 3 February 1689 to John Drysdale and Margaret Love.\n\nJohn Primrose is the ninth known Laird of Burnbrae. He was christened on 3 May 1719 to William Primrose and Janet Drysdale. John married Janet Primrose about 1745.\n\nJames Primrose is the tenth and last known Laird of Burnbrae. He was born about 1746 to John Primrose and Janet Primrose. He was also known by the title \"esquire\". James married Jane Lawrie about 1784 and died November 1827; his wife died in April 1832.\n\nReferences\n\nBurnbrae\nPeople from Kincardine, Fife",
"The following is a list of characters from the Polish TV series M jak miłość.\n\nFor biographies of members of Mostowiak family, see: List of M jak miłość characters (Mostowiak family)\n\nBanach family \nBanach family is related to Mostowiak family through the 2020 wedding of Mateusz Mostowiak and Liliana Banach.\n\n Krzysztof Banach (January Brunov) is a patriarch of Banach family.\n\n Krystyna Banach (Dorota Chotecka-Pazura) is a wife of Krzysztof Banach.\n\n Liliana Mostowiak, born Banach (Monika Mielnicka) is a daughter of Jacek Kotowski and Krystyna Banach and legal daughter of Krzysztof Banach. She was a classmate of Mateusz Mostowiak and lived with her family in Lipnica. Her father used a domestic violence. In late 2019 she was raped by Daniel and fell pregnant. Mateusz Mostowiak decided to take care of her and raise her child as his own. In March 2020 Liliana miscarried. She married Mostowiak on April 21, 2020. In January 2021 she learnt that her biologcal father was Jacek Kotowski. Liliana had a romance with Australian Ethan Anderson, who is fifteen years senior and has a daughter. She left Mateusz and decided to divorce him and to marry her new partner.\n\n Mateusz Mostowiak is a husband of Liliana Mostowiak. They married on April 21, 2020.\n\n Kamil Banach is a second child and first son of Krzysztof Banach and his wife, Krystyna Banach. He lives in Lipnica.\n\nBudzyński family \nBudzyński family is related to Mostowiak family through the 2012 wedding of Andrzej Budzyński and Marta Mostowiak.\n\n Tadeusz Budzyński is a brother of Wanda Budzyńska. He was born in 1929 and died in 2012. She met Irena Malanowska, a woman whom he loved in his youth, and moved with her to Cracow.\n\n Wanda Budzyńska (Maria Rybarczyk) is a senior of Budzyński family. She was born in 1956. Wanda has one brother, Tadeusz Budzyński. She is a lawyer and a judge. She was dating Jerzy Kolęda (2014-2015).\n\n Andrzej Budzyński (Krystian Wieczorek) is an only child of Wanda Budzyńska and her unnamed husband. He was born on November 17, 1973. In 2003 he had a son, Piotr Bielak, with his married lover, Edyta Bielak. He hasn't known about him and met him later. Piotr was raised as a son of Edyta's husband. Andrzej married Marta Wojciechowska on January 16, 2012 and became a stepfather to her two children. They divorced in May 2017 after Marta moved to Colombia. He then started dating Magdalena Marszałek and they married on January 7, 2020. Andrzej is a stepfather to Magdalena's son, Maciej Chodakowski.\n\n Marta Budzyńska, born Mostowiak is a first wife of Andrzej Budzyński. They married on January 16, 2012 and divorced on May 15, 2017.\n\n Magdalena Budzyńska, born Marszałek is a second wife of Andrzej Budzyński. They married on January 7, 2020.\n\n Piotr Bielak is a first child of Andrzej Budzyński and his then lover, Edyta Bielak. His legal father is Janusz Bielak. He was born in 2003.\n\nChodakowski family \nChodakowski family is related to Mostowiak family through the 2009 wedding of Tomasz Chodakowski and Małgorzata Mostowiak.\n\n Grzegorz Chodakowski (Wojciech Majchrzak) is a first child of Mr. and Mrs. Chodakowski and older brother of Tomasz Chodakowski. He was born on May 6, 1967. \n\n Aleksandra Chodakowska (Małgorzata Pieczyńska) is a wife of Grzegorz Chodakowski. She was born on May 12, 1965. Aleksandra has one sister, a nun named Łucja (born July 9, 1967, died March 14, 2008).\n\n Aleksander Chodakowski (Maurycy Popiel) is a first child of Grzegorz Chodakowski and his wife, Aleksandra Chodakowska. He was born on June 6, 1987. He civilly married Aneta Kryńska on April 28, 2020 in a prison in Warsaw.\n\n Magdalena Chodakowska, born Marszałek is a first wife of Aleksander Chodakowski. They married on December 22, 2015 and divorced on September 19, 2017.\n\n Aneta Chodakowska, born Kryńska (Ilona Janyst) is a second wife of Aleksander Chodakowski. They married on April 28, 2020.\n\n Maciej Chodakowski, born Romanowski (Franciszek Przanowski) is a first child of Aleksander Chodakowski and his first wife, Magdalena Chodakowska. He was born in 2006. His biological father, Krzysztof Romanowski, died because of heart attack on January 18, 2016. On March 14, 2016 he was adopted by Aleksander and Magdalena\n\n Marcin Chodakowski (Mikołaj Roznerski) is a second child and second son of Grzegorz Chodakowski and his wife, Aleksandra Chodakowska. He was born on August 18, 1990. Marcin was raised in Germany by his father, because his mother left the family and moved abroad. He was a boxer. He came to Warsaw because he had a conflict with boxer club's chef. Marcin had romances with Weronika Zawada (who was married to Ryszard Zawada, 2013), Agnieszka Olszewska (2012), Eryka Bufford (2013-2014) and Jane Bufford (2013). In 2014 he met Katarzyna Mularczyk. They started dating and she fell pregnant. Marcin got engaged to Katarzyna on December 29, 2014. On March 9, 2015 their son Szymon Chodakowski was born in Warsaw, but Katarzyna died as a result of severe blooding. Marcin, who raised his son alone, met Izabela Lewińska. She worked as a curator and controlled Marcin's family. They fell in love and has a daughter, Maja Chodakowska, on November 14, 2017. In the meantime, Izabela married her former boyfriend, Artur Skalski and didn't say Marcin that she was expecting their child. Artur was killed in October 2019 by Aleksander Chodakowski. Marcin and Izabela engaged on January 28, 2020 and married in a church ceremony on March 24, 2020. Chodakowski owns a company.\n\n Izabela Chodakowska, born Lewińska (Adriana Kalska) is a wife of Marcin Chodakowski. They married on March 24, 2020.\n\n Szymon Chodakowski is a first child of Marcin Chodakowski and his fiancee, Katarzyna Mularczyk. He was born on March 9, 2015. His mother died hours after his birth and he was raised by his father.\n\n Maja Chodakowska is a first child of Marcin Chodakowski and his then girlfriend, Izabela Lewińska. She was born on November 14, 2017.\n\n Tomasz Chodakowski (Andrzej Młynarczyk) was a second child of Mr. and Mrs. Chodakowski and younger brother of Grzegorz Chodakowski. He was born on July 7, 1978. He lived in Szczecin and worked as a policeman. He decided to change his work and become a driver after the death of his close friend. He took care of his daughter, Zofia Warakomska. Tomasz met Małgorzata Mostowiak and saved her life when a man tried to rape her. They married on November 10, 2009 and their son was born on November 23, 2009. In the past, Tomasz was engaged to Agnieszka Olszewska, who escaped from the church minutes before their wedding. Agnieszka came to Warsaw from Szczecin and they renewed their relationship. Tomasz's relationship with Agnieszka and Małgorzata's work abroad was bad for their marriage. In 2014 Małgorzata left her family and moved to United States where she got engaged to her first husband, Michał Łagoda, and fell pregnant. Tomasz divorced her on May 12, 2014. Chodakowski had another one night stand with Olszewska. It resulted in a birth of their daughter, Helena Chodakowska, on February 23, 2016. Tomasz started dating Joanna Tarnowska, a nanny of Wojciech. Tomasz and Joanna married on March 28, 2017. Chodakowski was attacked with a knife and died in a Warsaw hospital on September 11, 2017.\n\n Małgorzata Chodakowska, born Mostowiak is a first wife of Tomasz Chodakowski. They married on November 10, 2009 and divorced on May 12, 2014.\n\n Joanna Chodakowska, born Tarnowska is a second wife of Tomasz Chodakowski. They married on March 28, 2017 and she widowed on September 11, 2017.\n\n Zofia Warakomska is a stepchild of Tomasz Chodakowski and his first wife, Małgorzata Chodakowska. She was born on June 15, 1999 in Szczecin.\n\n Wojciech Chodakowski is a first child of Tomasz Chodakowski and his first wife, Małgorzata Chodakowska. He was born on November 23, 2009 in Warsaw.\n\n Helena Chodakowska is a first child of Tomasz Chodakowski and his former fiancee, Agnieszka Olszewska. She was born on February 23, 2016. She spent her first years in Warsaw. In September 2017 her father died. In April 2020 she moved to home town of her mother, Szczecin.\n\nDomański family \n Stefan Domański (Zbigniew Waleryś) is a patriarch of Domański family. He was born in 1955. He has a daughter, Alicja Domańska. For many years Stefan had been a tramp. He met his granddaughter Barbara Domańska and they become friends.\n\n Jerzy Domański (Michał Czernecki) is a son of Stefan Domański and biological father of Barbara Zduńska. He was married to Alicja but they later divorced and he didn't have a contact with his child. Barbara is now raised as a child of Paweł Zduński. He was born in 1979.\n\n Alicja Zduńska, primo voto Domańska, secundo voto Zduńska was a wife of Jerzy Domański. She was born on October 18, 1985. Alicja has one sister, Olga. Alicja was married to Jerzy Domański with whom she has a daughter, Barbara. Secondly she married Paweł Zduński and they raised Barbara as her parents. Alicja left her family and moved to London with her new boyfriend. She soon fell pregnant and divorced Zduński. She gave birth to another son.\n\n Barbara Zduńska, born Domańska (Gabriela Raczyńska) is a daughter of Jerzy Domański and his then wife, Alicja Zduńska and also stepdaughter of Paweł Zduński. She was born on July 15, 2006.\n\nFilarski family \nFilarski family is related to Mostowiak family through the 2002 wedding of Piotr Zduński and Kinga Filarska.\n\n Zbigniew Filarski is a senior of Filarski family. He is divorced from Krystyna Filarska since May 16, 2006.\n\n Krystyna Filarska-Marszałek is a first wife of Zbigniew Filarski. They divorced on May 16, 2006.\n\n Kinga Filarska-Zduńska, born Filarska (Katarzyna Cichopek-Hakiel) is a first child of Zbigniew Filarski and his wife, Krystyna Filarska. She was born on May 22, 1984. Status: present, living in Warsaw since 2002. Occupation: psychologist. Marital status: married to Piotr Zduński since 2002.\n\nLisiecki family \nLisiecki family is related to Mostowiak family through the 2019 wedding of Bartosz Lisiecki and Urszula Mostowiak.\n\n Andrzej Lisiecki (Tomasz Oświeciński) is an older brother of Bartosz Lisiecki. In the past he was married to Elżbieta but his marriage lasted only a few months. On January 31, 2017 he married his friend, Marzena Laskowska and they're expecting their first child. Status: present, living in Grabina. Marital status: married to Marzena Lisiecka since 2017.\n\n Elżbieta Lisiecka (Anna Sarna) is a divorced first wife of Andrzej Lisiecki. She came to Grabina to stop Andrzej's wedding with Marzena Laskowska, saying that they're not divorced. Status: non-present since 2017. Marital status: divorced from Andrzej Lisiecki.\n\n Marzena Lisiecka, born Laskowska (Olga Szomańska) is a second wife of Andrzej Lisiecki. She worked at Siedlisko with Urszula Lisiecka. Marzena gave birth to her daughter Kalina on March 17, 2020.\n\n Kalina Lisiecka is a first child of Andrzej Lisiecki and his wife, Marzena Lisiecka. She was born on March 17, 2020 in Warsaw.\n\n Bartosz Lisiecki (Arkadiusz Smoleński) is a younger brother of Andrzej Lisiecki. Before he came to Grabina, he was in jail. Bartosz was previously married to Jolanta Lisiecka but they divorced after she betrayed him and gave birth to a daughter whose father was her lover. Lisiecki met Urszula Mostowiak and she split with her fiance to be with Bartosz. They married on June 4, 2019. Status: present, living in Grabina. Occupation: car mechanic. Marital status: married to Urszula Lisiecka since 2019.\n\n Jolanta Lisiecka is a first wife of Bartosz Lisiecki. They are divorced.\n\n Urszula Lisiecka, born Jakubczyk is a second wife of Bartosz Lisiecki. They married on June 4, 2019.\n\nŁagoda family \nŁagoda family is related to Mostowiak family through the 1960 adoption of Maria Mostowiak by Lucjan Mostowiak and through the 2002 wedding of Michał Łagoda and Małgorzata Mostowiak.\n\n Feliks Łagoda (never seen on screen) was a senior of Łagoda family. He was born in 1896 and died on June 28, 1960.\n\n Zofia Łagoda (never seen on screen) was a wife of Feliks Łagoda.\n\n Zenon Łagoda (Emil Karewicz) was a first child of Feliks Łagoda and his wife, Zofia Łagoda. He was born on June 14, 1936. He died on November 17, 2001.\n\n Maria Rogowska, born Mostowiak, primo voto Zduńska, secundo voto Rogowska is a first child of Zenon Łagoda and his then fiancee, Barbara Wrzodak. She is a legal daughter of Lucjan Mostowiak. She was born on December 24, 1960. Status: present, living in Grabina since 2018. Occupation: nurse. Marital status: married to Artur Rogowski since 2018.\n\n Piotr Zduński is a first child of Krzysztof Zduński and his wife, Maria Zduńska. He was born on February 18, 1984. Status: present, living in Warsaw since 2002. Occupation: lawyer. Marital status: married to Kinga Filarska-Zduńska since 2002.\n\n Magdalena Zduńska (Maja Wudkiewicz) is a first child of Piotr Zduński and his wife, Kinga Filarska-Zduńska. She was born on March 9, 2009. \n\n Mikołaj Zduński is a second child and first son of Piotr Zduński and his wife, Kinga Filarska-Zduńska. He was born on May 6, 2014.\n\n Emilia Zduńska is a third child and second daughter of Piotr Zduński and his wife, Kinga Filarska-Zduńska. She was born on February 25, 2019.\n\n Zuzanna Zduńska is a fourth child and third daughter of Piotr Zduński and his wife, Kinga Filarska-Zduńska. She was born on February 25, 2019.\n\n Paweł Zduński is a second child and second son of Krzysztof Zduński and his wife, Maria Zduńska. He was born on February 18, 1984. Status: present, living in Warsaw since 2002. Occupation: businessman. Marital status: divorced from Katia Zduńska since 2018. \n\n Barbara Zduńska is a first child of Paweł Zduński and his second wife, Alicja Zduńska. She was born on July 15, 2006. \n\n Maria Zduńska was a third child and first daughter of Krzysztof Zduński and his wife, Maria Zduńska. She was born on June 2, 2001 and died on June 2, 2001.\n\n Michał Łagoda (Paweł Okraska) was a first child of Zenon Łagoda and his unnamed wife. He was born on August 18, 1974 and died on April 3, 2014.\n\n Marian Łagoda was a second child and second son of Feliks Łagoda and his wife, Zofia Łagoda. He died in 2003.\n\n Unnamed Starski, born Łagoda was a brother of Feliks Łagoda. He moved to United States and changed his surname to Starski.\n\n Unnamed Starski II is a son of Unnamed Starski and his wife and nephew of Feliks Łagoda.\n\n Kamil Starski (Radosław Krzyżowski) was a son of Unnamed Starski II and his wife. He died in 2019.\n\n Maciej Kalicki (Aleksander Kaleta) is a son of Kamil Starski and his former partner, Miss Kalicka. Status: present, living in Gródek since 2019. Occupation: doctor.\n\nMarszałek family \n Wojciech Marszałek (Emilian Kamiński) is a senior of Marszałek family. \n\n Halina Marszałek (Marta Klubowicz) was a first wife of Wojciech Marszałek. She was born on April 9, 1960. Halina died on November 21, 2009 after a long illness.\n\n Krystyna Filarska-Marszałek (Hanna Mikuć) is a second wife of Wojciech Marszałek. She was born in 1956. She lived in Gródek with her wealthy husband Zbigniew Filarski and daughter Kinga. She didn't accept that her daughter was dating Piotr Zduński whose family was poor. Krystyna and Zbigniew divorced on May 16, 2006. Krystyna met Wojciech Marszałek and married him on May 3, 2011, making best friends Kinga Zduńska and Magdalena Marszałek stepsisters.\n\n Magdalena Budzyńska, born Marszałek, primo voto Maksymowicz, secundo voto Chodakowska, tertio voto Budzyńska (Anna Mucha) is an only child of Wojciech Marszałek and his first wife, Halina Marszałek. She was born on September 14, 1982. She studied psychology at Warsaw University where she met Kinga Zduńska, Piotr Zduński and Kamil Gryc. She married her first husband, Sasza Maksymowicz, to let him applicate for a Polish citizenship.\n\n Sasza Maksymowicz (Iwan Komarenko) is a first husband of Magdalena Marszałek. They married in a civil ceremony and divorced.\n\n Aleksander Chodakowski is a second husband of Magdalena Marszałek. They married in 2015 and divorced in 2017.\n\n Andrzej Budzyński is a third husband of Magdalena Marszałek. They married on January 7, 2020.\n\n Zuzanna Marszałek (Jolanta Fraszyńska) is a cousin of Wojciech Marszałek. She worked as a nanny of Magdalena Zduńska and Mikołaj Zduński. She was dating Zbigniew Filarski and Wiktor Żak (whom she met in a secondary school and then again in Warsaw in 2016).\n\n Michał Marszałek is a brother of Zuzanna Marszałek.\n\nMostowiak family \nMostowiak family is a main family of the series.\n\nLudwik Mostowiak (died)\n\nTeodor Mostowiak (died)\nMaria Mostowiak (married)\n\nHanna Smine (Mostowiak, born 1922, died 1978)\nhusband Smine\n\ndaughter Bufford (Smine)\nhusband Bufford (married)\n\nJane Bufford (born 1990)\n\nLucjan Mostowiak (born 1931, died 2017)\nBarbara Mostowiak (Wrzodak, married 1960)\n\n Maria Rogowska (Mostowiak, born 1960)\n Krzysztof Zduński (married 1984, widowed 2006)\n Artur Rogowski (married 2008, divorced 2015; married 2018)\n\n Piotr Zduński (born 1984)\n Kinga Filarska-Zduńska (Filarska, married 2002)\n\n Magdalena Zduńska (born 2009)\n\n Mikołaj Zduński (born 2014)\n\n Emilia Zduńska (born 2019)\n\n Zuzanna Zduńska (born 2019)\n\n Paweł Zduński (born 1984)\n Joanna Zduńska (Liberadzka, married 2011, divorced 2012)\n Alicja Zduńska (Domańska, married 2014, divorced 2017)\n Katia Zduńska (Tatiszwili, married 2018, divorced 2018)\n\n Barbara Zduńska (born 2006, adopted 2018)\n\n Maria Zduńska (born 2001, died 2001)\n\n Barbara Rogowska (born 2009)\n\n Marta Budzyńska (Mostowiak, born 1972)\n Jacek Milecki (married 2003, divorced 2004)\n Norbert Wojciechowski (married 2005, widowed 2007)\n Andrzej Budzyński (married 2012, divorced 2017)\n\n Łukasz Wojciechowski (Mostowiak, born 1993)\n\n Natalia Wojciechowska (born 2020)\n\n Anna Wojciechowska (born 2006)\n\n Marek Mostowiak (born 1978)\n Hanna Mostowiak (married 2001, widowed 2011)\n Ewa Kolęda (married 2015)\n\n Natalia Zarzycka (Mostowiak, born 1996, adopted 2005)\n Franciszek Zarzycki (married 2017)\n\n Hanna Zarzycka (Mostowiak, born 2015)\n\n Urszula Lisiecka (Mostowiak, born 1996, adopted 2008)\n Bartosz Lisiecki (married 2019)\n\n Mateusz Mostowiak (born 2002)\n Liliana Mostowiak (Banach, married 2020)\n\n Małgorzata Chodakowska (Mostowiak, born 1980)\n Michał Łagoda (married 2002, divorced 2004, engaged 2014, died 2014)\n Stefan Miller (married 2004, divorced 2005)\n Tomasz Chodakowski (married 2009, divorced 2014, died 2017)\n\n Zofia Warakomska (born 1999, adopted)\n\n Wojciech Chodakowski (born 2009)\n\nOlszewski family \n Agnieszka Olszewska (Magdalena Walach) is a public prosecutor and former fiancee of Tomasz Chodakowski. She was born in 1978 in Szczecin. She met Chodakowski at a secondary school in Szczecin. They were even engaged but she decided to split with him. Agnieszka came to Warsaw as a widowed woman and met Chodakowski again. She was in love triangle with his wife, Małgorzata Chodakowska. In 2011 she fell pregnant after a one night stand with Andrzej Budzyński, but later miscarried. On February 23, 2016 her daughter Helena Chodakowska was born. In September 2017 Tomasz Chodakowski died. In April 2020 Agnieszka and her daughter moved to Szczecin.\n\n Helena Chodakowska is a first child of Agnieszka Olszewska and her former partner, Tomasz Chodakowski. She was born on February 23, 2016.\n\nRogowski family \n Artur Rogowski (Robert Moskwa) is a senior of Rogowski family. He was born in 1969. He is a doctor. Rogowski has been in love with Maria Zduńska for many years and started dating her after the death of her first husband. They married in 2008 during their long stay in Oslo, Norway. On November 3, 2009 their daughter Barbara was born. Rogowski had a romance with Teresa Drawicz and it let to his divorce from Maria in 2015. They later reconciled and married for a second time on November 26, 2018. Since then they live in Grabina.\n\n Maria Rogowska, born Mostowiak is a wife of Artur Rogowski. They married in 2008 and divorced in 2015. They married for a second time on November 26, 2018.\n\n Barbara Rogowska is a first child of Artur Rogowski and his wife, Maria Rogowska. She was born on November 3, 2009.\n\n Agata Rogowska (Katarzyna Kwiatowska) is a sister of Artur Rogowski. She is a doctor. She was married and lived in Norway for many years. Then she divorced her husband and came back to Poland. She started her work in Lipnica with her brother and sister-in-law. She is dating Artur Werner as of 2020.\n\nTarnowski family \nAdam Tarnowski (born 1958)\nDorota Tarnowska (widowed 2015)\n\n Joanna Chodakowska (Tarnowska born 1987)\n Tomasz Chodakowski (married 2017, widowed 2017)\n Leszek Krajewski (engaged 2021)\n\nAdam Tarnowski (Juliusz Krzysztof Warunek) is a senior of Tarnowski family. He was born in 1958.\n\nDorota Tarnowska (Katarzyna Żak) was a wife of Adam Tarnowski. In a past she was diagnosed with a cancer and recovered after her daughter stole money from the casino she worked. Later, she was diagnosed with a pancreatic cancer and died on June 1, 2015.\n\nJoanna Chodakowska, born Tarnowska (Barbara Kurdej-Szatan) is a first child of Adam Tarnowski and his wife, Dorota Tarnowska. She was born on March 15, 1987. She worked in United States as a nanny of Wojciech Chodakowski. After his mother, Małgorzata Chodakowska, and her fiance, Michał Łagoda, had a car accident, she took care of Wojciech and later took him to Poland. Joanna fell in love with Tomasz Chodakowski and they married on March 28, 2017. Tomasz unfortunately died on September 11, 2017. Joanna lives in Warsaw and raises Wojciech Chodakowski. On December 6, 2021 she got engaged to Leszek Krajewski.\n\nTomasz Chodakowski was a first husband of Joanna Tarnowska. They married on March 28, 2017 and he died on September 11, 2017.\n\nTatiszwili family \nTatiszwili family is of Georgian origin.\n\n Otar Tatiszwili (David Gamtsemlidze) is a senior of Tatiszwili family. He is Georgian. Otar lives in Warsaw and owns a restaurant.\n\n Katia Zduńska, born Tatiszwili (Joanna Jarmołowicz) is a daughter of Otar Tatiszwili and his wife. On May 21, 2018 she married Paweł Zduński in order to have a Polish citizenship. They eventually fell in love with each other but divorced on November 20, 2018. Katia had a romance with Łukasz Wojciechowski and fell pregnant. Her father didn't accept that she was expecting a child out of wedlock. On March 9, 2020 she gave birth to her daughter, Natalia.\n\n Paweł Zduński is a first husband of Katia Tatiszwili. They married on May 21, 2018 and divorced on November 20, 2018.\n\n Natalia Wojciechowska is a first child of Katia Zduńska and her former boyfriend, Łukasz Wojciechowski. She was born on March 9, 2020.\n\nWalisiak family \n Władysław Walisiak was a senior of Walisiak family. He was born in 1947. In his youth Władysław was dating Wanda Kalicka but married her younger sister, Maria Kalicka. They had one child, Hanna, born in 1975. In 1980 Walisiak family came home from a party in a car driven by Waldemar Jaroszy. Jaroszy had no driving license and caused an accident with Lucjan and Barbara Mostowiak. Władysław and Maria died as a result and Hanna had to live in an orphanage. In 1978 Władysław had a child out of wedlock, Anna Gruszyńska.\n\n Maria Walisiak, born Kalicka was a wife of Władysław Walisiak. She was born in 1949 and died in a car accident in 1980. She had one daughter, Hanna, and has never learnt that her husband had also a daughter out of wedlock.\n\n Hanna Mostowiak, born Walisiak (Małgorzata Kożuchowska) was a daughter of Władysław Walisiak and his wife, Maria Walisiak. Hanna took part in a car accident in 1980 where her parents were killed. She later lived in an orphanage in Józefowo and was temporary adopted by Irena Gałązka and her husband. In 2001 she married Marek Mostowiak and they had son, Mateusz Mostowiak, in 2002. They later adopted two girls from Józefowo, Natalia and Urszula. Hanna died of brain aneurysm in 2011. Her granddaughter, Hanna Zarzycka, is named after her.\n\n Marek Mostowiak was a husband of Hanna Mostowiak. They married in 2001 and he widowed in 2011.\n\n Anna Gruszyńska (Tamara Arciuch) is a daughter of Władysław Walisiak. For some time she lived in Grabina before moving to France. She was previously married and divorced. She was later engaged to Adam Werner.\n\n Wanda Kalicka (Grażyna Marzec) was an older sister of Maria Walisiak and maternal aunt of Hanna Mostowiak. She was born in 1945. Wanda dated Władysław Kalisiak but he chose to marry her sister. In 1980 her sister and brother-in-law died in a car accident and Wanda refused to take care of their daughter resulting in Hanna living in an orphanage. She moved to Germany and was thought to be dead. In 2004 Hanna learnt that her aunt was still living and sick. Mostowiak went to Germany and took her aunt to Grabina. It was later revealed that Kalicka had much money but posed that she was poor. She came back to Germany to take care of one of her former wards, Erika.\n\nWojciechowski family \nWojciechowski family is related to Mostowiak family through the 1993 birth of Łukasz Mostowiak and through the 2006 wedding of Norbert Wojciechowski and Marta Mostowiak.\n\n Kazimierz Wojciechowski (never seen on screen) was a senior of Wojciechowski family.\n\n Henryk Wojciechowski (Tadeusz Chudecki) was a first child of Kazimierz Wojciechowski and his first wife. He was born in 1961. He lived with his widowed sister-in-law, Marta Wojciechowska and her two children. Henryk was dating Matylda Górska. He married his girlfriend Nina.\n\n Nina Wojciechowska is a wife of Henryk Wojciechowski. \n\n Norbert Wojciechowski (Mariusz Sabiniewicz) was a second child of Kazimierz Wojciechowski. He was born in 1967. In the early 1990s he was dating Marta Mostowiak. In 1993 their son Łukasz was born. He was fighting for his life. Norbert refuse to give his blood to Łukasz and left his family. As a result, Marta raised Łukasz as a single mother and told him that his father was dead. Wojciechowski worked abroad and he came back in 2001 as a famous politician. When a press reported that he had a child born out of wedlock, Łukasz learnt that he was Wojciechowski's son and they met. Norbert saved Łukasz's live after they had a car crash in United States. Norbert married Marta Mostowiak on October 11, 2005. They daughter Anna Wojciechowska was born on February 14, 2006. In the meantime, Wojciechowski was dating his student, Klara Sobieszczańska and Magdalena Rudnik. Norbert died in a plane crash on December 3, 2007.\n\n Marta Wojciechowska, born Mostowiak was a wife of Norbert Wojciechowski. They married on October 11, 2005 and she widowed on December 3, 2007.\n\n Łukasz Wojciechowski, born Mostowiak is a first child of Norbert Wojciechowski and his then girlfriend, Marta Mostowiak. He was born on October 9, 1993.\n\n Natalia Wojciechowska is a first child of Łukasz Wojciechowski and his former girlfriend, Katia Tatiszwili. She was born on March 9, 2020.\n\n Anna Wojciechowska is a second child and only daughter of Norbert Wojciechowski and his wife, Marta Wojciechowska. She was born on February 14, 2006.\n\nZduński family \nZduński family is related to Mostowiak family through 1984 marriage of Krzysztof Zduński and Maria Mostowiak.\n\n Jadwiga Zduńska-Jabłońska, primo voto Zduńska, secundo voto Jabłońska (Barbara Horowianka) is a senior of Zduński family. Her first husband, Mr. Zduński, was a dentist. Jadwiga had two children with him: Krzysztof (born in 1958) and Renata. Her daughter Renata died as an infant because of SIDS. Zduńska wanted Krzysztof to become a doctor like his father. She was angry when he stopped his studies to marry his pregnant daughter Maria Mostowiak and they ended their contact. Jadwiga didn't like her daughter-in-law. On March 17, 2001 Jadwiga was diagnosed with stroke and hospitalized. She renewed contact with her son and met her grandchildren. Zduńska later moved to Krzysztof's and Maria's flat where Maria took care of her. She met Karol Jabłoński and married him in March 2004. Status: non-present since 2004. Marital status: married to Karol Jabłoński since March 2004.\n\n Krzysztof Zduński (Cezary Morawski) is a first child of Jadwiga Zduńska and her first husband, Mr. Zduński. He was born on February 13, 1953. His father was a dentist and Krzysztof studied medicine to become a doctor. When his girlfriend, Maria Mostowiak, fell pregnant, he quit his studies and married her. They had twin sons in February 1984, Piotr and Paweł. Their third child, daughter Maria, died a few hours after her birth in June 2001. She suffered from a heart disease. Krzysztof worked as a businessman but had no successes. In 2002 he had a romance with his secretary, Ewa Nowicka. She later gave birth to her daughter Aleksandra and Krzysztof was suspected of being Aleksandra's father. Zduński reconciled with Maria and bought a plot in Grabina to build them new home. On March 6, 2006 he suffered from a heart attack and died in Grabina, building their house. He was a godfather to Łukasz Wojciechowski and Aleksandra Skalska. Status: deceased since 2006. Occupation: businessman. Marital status: married to Maria Zduńska from 1984 to 2006. \n\n Maria Zduńska, born Mostowiak is a first wife of Krzysztof Zduński. They married in 1984 and she widowed on March 6, 2006.\n\n Renata Zduńska (never seen on screen) was a second child of Jadwiga Zduńska and her first husband, Mr. Zduński. She died as an infant. Status: deceased.\n\nOther characters\n\nG \n Irena Gałązka (Joanna Kasperska) is a former adoptive mother of Hanna Walisiak. She and her husband adopted Hanna, whose parents died in a car accident but they took her back to the orphanage in Józefowo when Irena fell pregnant. Irena's child later died and she had a mental disorder ever since. She met her former daughter again in 2001 when Hanna was married to Marek Mostowiak and expecting their child. Irena kidnapped Hanna's son, Mateusz Mostowiak and wanted to kill him and herself. Mateusz was saved by his parents and Irena was arrested.\n\nO \n Agnieszka Olszewska (Magdalena Walach) is a former fiance of Tomasz Chodakowski. She was born in 1978 in Szczecin.\n\nW \n Anna Waszkiewicz (Weronika Rosati) is a classmate of Piotr Zduński, Paweł Zduński and Kinga Filarska. In the past, she had a romance with Andrzej Budzyński. She is a godmother to Emilia Zduńska and Zuzanna Zduńska. Occupation: painter.\n\nList of main characters' departures\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n M jak miłość – official site\n M jak miłośc – TVP site\n M jak miłość – Filmweb\n\nPolish television soap operas"
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[
"Chen Guangcheng",
"Early life and family",
"When was he born?",
"I don't know.",
"Does he have any siblings?",
"Chen is the youngest of five brothers",
"where did he go to school?",
"In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School",
"Is he married?",
"Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing,"
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C_2babf542876349009bcde12e321b5028_1
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do they have children?
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Do Chen Guangcheng and Yuan Weijing have children?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year.
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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[
"Best of Friends was a British children's game show that ran from 7 March 2004 to 13 August 2008. It first aired on CBBC for series 1, then on BBC One from series 2-3 and then back on CBBC from series 4–5.\n\nFormat\n\nTasks and Treats\nIn the show, five friends with a strong friendship must complete a series of three unpleasant tasks in order to win a final treat. The tasks include mucking out pigs, cleaning bins, picking up ice with the bare feet, getting your feet tickled without laughing or smiling and so on, for the test of friendship. While some members of the group are doing the task, their friends do treats such as visiting animals at the RSPCA, getting a manicure, shopping, going to a football game, going to a theme park etc. They must make decisions deciding on who will do the task and who will do the treat or they can use the \"Unlucky Dip\".\n\n\"The Unlucky Dip\"\nThe unlucky dip contains three, two or one blue sweet(s) in a bag. The friends choose a sweet each (without looking) from the bag, and then suck it. The number of children to do the next task, and therefore the number of blue sweets in the bag, will depend on the success of the previous task. The people or person with the blue sweet(s) will have a blue tongue and will be forced to do the task, while the others will do the treat. The first task requires three people and, each time the children pass a task, the number needed to do the next task will reduce. For the final task they have three options: the unlucky dip, volunteer or the whole team can do the task as it is the hardest.\n\nThe presenters also have an option of volunteering to do the task. If they do not volunteer, the presenters also do a compulsory Unlucky Dip with each task. The presenter with a blue tongue will be forced to do the task.\n\nTransmissions\n\nOriginal series\n\nAfrica\n\nSpecials\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeries 1 (2004)\n\nSeries 2 (2005)\n\nSeries 3 (2007)\n\nSeries 4 (2008)\n\nSeries 5 (2008)\n\nAfrica (2005)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2004 British television series debuts\n2008 British television series endings\n2000s British children's television series\n2000s British game shows\nBBC children's television shows\nBritish children's game shows\nEnglish-language television shows",
"Summary relatives are people in a state of relationship that occurs between the biological children of a couple and the biological children of only one parent of the couple. In other words, half-brothers or half-sisters do not share their parents, sharing a family relationship, but not a biological relationship. A family in which one or both spouses have children from a previous marriage, is called the pivot family.\n\nIt is wrong to call half siblings with a common father (that's right — \"half\", or half) or mother (that's right — \"half -\")\n\nLegal norms \n\nIn the legislation of many countries, including Russia, stepfathers or stepmothers, do not possess individual rights and responsibilities towards stepchildren if they were not adopted or foster children. All rights and obligations, if they have not been limited by court order, to preserve the biological parents of the child.\n\nReferences \n\nFamily"
] |
[
"Chen Guangcheng",
"Early life and family",
"When was he born?",
"I don't know.",
"Does he have any siblings?",
"Chen is the youngest of five brothers",
"where did he go to school?",
"In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School",
"Is he married?",
"Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing,",
"do they have children?",
"Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year."
] |
C_2babf542876349009bcde12e321b5028_1
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DO they have any other children?
| 6 |
Besides their son Chen Kerui, do Chen Guangcheng and Yuan Weijing have any other children?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy.
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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[
"Implicit atheism and explicit atheism are types of atheism. In George H. Smith's Atheism: The Case Against God, \"implicit atheism\" is defined as \"the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it\", while \"explicit atheism\" is \"the absence of theistic belief due to a conscious rejection of it\". Explicit atheists have considered the idea of deities and have rejected belief that any exist. Implicit atheists, though they do not themselves maintain a belief in a god or gods, have not rejected the notion or have not considered it further.\n\nImplicit atheism \n\"Implicit atheism\" is \"the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it\". \"Absence of theistic belief\" encompasses all forms of non-belief in deities. This would categorize as implicit atheists those adults who have never heard of the concept of deities, and those adults who have not given the idea any real consideration. Also included are agnostics who assert they do not believe in any deities (even if they claim not to be atheists), and children. As far back as 1772, Baron d'Holbach said that \"All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God\". Smith is silent on newborn children, but clearly identifies as atheists some children who are unaware of any concept of any deity:\n\nExplicit atheism \nSmith observes that some motivations for explicit atheism are rational and some not. Of the rational motivations, he says:\n\nFor Smith, critical, explicit atheism is subdivided further into three groups:\n the view usually expressed by the statement \"I do not believe in the existence of a god or supernatural being\" after \"the failure of theism to provide sufficient evidence in its favor. Faced with a lack of evidence, this explicit atheist sees no reason whatsoever for believing in a supernatural being\";\n the view usually expressed by the statement \"God does not exist\" or \"the existence of God is impossible\" after \"a particular concept of god, such as the God of Christianity, is judged to be absurd or contradictory\";\n the view which \"refuses to discuss the existence or nonexistence of a god\" because \"the concept of a 'god' is unintelligible\".\n\nFor the purposes of his paper on \"philosophical atheism\", Ernest Nagel chose to attach only the explicit atheism definition for his examination and discussion:\n\nIn Nagel's Philosophical Concepts of Atheism, he very much agrees with Smith on the three-part subdivision of \"explicit atheism\" above, though Nagel does not use the term \"explicit\".\n\nOther typologies of atheism \n\nThe specific narrow focus on positive atheism taken by some professional philosophers like Nagel on the one hand, compared with the scholarship on traditional negative atheism of freethinkers like d'Holbach and Smith on the other has been attributed to the different concerns of professional philosophers and layman proponents of atheism, \n\nEveritt (2004) makes the point that professional philosophers are more interested in the grounds for giving or withholding assent to propositions:\n We need to distinguish between a biographical or sociological enquiry into why some people have believed or disbelieved in God, and an epistemological enquiry into whether there are any good reasons for either belief or unbelief... We are interested in the question of what good reasons there are for or against God's existence, and no light is thrown on that question by discovering people who hold their beliefs without having good reasons for them. \n\nSo, sometimes in philosophy (Flew, Martin and Nagel notwithstanding), only the explicit \"denial of theistic belief\" is examined, rather than the broader, implicit subject of atheism.\n\nThe terms \"weak atheism\" and \"strong atheism\", also known as \"negative atheism\" and \"positive atheism\", are usually used by Smith as synonyms of the less well-known \"implicit\" and \"explicit\" categories. \"Strong explicit\" atheists assert that it is false that any deities exist. \"Weak explicit\" atheists assert they do not believe in deities, and do not assert it is true that deities do not exist. Those who do not believe any deities exist, and do not assert their non-belief are included among implicit atheists. Among weak implicit atheists are included the following: children and adults who have never heard of deities; people who have heard of deities but have never given the idea any considerable thought; and those agnostics who suspend belief about deities, but do not reject such belief.\n\nSee also \n Agnosticism\n Apatheism\n Ignosticism\n Nontheism\n\nFurther reading \n Implicit theism in the social science of belief and nonbelief \n An introduction to atheism secularity and science\nImplicit Religion?\nAre atheists implicit theists?\n\nReferences \n\nAtheism\nPhilosophy of religion",
"Education in Tonga is compulsory for children through the end of high school. In 1995, the gross primary enrolment rate was 122.2 percent, and the net primary enrolment rate was 95.3 percent. Primary school attendance rates were unavailable for Tonga as of 2001. While enrolment rates indicate a level of commitment to education, they do not always reflect children’s participation in school. 98.5% of students in Tonga attend schools while the other 2% are either living in remote areas without certain schools, such as in the Niua group, or they do not have enough funds to pay for their enrolment. There are about twenty institutions for higher education (including universities), 22 high schools, and around 95 primary schools including pre-schools in different villages around Tonga.\n\nTongans have one of the highest rates of PhDs per head of population and are proud of the body of academic knowledge created by Tongan scholars. A collection of every PhD and Masters dissertation written by any Tongan, the Kukū Kaunaka Collection, is held at the University of the South Pacific and administered by Seu'ula Johansson-Fua.\n\nSee also \nSchools in Tonga\nEducational Institutions in Tonga\n\nExternal links\nTonga at the International Council for Open and Distance education\n\nReferences"
] |
[
"Chen Guangcheng",
"Early life and family",
"When was he born?",
"I don't know.",
"Does he have any siblings?",
"Chen is the youngest of five brothers",
"where did he go to school?",
"In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School",
"Is he married?",
"Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing,",
"do they have children?",
"Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year.",
"DO they have any other children?",
"In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy."
] |
C_2babf542876349009bcde12e321b5028_1
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what did he study in school?
| 7 |
what did Chen Guangcheng study in school?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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specializing in acupuncture and massage
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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[
"The Katy series is a set of novels by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, writing under the pen-name of Susan Coolidge. The first in the series, What Katy Did, was published in 1872 and followed the next year by What Katy Did at School. What Katy Did Next was released in 1886. Two further novels, Clover (1888) and In the High Valley (1890), focused upon other members of the eponymous character's family. The series was popular with readers in the late 19th century.\n\nThe series was later adapted into a TV series entitled Katy in 1962, and two films, one also called Katy in 1972 and What Katy Did in 1999.\n\nNovels\n What Katy Did\n What Katy Did at School\n What Katy Did Next\n Clover\n In the High Valley\n\nAdaptions\n Katy (TV series, 1962)\n Katy (film, 1972)\n What Katy Did (film, 1999)\n\nLiterary Criticism\nCritics are divided about how much the series played into period gender norms and often compare the series to Little Women. Foster and Simmons argue for its subversion of gender in their book What Katy Read: Feminist Re-Readings of ‘Classic’ Stories for Girls by suggesting the series “deconstructs family hierarchies”.\n\nInfluence\nThe series is unusual for its time by having an entry which focuses not on the family life at home but at school in What Katy Did at School.\n\nIn a 1995 survey, What Katy Did was voted as one of the top 10 books for 12-year-old girls.\n\nSee also\n\nSarah Chauncey Woolsey\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSeries details at Fantastic Fiction\n\nKaty series\n1870s novels\nNovel series\nSeries of children's books\nNovels by Susan Coolidge\n1880s novels\n1890s novels\n1962 American television series debuts\n1972 films\n1999 films",
"Wilbur Samuel Jackman (January 12, 1855 – January 28, 1907) was an American educator and one of the originators of the nature study movement. \n\nJackman was born in Mechanicstown, Ohio, and shortly after his birth the family moved to California, Pennsylvania where he spent his boyhood growing up on a farm that his grandfather had obtained from the local Indians in exchange for a copper kettle. It was his childhood experiences that engendered him with a love of the outdoors and all the plants and animals that live there.\n\nJackman continued his education at the California Normal School, travelling to school and back on horseback. He then went to Meadville College for three years. He then continued his education at Harvard University and graduated with a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1884. On his way home after graduation he stopped at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he was promptly offered a job to teach natural science to high school students. Jackman was influenced by Johann Friedrich Herbart, Johann Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel and other European educators and believed that children's enthusiasm needed to be utilized to incorporate introductions to all subjects including mathematics, chemistry and biology within nature. It is while he is teaching high school in Pittsburgh that he formulated the nature-study idea. Colonel Francis W. Parker met him in 1889 and invited him to join the faculty at the Cook County Normal School in Chicago, Illinois. In the fall of 1890, Jackman published bimonthly pamphlets that were 75 pages each titled \"Outlines in Elementary Science\". In the spring of 1891, these pamphlets were synthesized into the important book published that allowed the whole world to learn about nature-study in his book Nature-Study for Common Schools. After this, he continued to refine his ideas of nature-study in different publications.\n\nIn 1904, Jackman was appointed dean of the growing School of Education of the University of Chicago (formerly the Cook County Normal School). He also served in this time as editor of the journal Elementary School Teacher.\n\nJackman died suddenly at the age of 52 from what was diagnosed as pneumonia.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\nBailey, L. H. (1904). The nature-study idea: Being an interpretation of the new school-movement to put the child in sympathy with nature. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.\nJackman, W. S. (1891). Nature-study for the common schools. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.\nJackman, W. S. (1894). Field work in nature study (second ed.). Chicago, Illinois: A. Flanagan.\nJackman, W. S. (1904). The third yearbook of the National Society for the scientific study of education Part II nature-study. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.\n\nExternal links\n Nature study for the common schools (1894)\nEditorial Notes: Policy Statement of the Elementary School Teacher at the Mead Project\nWilbur Samuel Jackman at Encyclopedia.com\nHyde Park Resources: Here's What's in Hyde Park\n\n1852 births\nHarvard University alumni\nChicago State University faculty\nUniversity of Chicago faculty\n1907 deaths\nDeaths from pneumonia in Illinois\nPeople from Carroll County, Ohio\nPeople from Washington County, Pennsylvania"
] |
[
"Chen Guangcheng",
"Early life and family",
"When was he born?",
"I don't know.",
"Does he have any siblings?",
"Chen is the youngest of five brothers",
"where did he go to school?",
"In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School",
"Is he married?",
"Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing,",
"do they have children?",
"Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year.",
"DO they have any other children?",
"In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy.",
"what did he study in school?",
"specializing in acupuncture and massage"
] |
C_2babf542876349009bcde12e321b5028_1
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what year did he get married?
| 8 |
What year did Chen Guangcheng get married?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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The couple eloped in 2003.
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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[
"Richard Timothy Jones (born January 16, 1972) is an American actor. He has worked extensively in both film and television productions since the early 1990s. His television roles include Ally McBeal (1997), Judging Amy (1998–2005), CSI: Miami (2006), Girlfriends (2007), Grey's Anatomy (2010), Hawaii Five-0 (2011–2014), Narcos (2015), and Criminal Minds (2017). Since 2018, he has played Sergeant Wade Grey on the ABC police drama The Rookie.\n\nHis film roles include portrayals of Lamont Carr in Disney's Full Court Miracle (2003), Laveinio \"Slim\" Hightower in Rick Famuyiwa's coming-of-age film The Wood (1999), Mike in Tyler Perry's dramatic films Why Did I Get Married? (2007) and Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010), and Captain Russell Hampton in the Hollywood blockbuster Godzilla (2014).\n\nEarly life\nJones was born in Kobe, Japan to American parents. He grew up in Carson, California. He is the son of Lorene, a computer analyst, and Clarence Jones, a professional baseball player and hitting instructor for the Cleveland Indians. He has an older brother, Clarence Jones Jr., who works as a coach. His parents later divorced. Jones attended Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, California, then graduated from Tuskegee University.\n\nCareer \nSince the early 1990s, Jones has worked in both film and television productions.\n\nHis first television role was in a 1993 episode of the series California Dreams. That same year, he appeared as Ike Turner, Jr. in What's Love Got to Do with It. From 1999 to 2005, he starred as Bruce Calvin van Exel in the CBS legal drama series Judging Amy.\n\nOver the next two decades, Jones starred or guest-starred in high-profile television series such as Ally McBeal (1997), CSI: Miami (2006), Girlfriends (2007), Grey's Anatomy (2010), Hawaii Five-0 (2011–2014), Narcos (2015), and Criminal Minds (2017).\n\nHis film roles include portrayals of Lamont Carr in the Disney film Full Court Miracle (2003), Laveinio \"Slim\" Hightower in Rick Famuyiwa's coming-of-age film The Wood (1999), and Mike in Tyler Perry's dramatic films Why Did I Get Married? (2007) and Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010), and Captain Russell Hampton in the Hollywood blockbuster Godzilla (2014).\n\nFrom 2017 to 2018, Jones played Detective Tommy Cavanaugh in the CBS drama series Wisdom of the Crowd.\n\nSince February 2018, Jones has played the role of Sergeant Wade Gray in the ABC police procedural drama series The Rookie with Nathan Fillion.\n\nPersonal life\nHe married Nancy Robinson in October 1996. He is also a preacher/minister.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1972 births\nAfrican-American male actors\nAmerican expatriates in Japan\nAmerican male film actors\nAmerican male television actors\nLiving people\nMale actors from California\nPeople from Carson, California\nPeople from Kobe\nActors from Kobe\n21st-century African-American people\n20th-century African-American people",
"What You See Is What You Get or WYSIWYG is where computer editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its final appearance.\n\nWhat You See Is What You Get may also refer to:\n\nMusic\n What You See Is What You Get (EP), a 1998 EP by Pitchshifter\n What You See Is What You Get (Glen Goldsmith album), 1988\n What You See Is What You Get (Luke Combs album), 2019\n Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get (album), a 1971 debut album by the band The Dramatics\n\"Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get\" (song), title song from the above The Dramatics album\n \"What You See Is What You Get\" (song), a 1971 song by Stoney & Meatloaf\n \"What U See Is What U Get\", a 1998 song by rapper Xzibit\n \"What U See (Is What U Get)\", a song by Britney Spears from the 2000 album Oops!... I Did It Again\n\nOthers\n What you see is what you get, a term popularized by Geraldine Jones, a character from the television show The Flip Wilson Show\n What You See Is What You Get (book), a 2010 book written by Alan Sugar\n\nSee also\nWYSIWYG (disambiguation)\nWhatcha See Is Whatcha Get (disambiguation)\n\"What You Get Is What You See\", a song by Tina Turner from her 1987 album Break Every Rule\n Stand by Me (Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get), 1971 album by Pretty Purdie and The Playboys"
] |
[
"Chen Guangcheng",
"Early life and family",
"When was he born?",
"I don't know.",
"Does he have any siblings?",
"Chen is the youngest of five brothers",
"where did he go to school?",
"In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School",
"Is he married?",
"Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing,",
"do they have children?",
"Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year.",
"DO they have any other children?",
"In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy.",
"what did he study in school?",
"specializing in acupuncture and massage",
"what year did he get married?",
"The couple eloped in 2003."
] |
C_2babf542876349009bcde12e321b5028_1
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anything else interesting during his early life?
| 9 |
Other than Chen Guangcheng's education, marriage, and children, was anything else interesting during Chen Guangcheng's early life?
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Chen Guangcheng
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Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled. Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC. In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County. Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work. CANNOTANSWER
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Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
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Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.
In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.
Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.
In April 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study. On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City. In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.
Early life and family
Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that’s present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I’d be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.
Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.
In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.
Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
Activism
Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees). The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities. With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society. His reputation as a disability rights advocate was solidified when agreed to advocate for an elderly blind couple whose grandchildren suffered from paralysis. The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation. When the case went to court, blind citizens from surrounding counties were in attendance as a show of solidarity. The case was successful, and the outcome became well-known.
In 1997, the leaders of Chen's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages. The plan, known as the "two-field system," was a major source of enrichment for the local government. While studying in Nanjing the following year, however, Chen learned that the program was illegal, and he petitioned central authorities in Beijing to end the system, thereby irritating local officials.
In 2000, Chen returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution. A paper mill constructed in 1988 had been dumping toxic wastewater into the Meng River, destroying crops and harming wildlife. The chemicals also reportedly caused skin and digestive problems among villagers living downstream from the mill. Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill. The effort was successful, and resulted in the suspension of the paper mill. In addition, Chen contacted the British embassy in Beijing, informing them of the situation and requesting funding for a well to supply clean water to locals. The British government responded by providing £15,000 towards a deep water well, irrigation systems and water pipelines.
In March 2004, more than 300 residents from Chen's village of Dongshigu filed a petition to the village government demanding that they release the village accounts—which hadn't been made public for over ten years—and address the issue of illegal land requisitions. When village authorities failed to respond, villagers escalated their appeals to the township, county and municipal governments, still without response. Village authorities then began to publicly threaten villagers. In November 2004, Chen acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence. The case was accepted, and proceedings began in early 2005.
In 2005, Chen spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy. His survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs. Chen later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.
Though Chinese central authorities have sought to curb the coercive enforcement of the one-child policy since 1990 by replacing measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations with a system of financial incentives and fines, Chen found that coercive practices remained widespread, and he documented numerous cases of abuse. One of the women he interviewed in Maxiagou village, 36-year-old Feng Zhongxia, said that local officials detained and beat her relatives, and indicated they would not be released until she turned herself in and submitted to a forced abortion. She said she was later subjected to forced sterilization. Chen also solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi. Teng and Chen later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.
In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff. And in June, he traveled to Beijing to file the complaint and meet with foreign reporters to publicize the case. Although there had been prior instances of Chinese citizens filing complaints about abuses under the one-child policy, Chen's initiative was the first class-action lawsuit to challenge its implementation.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the case garnered international media attention. Responding to questions about Chen's allegation, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission told the Washington Post that the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations was "definitely illegal", and indicated that the complaints were being investigated. "If the Linyi complaints are true, or even partly true, it's because local officials do not understand the new demands of the Chinese leadership regarding family planning work", said the official. In September 2005, the commission announced that several Linyi officials had been detained. But local authorities in Linyi retaliated against Chen, placing him under house arrest in September 2005 and embarking on a campaign to undermine his reputation; the Linyi officials portrayed him as working for "foreign anti-China forces", pointing out that he had received foreign funding for his advocacy on behalf of the disabled.
Detention and trial
On 7 September 2005, while Chen was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours. Recounting the incident to foreign journalists, Chen said that authorities threatened to levy criminal charges against him for providing state secrets or intelligence to foreign organizations. After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Linyi authorities placed him under effective house arrest beginning in September 2005. When he attempted to escape in October, he was beaten.
Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on 5 February 2006, Chen instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials. Time reported that witnesses to Chen's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police. Chen was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials. He was scheduled to stand trial on 17 July 2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution. According to Radio Free Asia and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the prosecution delayed the trial because a crowd of Chen supporters gathered outside the courthouse. With only a few days' notice, authorities rescheduled Chen's trial for 18 August 2006.
On the eve of his trial, all three of his lawyers, including Xu Zhiyong of the Yitong Law Firm, were detained by Yinan police; two were released after being questioned. Neither Chen's lawyers nor his wife were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Authorities appointed their own public defender for Chen just before the trial began. The trial lasted only two hours. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic".
As a result of Chen's trial, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett selected his case for the cover of the British government's 2006 human rights report, stating concern over the handling of Chen's case and calling for the Chinese government "to prove its commitment to building rule of law." A columnist for The Globe and Mail also criticized the verdict, writing that "Even assuming [Chen] did damage 'doors and windows,' as well as cars, and interrupt traffic for three hours, it is difficult to argue a four-year prison sentence is somehow proportionate to the offence."
On 30 November 2006, Yinan County court upheld Chen's sentence, and on 12 January 2007, the Linyi Intermediate Court in Shandong Province rejected his final appeal. The same court had overturned his original conviction in December 2006, citing lack of evidence. However, Chen was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court. Following the trial, Amnesty International declared him to be a prisoner of conscience, "jailed solely for his peaceful activities in defence of human rights".
House arrest
After his release from prison in 2010, Chen was placed under house arrest against Chinese law, and was closely monitored by security forces. Legally, he was proclaimed by the government to be a free man, but in reality the local government offered no explanation for the hundreds of unidentified agents monitoring his house and preventing visitors or escape.
He and his wife attempted to communicate with the outside world via video tape and letters. Letters described beatings Chen and his wife were subjected to, seizure of documents and communication devices, cutting off of electric power to their residence, and placing of metal sheets over the windows of their house. Harassment of Chen's family continued throughout his house arrest, and extended to Chen's six-year-old daughter, who was briefly banned from attending school and had her toys confiscated by guards, and to Chen's mother, who was harassed while working in the fields. Authorities reportedly told Chen that they had spent 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him under house arrest.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security monitoring Chen's home, but were unsuccessful. In some instances, his supporters were pummeled, beaten, or robbed by security agents. U.S. Congressman Chris Smith attempted to visit Chen in November 2011, but was not granted permission. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path". Human Rights Watch described his house arrest as "unlawful" and called on authorities to give Chen his freedom.
In December 2011, actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen along with a CNN crew, but was punched, shoved, and denied access by Chinese security guards. Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is." Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and being pursued in their minivan for more than 40 minutes.
Escape and emigration
On 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest. Chen's fellow activist Hu Jia stated that Chen had been planning escape for a long time, and had previously attempted to dig a tunnel for escape. In the weeks leading up to his escape, Chen gave his guards the impression that he was ill in bed, and stopped appearing outside the house, which allowed him several days before any absence would be discovered. Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.
When he came upon the Meng River, he found it to be guarded, but crossed anyway and was not stopped; he later stated that he believed the guards had been asleep. Though he recollected his immediate surroundings from his childhood explorations, he eventually passed into less familiar territory; he later told his supporters that he fell more than 200 times during his escape. Communicating with a network of activists via a cell phone, he reached a pre-determined rendezvous point where He Peirong, an English teacher and activist, was waiting for him. A chain of human rights activists then escorted him to Beijing. Several of the activists reported to be involved were detained or disappeared in the days following the announcement of Chen's escape.
Chen was given refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, though the Embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him. The Embassy later said they had accepted Chen on humanitarian grounds and offered him medical assistance. On 27 April, Chen appeared in an internet video in which he expressed his concern that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family and made three demands of Premier Wen Jiabao: 1) that local officials who allegedly assaulted his family be prosecuted; 2) that his family's safety be guaranteed; and 3) that the Chinese government prosecute corruption cases under the law.
The New York Times described the situation as a "diplomatic quandary" at a time when the U.S. was seeking to improve relations with China and seeks its support with respect to crises in Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. BBC News described Chen's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders," who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai. Within twenty-four hours, Chen's name as well as the phrases "CGC" and "the blind man" had been blocked by Chinese online censors in an effort to quell Internet discussion of the case. On the day Chen announced his escape, Chinese state media did not carry "a single line of news" referring to it. The New York Times wrote that news of the escape "electrified China’s rights activists".
Negotiations and exit from U.S. embassy
Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, quietly arrived in Beijing on 29 April for negotiations with representatives of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several days of media speculation as to his whereabouts, Chen was confirmed on 2 May to have been under U.S diplomatic protection at the Embassy. According to embassy representatives, the agreement brokered with Chinese authorities provided that Chen would be freed from soft detention, relocated, and be permitted to finish his legal education at one of several law schools in China. Chinese officials also promised to investigate "extra-legal activities" taken by Shandong province authorities against Chen and his family. Chen left the embassy of his own accord on 2 May, was reunited with his family, and admitted to Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital for medical treatment.
During the initial negotiations in the U.S. embassy, Chen did not request asylum in the United States or considered leaving China, but instead demanded to remain there as a free man. However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members. While in the hospital, Chinese security personnel barred U.S. diplomatic staff from meeting with him. Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen into leaving the embassy by threatening his family. U.S. negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong. However, they maintained that they had not heard of the threats from local officials that his family would be beaten, and that they had not communicated such a message to Chen. On 3 May, Chen clarified to the BBC that he had become aware of the threats against his family after leaving the embassy, and at that point changed his mind about wishing to stay in China.
On 2 May, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the U.S. apologize for the Chen incident, investigate its acts and never interfere in China's domestic matters in such a way again. In an editorial on 4 May, Beijing Daily described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to denigrate China". The daily also accused US Ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen, and questioned Locke's motives.
On 4 May, after Chen made clear his desire to leave China for the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson indicated that, if he wished to study abroad, he could "apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen." On the same day, Chen was offered a visiting scholar position at New York University. On 19 May, Chen, his wife, and his two children, having been granted U.S. visas, departed Beijing on a commercial flight for Newark, New Jersey.
Treatment of family and associates
While Chen was living under house arrest, several of his family members also reportedly faced harassment and confinement by authorities. His elderly mother, Wang Jinxiang, recalled being continuously followed by three security agents. The BBC reported in May 2012 that she remained under house arrest. Before leaving China in the spring of 2012, Chen expressed concern that his relatives and other activists who had helped him evade capture would be punished by Chinese officials after his departure.
On 27 April 2012, soon after Chen escaped house arrest, plainclothes security agents forced entry into the home of his eldest brother, Chen Guangfu. Believing that the elder brother had information on Chen's escape, police took him to a police station for interrogation, and reportedly chained his feet, slapped him, and struck him with a belt. Police officers then allegedly returned to the family's home and proceeded to beat Guangfu's wife and son. His son, Chen Kegui, pulled a knife and slashed at three of the officers, causing minor injuries. He was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder. On 24 May, it was reported that Chen Guangfu had escaped to Beijing from his guarded village to advocate on behalf of his son. In November 2012, Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
On 4 November 2013, Chen Guangfu said he would fly to New York City with his mother two days later for a reunion with his brother Chen Guangcheng.
In the United States
Following his arrival in the U.S., Chen, his wife, and the couple's two children settled in a housing complex for students and faculty of New York University, located in Greenwich Village. He reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars. His memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, was published in March 2015 by Henry Holt and Company.
On 29 May 2012, Chen published an editorial in the New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the Communist Party for the "lawless punishment inflicted on (himself) and (his) family over the past seven years." He said that "those who handled my case were able to openly flout the nation’s laws in many ways for many years." In an April 2013 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chen said that Chinese authorities had failed to deliver on promises to investigate allegations of mistreatment against him and his family. Chen issued a statement in June saying NYU is forcing him to leave at the end of June because of pressure from the Chinese government. This claim was denied by the university, as well as by professor Jerome A. Cohen, Chen's mentor who arranged for his placement at NYU. Despite these denials, his departure followed within days of NYU's agreement with the Chinese authorities to open the NYU Shanghai campus. Chen's close association with conservative Christian and pro-life figures since coming to the United States, including representative Chris Smith, pastor Bob Fu, and media consultant Mark Corallo, has concerned old supporters like Cohen.
In October 2013, Chen accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. Chen became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
On 16 October 2013, Chen made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. He delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution," which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The text of Chen's speech, translated into English, was then published online. In the speech, Chen called on the American people to support the Chinese people by fighting against the oppressive Communist government of China. He reminded the audience that even small actions undertaken in defense of human rights can have a large impact, because "Every person has infinite strength. Every action has an important impact. We must believe in the value of our own actions".
In August 2020, Chen spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During his speech, Chen stated "We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump."
Awards and recognition
Chen began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s. In March 2002, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on Chen and the "barefoot lawyer" movement in China, detailing his advocacy on behalf of villagers and the disabled. His profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time'''s annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers."
In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.
In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award.
References
External links
"How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012
‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012.
United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012.
Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection'' interview
1971 births
Abortion in China
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China
Blind activists
Blind people from China
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese human rights activists
Chinese democracy activists
20th-century Chinese lawyers
21st-century Chinese lawyers
Chinese prisoners and detainees
Chinese refugees
Chinese disability rights activists
Living people
People from Linyi
Weiquan movement
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Witherspoon Institute
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[
"\"How Interesting: A Tiny Man\" is a 2010 science fiction/magical realism short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in Realms of Fantasy.\n\nPlot summary\nA scientist creates a tiny man. The tiny man is initially very popular, but then draws the hatred of the world, and so the tiny man must flee, together with the scientist (who is now likewise hated, for having created the tiny man).\n\nReception\n\"How Interesting: A Tiny Man\" won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, tied with Kij Johnson's \"Ponies\". It was Ellison's final Nebula nomination and win, of his record-setting eight nominations and three wins.\n\nTor.com calls the story \"deceptively simple\", with \"execution (that) is flawless\" and a \"Geppetto-like\" narrator, while Publishers Weekly describes it as \"memorably depict(ing) humanity's smallness of spirit\". The SF Site, however, felt it was \"contrived and less than profound\".\n\nNick Mamatas compared \"How Interesting: A Tiny Man\" negatively to Ellison's other Nebula-winning short stories, and stated that the story's two mutually exclusive endings (in one, the tiny man is killed; in the other, he becomes God) are evocative of the process of writing short stories. Ben Peek considered it to be \"more allegory than (...) anything else\", and interpreted it as being about how the media \"give(s) everyone a voice\", and also about how Ellison was treated by science fiction fandom.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAudio version of ''How Interesting: A Tiny Man, at StarShipSofa\nHow Interesting: A Tiny Man, at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database\n\nNebula Award for Best Short Story-winning works\nShort stories by Harlan Ellison",
"\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" is a song written by Billy Livsey and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist George Strait. It was released in February 2001 as the third and final single from his self-titled album. The song reached number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in July 2001. It also peaked at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.\n\nContent\nThe song is about man who is giving his woman the option to leave him. He gives her many different options for all the things she can do. At the end he gives her the option to stay with him if she really can’t find anything else to do. He says he will be alright if she leaves, but really it seems he wants her to stay.\n\nChart performance\n\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" debuted at number 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 3, 2001.\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 singles\n2000 songs\nGeorge Strait songs\nSongs written by Billy Livsey\nSongs written by Don Schlitz\nSong recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer)\nMCA Nashville Records singles"
] |
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"Annie Get Your Gun (musical)",
"1999 Broadway revival"
] |
C_181903b43ebf4af8bf4f87ebdf12b8ac_0
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When is the brodadway revival
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When was the brodadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun?
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Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
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In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances. This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie. CANNOTANSWER
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new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999.
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Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)".
History and background
Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose the music; Fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother Herbert would write the book. Kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in Hollywood, returned to New York on November 2, 1945, to begin work on the score to Annie Get Your Gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Kern was hospitalized, and he died on November 11, 1945. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the musical's score; Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his songs. Berlin initially declined to write the score, worrying that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes in "a situation show". Hammerstein persuaded him to study the script and try writing some songs based on it, and within days, Berlin returned with the songs "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". Berlin's songs suited the story and Ethel Merman's abilities, and he readily composed the rest of the score to Annie Get Your Gun. The show's eventual hit song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show because Berlin mistakenly got the impression that Richard Rodgers did not like it. In imitation of the structure of Oklahoma! a secondary romance between two of the members of the Wild West Show was added to the musical during its development.
According to some sources, the role of Annie was originally offered to Mary Martin, who turned it down. This is not true. Dorothy Fields went to the hospital after Ethel Merman gave birth to her son to ask her if she would do the show. The show was conceived for Ethel Merman. When time came to send out the post-Broadway national tour and Merman was unwilling to do it, Martin jumped at the chance, going on the road for approximately two years and belting out the songs, which had the effect of lowering her voice from its normal lyric-coloratura range to mezzo-soprano-alto.
For the 1999 revival, Peter Stone revised the libretto, eliminating what were considered insensitive references to American Indians, including the songs "Colonel Buffalo Bill" and "I'm An Indian Too". Stone said, "The big challenge is taking a book that was wonderfully crafted for its time and make it wonderfully crafted for our time... It was terribly insensitive...to Indians.... But it had to be dealt with in a way that was heartfelt and not obvious... In this case, it was with the permission of the heirs. They're terribly pleased with it." Stone also altered the structure of the musical, beginning it with "There's No Business Like Show Business" and presenting the musical as a "show within a show".
Plot summary
Act I
When the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West show visits Cincinnati, Ohio ("Colonel Buffalo Bill"), Frank Butler, the show's handsome, womanizing star ("I'm a Bad, Bad, Man"), challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Foster Wilson, a local hotel owner, doesn't appreciate the Wild West show taking over his hotel, so Frank gives him a side bet of one hundred dollars on the match. Annie Oakley enters and shoots a bird off Dolly Tate's hat, and then explains her simple backwoods ways to Wilson with the help of her siblings ("Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"). When Wilson learns she's a brilliant shot, he enters her in the shooting match against Frank Butler.
While waiting for the match to start, Annie meets Frank Butler and is instantly smitten with him, not knowing he will be her opponent. When she asks Frank if he likes her, Frank explains that the girl he wants will "wear satin... and smell of cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"). The rough and naive Annie comically laments that "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun". At the shooting match, Annie finds out that Frank is the "big swollen-headed stiff" from the Wild West show. She wins the contest, and Buffalo Bill and Charlie Davenport, the show's manager, invite Annie to join the Wild West Show. Annie agrees because she loves Frank even though she has no idea what "show business" is. Frank, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill explain that "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Over the course of working together, Frank becomes enamored of the plain-spoken, honest, tomboyish Annie and, as they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a train, he explains to her what "love" is ("They Say It's Wonderful"). Buffalo Bill and Charlie discover that their rival, Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while the Wild West show plays in nearby Minneapolis. They ask Annie to do a special shooting stunt on a motorcycle to draw Pawnee Bill's business away. Annie agrees because the trick will surprise Frank. She sings her siblings to sleep with the "Moonshine Lullaby".
As Annie and Frank prepare for the show, Frank plans to propose to Annie after the show and then ruefully admits that "My Defenses Are Down". When Annie performs her trick and becomes a star, Chief Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe ("I'm An Indian Too"). Hurt and angry, Frank walks out on Annie and the show, joining the competing Pawnee Bill's show.
Act II
Returning to New York from a tour of Europe with the Buffalo Bill show, Annie learns that the show has gone broke. Sitting Bull, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill plot to merge Buffalo Bill's show with Pawnee Bill's as they believe that show is doing well financially. Annie, now well-dressed and more refined and worldly, still longs for Frank ("I Got Lost in His Arms").
At a grand reception for Buffalo Bill's troupe at the Hotel Brevoort, Pawnee Bill, Dolly, and Frank also plot a merger of the two companies, assuming Buffalo Bill's show made a fortune touring Europe. When they all meet, they soon discover both shows are broke. Annie, however, has received sharpshooting medals from all the rulers of Europe worth one hundred thousand dollars, and she decides to sell the medals to finance the merger, rejoicing in the simple things ("I Got the Sun in the Mornin'"). When Frank appears, he and Annie confess their love and decide to marry, although with comically different ideas: Frank wants "some little chapel", while Annie wants "A wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls/ A lot of ushers in tail coats/ Reporters and photographers" ("An Old-Fashioned Wedding"o). When Annie shows Frank her medals, Frank again has his pride hurt. They call off the merger and the wedding, but challenge each other to one last shooting match to decide who is the best shot.
On the ferry to the Governors Island match site, Dolly attempts to ruin Annie's chances by tampering with her guns. She is caught and stopped by Sitting Bull and Charlie. However, they then decide to follow through with Dolly's plan so that Annie will lose the match, knowing that would soothe Frank's ego allowing the two to reconcile and the merger to take place.
As the match is ready to begin, Annie and Frank's egos come out again with each claiming they are better than the other ("Anything You Can Do"). Sitting Bull convinces Annie to deliberately lose the match to Frank, reminding her that she "can't get a man with a gun." That done, Frank and Annie finally reconcile, deciding to marry and merge the shows.
Notes:
This description is based on the 1966 revised book.
In the 1999 book, Frank also deliberately misses his shots in the final match, which ends in a tie.
o written for 1966 revision and included in 1999 Broadway Revival; not in the original production
§ omitted from the 1999 Broadway Revival
Notable Casts
Notes
Characters
Annie Oakley—a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
Frank Butler—the Wild West show's star
Dolly Tate—Frank's flamboyant assistant; Winnie's sister (Charlie's sister in the 1966 version)
Buffalo Bill—owner of the Wild West show
Chief Sitting Bull—Sioux chief and holy man; Annie's protector
Tommy Keeler§—knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American (not in the '66 version)
Charlie Davenport—manager of the Wild West show
Winnie Tate§—Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act (not in the '66 version)
Pawnee Bill—owner of a competing western show
Foster Wilson—hotel owner
Little Boy-show opens on him
Annie's brothers and sisters: Jessie, Nellie, Little Jake, and Minnie (Minnie was written out of the 1999 revival)
Notes
§Tommy and Winnie and their songs were written out of the film & 1966 revision. The 1999 revival restored their characters and songs.
Musical numbers
Original 1946 production
Act I
Overture — Orchestra
"Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie Davenport, Dolly Tate, and ensemble
"I'm a Bad, Bad Man" — Frank Butler
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie Oakley and her siblings
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie, Annie, and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"Moonshine Lullaby" § — Annie and siblings
"I'll Share It All With You" — Winnie Tate and Tommy Keeler
"Ballyhoo" — Riding Mistress and Show People
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and ensemble
"Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance" — Wild Horse, Indian Braves and Maidens
"I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie and ensemble
Adoption Dance — Annie, Wild Horse and Braves
Act II
Entr'acte — Orchestra
"I Got Lost In His Arms" § — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope?" — Winnie and Tommy
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Ensemble
Notes
§: omitted from the 1950 film version
"Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both Betty Hutton and Judy Garland.
"Take It in Your Stride" was a solo for Annie written for the original production. It was replaced by a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" when Merman found the number too difficult. It was recorded by Liz Larsen for the album Lost in Boston.
1999 revival
Act I
"There's No Business Like Show Business" - Frank, Dolly, Winnie and Company
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie
"I'll Share It All With You" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Kids, Ensemble Trio
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and Young Men
Finale: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun (Reprise)" - Annie
Act II
Entr'acte: The European Tour — Annie and Company
"I Got Lost In His Arms" — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie, Frank and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revision, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the 1999 revival
Productions
Original productions
Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946, and ran for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, the show starred Ethel Merman as Annie, Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, Lea Penman as Dolly Tate, Art Bernett as Foster Wilson, Harry Bellaver as Chief Sitting Bull, Kenneth Bowers as Tommy Keeler, Marty May as Charlie Davenport, Warren Berlinger as the Little Boy and William O'Neal as Buffalo Bill.
The musical toured the U.S. from October 3, 1947, starting in Dallas, Texas, with Mary Martin as Annie. This tour also played Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin stayed with the tour until mid-1948.
The show had its West End premiere on June 7, 1947, at the London Coliseum where it ran for 1,304 performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Frank.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on July 19, 1947. It starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank.
A French version, Annie du Far-West, starring Marcel Merkes and Lily Fayol, began production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 19, 1950, and ran for over a year.
1958 Broadway revival
The first Broadway revival was staged in 1958 at the New York City Center, directed by Donald Burr and produced by Jean Dalrymple, director of the NYCC Light Opera Company. This production opened on February 19, 1958, and ran until March 2, for 16 performances. Betty Jane Watson played the role of Annie with David Atkinson as Frank, Margaret Hamilton as Dolly, James Rennie as Chief Buffalo Bill, and Jack Whiting as Charles Davenport. Included in the cast was Harry Bellaver, reprising his original role of Chief Sitting Bull. The program didn't list the performer who was to play Annie, and instead a "to-be-announced" statement was substituted for the name. At the last minute, Watson signed for the role. Even the program for the second week of the two-week engagement didn't list her name, except as understudy; this was the first time in memory that a leading performer wasn't listed.
1966 Broadway revival
The show had its second Broadway revival in 1966 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center. This production opened on May 31, 1966, and ran until July 9, followed by a short 10-week U.S. Tour. It returned to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on September 21 for 78 performances. Ethel Merman reprised her original role as Annie with Bruce Yarnell as Frank, Benay Venuta as Dolly, and Jerry Orbach as Charles Davenport. The libretto and score were revised: The secondary romance between Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate was completely eliminated, including their songs "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", and the song "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was specially written for the revival and added to the second act. This version of the show is available for licensing for amateur performances. This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19, 1967, and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s to be telecast.
1973 Shady Grove Music Fair production
Jay Harnick directed a revival at the Shady Grove Music Fair starring Barbara Eden, John Bennett Perry and Sandra Peabody that ran from 1973 to 1974.
1976 Mexican production
In 1976 a Spanish-language version was produced in Mexico City with the name of Annie es un tiro. It was directed by José Luis Ibáñez and starred by Mexican film star Silvia Pinal. The production was represented at the Teatro Hidalgo and was co starred by the actor and singer Manuel López Ochoa. The success of the production produced the first Spanish-language version of the musical's soundtrack.
1977 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production
In 1977, Gower Champion directed a revival for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera starring Debbie Reynolds as Annie. The Assistant Director was James Mitchell. Harve Presnell, Reynolds's former co-star in the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Frank Butler. The cast featured Art Lund as Buffalo Bill, Bibi Osterwald as Dolly Tate, Gavin MacLeod as Charlie Davenport,
Peter Bruni as Foster Wilson, Don Potter as Pawnee Bill, and Manu Tupou as Sitting Bull. The cast also included Trey Wilson and Debbie Shapiro. The production later toured various North American cities, but never ran on Broadway, its planned destination.
1986 UK tour and London revival
In 1986, a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production, with American rock star Suzi Quatro as Annie and Eric Flynn as Frank, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre. It moved to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and then to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it played from July 29 to October 4. The cast recorded an album, Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast and Quatro's songs "I Got Lost in His Arms"/"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" were released as a single. Since then "I Got Lost in His Arms" has also been included in the compilation albums The Divas Collection (2003) and Songs from the Greatest Musicals (2008).
1992 London revival
A short-lived London production ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, starring Kim Criswell as Annie. Criswell's studio cast recording of the show - made with Thomas Hampson and conductor John McGlinn - provided the impetus for the production. Pippa Ailion was the Casting Director for this production.
1999 Broadway revival
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998, to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999, at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001, after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.
This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreography by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
Notable replacements
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999, until January 16, 2000. Peters and Wopat left the show on September 2, 2000. Former Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd made her Broadway debut as Annie on September 6, 2000, with Patrick Cassidy as Frank Butler. Country music singer Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut as Annie from January 26, 2001, to June 22, 2001, opposite Brent Barrett as Frank. On June 23, 2001, former Wings star Crystal Bernard, who had been playing Annie in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, assumed the role of Annie in the Broadway production, with Tom Wopat returning as Frank Butler.
2000 U.S. tour
The 1999 Broadway production, in a "slightly revised version", toured in a U.S. national tour starting in Dallas, Texas, on July 25, 2000, with Marilu Henner and Rex Smith. Tom Wopat joined the tour in late October 2000, replacing Smith.
2006 Prince Music Theater production
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater version for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate, and Arthur Ryan as Sitting Bull. The production was well received by critics. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison, Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington.
2009 London revival
Jane Horrocks, Julian Ovenden and director Richard Jones mounted a major London revival at the Young Vic, Waterloo. The show opened at the off west end venue on October 16, 2009, initially booking until January 2, 2010, but with an extra week added due to popular demand. The production featured new arrangements by Jason Carr for a band consisting four pianos. London's Guardian newspaper awarded the show 5 stars, claiming that "Richard Jones's brilliant production offers the wittiest musical staging London has seen in years."
2010 Ravinia Festival concert
A concert staging of the original version of Annie Get Your Gun took place at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago from August 13–15, 2010 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley's birth. Directed by Lonny Price, the concert starred Patti LuPone as Annie, Patrick Cassidy as Frank and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill. The concert received unanimously strong reviews, notably for LuPone and Price's direction.
Other major productions
Lucie Arnaz starred in a production in the summer of 1978 with Harve Presnell at the Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. This was the first major production of the musical done in the New York area after the 1966 revival.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced a well-reviewed production in June 1987 starring Judy Kaye as Annie and Richard White as Frank.
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2014 Carter Calvert and David Weitzer starred in a production that opened the Algonquin Arts Theatre's 2014-2015 Broadway Season. It was also the first show to be performed after the Algonquin underwent the task of installing new seating which had not been done since 1938.
In October 2015, a two night concert version was presented at the New York City Center Gala starring Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) and Andy Karl (Frank Butler). The concerts are directed by John Rando, and the cast features Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate), Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill), Brad Oscar (Charlie) and Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill).
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. Although MGM purchased the rights to the film version with an announced intention of starring legendary singer-actress Judy Garland as Annie, early work on the film was plagued with difficulties, some attributed to Garland's health. Garland was fired and replaced by the brassier, blonde Betty Hutton.
In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC. The Mary Martin version has been re-broadcast sporadically over the years, but the 1967 videotapes starring Ethel Merman have apparently been irretrievably lost. Only a video and audio clip of "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" is known to exist, as does an audio-only recording of the entire 90-minute show.
Recordings
There are several recordings of the Annie Get Your Gun score, including:
1946 Original Broadway Cast: an original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1946, featuring the cast of the original 1946 Broadway production. The principal stars were Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. The album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
1957 TV Cast: a recording based on the TV version shown in 1957, with Mary Martin and John Raitt.
1963 Studio Cast featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet: not based on a theatre production.
1966 Broadway Revival Cast
1976 Spanish-language version with Mexican cast.
1986 1986 London Cast
1991 Studio Cast: Kim Criswell (Annie), Thomas Hampson (Frank), Jason Graae (Tommy), Rebecca Luker (Winnie), David Garrison (Charlie), David Healy (Buffalo Bill), Alfred Marks (Sitting Bull), Gregory Jbara (Foster Wilson) Simon Green (Pawnee Bill), Peta Bartlett (Dolly), Kerry Potter, Hayley Spencer, Emma Long (Annie's sisters: Minnie, Jessie Nellie), Paul Keating (Annie's brother: Little Jake), Nick Curtis, Carey Wilson, Michael Pearn (Trainman, Waiter, Porter), Clare Buckfield (Small Girl), John McGlinn (Mac), Bruce Ogston (An Indian), Ambrosian Singers, London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn. Producer: Simon Woods; Balance Engineer: John Kurlander; Editor Matthew Cocker; Production Assistant: Alison Fox. Recorded July 1990, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. CD: EMI CDC 7 54206 2.
1999 Broadway Revival Cast (Grammy Award)
Conductor John Owen Edwards along with JAY Records recorded the first-ever complete recording, with all musical numbers, scene change music and incidental music, of the show's score in the 1990s with Judy Kaye and Barry Bostwick. Christopher Lee had the role of Sitting Bull.
Reception
The original Broadway production opened to favorable reviews. Critics unanimously praised Ethel Merman's performance as Annie Oakley, though some thought the score and book were not particularly distinguished. John Chapman of the Daily News declared that the production had "good lyrics and tunes by Irving Berlin...[and] the razzle-dazzle atmosphere of a big-time show" but pronounced Merman the best part of the show, stating "She is a better comedienne than she ever was before", stating that "Annie is a good, standard, lavish, big musical and I'm sure it will be a huge success--but it isn't the greatest show in the world". Louis Kronenberger of PM stated that the show was 'in many ways routine", but greatly praised Merman's performance, opining, "For me, Annie is mainly Miss Merman's show, though the rest of it is competent enough of its kind...Irving Berlin's score is musically not exciting--of the real songs, only one or two are tuneful".
Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun declared, "The big news about Annie Get Your Gun is that it reveals Ethel Merman in her best form since Anything Goes...She shouts the Berlin music with good effect. She often comes to the aid of a sagging book". He stated, "Irving Berlin's score is not a notable one, but his tunes are singable and pleasant and his lyrics are particularly good. The book? It's on the flimsy side, definitely. And rather witless too". Lewis Nichols of The New York Times said, "It has a pleasant score by Irving Berlin...and it has Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters. The colors are pretty, the dancing is amiable and unaffected, and Broadway by this time is well used to a book which doesn't get anywhere in particular".
However, the show itself was greatly lauded by some critics: Vernon Rice of the New York Post proclaimed, "Irving Berlin has outdone himself this time. No use trying to pick a hit tune, for all the tunes are hits...Ethel Merman is at her lusty, free and easy best...She is now able to develop a consistent characterization and stay with it to the show's end. And when she opens her mouth to sing, she sings!" William Hawkins of the New York World-Telegram said that Merman was "bright as a whip, sure as her shooting, and generously the foremost lady clown of her time" and asserted that the show itself was comparable to those of Rodgers and Hammerstein, proclaiming, "For verve and buoyancy, unslackening, there has seldom if ever been a show like it...the girls in Annie have the beauty and character of looks one associates with a Rodgers and Hammerstein show. And the production has in every way the distinction that has become their hallmark".
Historians have viewed the show as inaccurate, citing among other reasons its portrayal of Annie as a loud, boisterous character, when in reality she had a quiet personality and did needlepoint in her spare time.
Redface
Native Americans have criticized the shows portrayal of Redface and promotion of cultural stereotypes. Particularly in the song "I'm an Indian Too" sung by Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.
Native Americans did protest outside the New York theatre, as well as movie theaters, holding picket signs stating: "Don't See "Annie Get Your Gun". As a result of this reaction, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.
Awards and nominations
Mary Martin received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for "Spreading Theatre to the Country While the Originals Perform in New York" (1947-48 US Tour)
1966 Broadway revival
1999 Broadway revival
2009 London revival
Notes
References
Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Kantor, Michael, and Maslon, Laurence (2004). Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bullfinch Press.
Nolan, Frederick (2002). The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Cambridge, Mass.: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. .
Suskin, Stephen (1990). Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schrimmer Books. .
Annie Get Your Gun plot summary & character descriptions from StageAgent.com
The Judy Garland Online Discography "Annie Get Your Gun" pages.
Listing at the RNH site
1999 Revival at RNH
'Annie Get Your Gun' Story, Cast, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre.com
External links
(Mary Martin)
(Ethel Merman)
Curtain Up reviews from 2/8/01 and 3/9/99
1946 musicals
1950s American television specials
1957 in American television
1957 television films
1960s American television specials
1967 in American television
1967 television films
1967 films
American television films
American films
Broadway musicals
Cultural depictions of Annie Oakley
Cultural depictions of Buffalo Bill
Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull
Musicals by Herbert Fields
Musicals by Irving Berlin
Musicals inspired by real-life events
Musical television films
Plays set in the 19th century
Plays set in the United States
West End musicals
Tony Award-winning musicals
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"The Botsford-Graser House is a single-family home located at 24105 Locust Drive in Farmington Hills, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The house is significant in part as the home of Earle Graser, the voice of the Lone Ranger for some 13,000 performances on radio, and is also known as The Lone Ranger's House.\n\nHistory\nOrville Botsford was born in Wayne County, New York in 1821 and settled in Farmington with his parents in 1836. Botsford purchased the property where this house is located in 1843. Botsford built this house in approximately 1860. The Botsford family owned the house until 1915.\n\nIn approximately 1939, Earle Graser and his wife Jeane moved into the house. The Grasers carried out significant rebuilding of the house. They were apparently in the process of purchasing it when Earle Graser was killed in a traffic accident in 1941.\n\nDescription\nThe Botsford-Graser House is a two-story house of mixed Greek Revival and Colonial Revival style. It has a clapboarded exterior. The house is visually divided into two rectangular sections. The first, smaller sections fronts on the street, and is a gable-roofed Greek Revival section, with a broad frieze and classical cornices with returns. A larger section to the rear is also gable-roofed, but with the roof ridge perpendicular to the front section. This section is more Colonial Revival in design, but contains simplified Greek Revival elements. Windows in both sections are double-hung, six-over-six units.\n\nReferences\n\n\t\t\nNational Register of Historic Places in Oakland County, Michigan\nGreek Revival architecture in Michigan\nColonial Revival architecture in Michigan\nBuildings and structures completed in 1941",
"The architecture of the Bulgarian Revival is a period when the Bulgarian architecture developed between 1770 and 1900.\n\nPlovdiv's Old Town is a living museum of the type of National Revival architecture that developed there (there were regional differences) in the early to mid-1800.\n\nThe roots of the houses of Bulgarian Revival follows a tradition of buildings from the architecture of the Second Bulgarian Empire. There are cities in Bulgaria with preserved Revival architecture are:the old town of Plovdiv, the mountain towns of Tryavna, Kotel, Sopot, Koprivshtitsa, Elena, the old Bulgarian capital - Veliko Tarnovo and others.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences \n\nArchitecture of Bulgaria\nBulgarian National Revival"
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"Annie Get Your Gun (musical)",
"1999 Broadway revival",
"When is the brodadway revival",
"new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999."
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C_181903b43ebf4af8bf4f87ebdf12b8ac_0
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Is it a movie
| 2 |
Is Annie Get Your Gun a movie?
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Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
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In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances. This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie. CANNOTANSWER
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Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001
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Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)".
History and background
Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose the music; Fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother Herbert would write the book. Kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in Hollywood, returned to New York on November 2, 1945, to begin work on the score to Annie Get Your Gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Kern was hospitalized, and he died on November 11, 1945. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the musical's score; Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his songs. Berlin initially declined to write the score, worrying that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes in "a situation show". Hammerstein persuaded him to study the script and try writing some songs based on it, and within days, Berlin returned with the songs "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". Berlin's songs suited the story and Ethel Merman's abilities, and he readily composed the rest of the score to Annie Get Your Gun. The show's eventual hit song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show because Berlin mistakenly got the impression that Richard Rodgers did not like it. In imitation of the structure of Oklahoma! a secondary romance between two of the members of the Wild West Show was added to the musical during its development.
According to some sources, the role of Annie was originally offered to Mary Martin, who turned it down. This is not true. Dorothy Fields went to the hospital after Ethel Merman gave birth to her son to ask her if she would do the show. The show was conceived for Ethel Merman. When time came to send out the post-Broadway national tour and Merman was unwilling to do it, Martin jumped at the chance, going on the road for approximately two years and belting out the songs, which had the effect of lowering her voice from its normal lyric-coloratura range to mezzo-soprano-alto.
For the 1999 revival, Peter Stone revised the libretto, eliminating what were considered insensitive references to American Indians, including the songs "Colonel Buffalo Bill" and "I'm An Indian Too". Stone said, "The big challenge is taking a book that was wonderfully crafted for its time and make it wonderfully crafted for our time... It was terribly insensitive...to Indians.... But it had to be dealt with in a way that was heartfelt and not obvious... In this case, it was with the permission of the heirs. They're terribly pleased with it." Stone also altered the structure of the musical, beginning it with "There's No Business Like Show Business" and presenting the musical as a "show within a show".
Plot summary
Act I
When the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West show visits Cincinnati, Ohio ("Colonel Buffalo Bill"), Frank Butler, the show's handsome, womanizing star ("I'm a Bad, Bad, Man"), challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Foster Wilson, a local hotel owner, doesn't appreciate the Wild West show taking over his hotel, so Frank gives him a side bet of one hundred dollars on the match. Annie Oakley enters and shoots a bird off Dolly Tate's hat, and then explains her simple backwoods ways to Wilson with the help of her siblings ("Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"). When Wilson learns she's a brilliant shot, he enters her in the shooting match against Frank Butler.
While waiting for the match to start, Annie meets Frank Butler and is instantly smitten with him, not knowing he will be her opponent. When she asks Frank if he likes her, Frank explains that the girl he wants will "wear satin... and smell of cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"). The rough and naive Annie comically laments that "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun". At the shooting match, Annie finds out that Frank is the "big swollen-headed stiff" from the Wild West show. She wins the contest, and Buffalo Bill and Charlie Davenport, the show's manager, invite Annie to join the Wild West Show. Annie agrees because she loves Frank even though she has no idea what "show business" is. Frank, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill explain that "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Over the course of working together, Frank becomes enamored of the plain-spoken, honest, tomboyish Annie and, as they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a train, he explains to her what "love" is ("They Say It's Wonderful"). Buffalo Bill and Charlie discover that their rival, Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while the Wild West show plays in nearby Minneapolis. They ask Annie to do a special shooting stunt on a motorcycle to draw Pawnee Bill's business away. Annie agrees because the trick will surprise Frank. She sings her siblings to sleep with the "Moonshine Lullaby".
As Annie and Frank prepare for the show, Frank plans to propose to Annie after the show and then ruefully admits that "My Defenses Are Down". When Annie performs her trick and becomes a star, Chief Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe ("I'm An Indian Too"). Hurt and angry, Frank walks out on Annie and the show, joining the competing Pawnee Bill's show.
Act II
Returning to New York from a tour of Europe with the Buffalo Bill show, Annie learns that the show has gone broke. Sitting Bull, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill plot to merge Buffalo Bill's show with Pawnee Bill's as they believe that show is doing well financially. Annie, now well-dressed and more refined and worldly, still longs for Frank ("I Got Lost in His Arms").
At a grand reception for Buffalo Bill's troupe at the Hotel Brevoort, Pawnee Bill, Dolly, and Frank also plot a merger of the two companies, assuming Buffalo Bill's show made a fortune touring Europe. When they all meet, they soon discover both shows are broke. Annie, however, has received sharpshooting medals from all the rulers of Europe worth one hundred thousand dollars, and she decides to sell the medals to finance the merger, rejoicing in the simple things ("I Got the Sun in the Mornin'"). When Frank appears, he and Annie confess their love and decide to marry, although with comically different ideas: Frank wants "some little chapel", while Annie wants "A wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls/ A lot of ushers in tail coats/ Reporters and photographers" ("An Old-Fashioned Wedding"o). When Annie shows Frank her medals, Frank again has his pride hurt. They call off the merger and the wedding, but challenge each other to one last shooting match to decide who is the best shot.
On the ferry to the Governors Island match site, Dolly attempts to ruin Annie's chances by tampering with her guns. She is caught and stopped by Sitting Bull and Charlie. However, they then decide to follow through with Dolly's plan so that Annie will lose the match, knowing that would soothe Frank's ego allowing the two to reconcile and the merger to take place.
As the match is ready to begin, Annie and Frank's egos come out again with each claiming they are better than the other ("Anything You Can Do"). Sitting Bull convinces Annie to deliberately lose the match to Frank, reminding her that she "can't get a man with a gun." That done, Frank and Annie finally reconcile, deciding to marry and merge the shows.
Notes:
This description is based on the 1966 revised book.
In the 1999 book, Frank also deliberately misses his shots in the final match, which ends in a tie.
o written for 1966 revision and included in 1999 Broadway Revival; not in the original production
§ omitted from the 1999 Broadway Revival
Notable Casts
Notes
Characters
Annie Oakley—a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
Frank Butler—the Wild West show's star
Dolly Tate—Frank's flamboyant assistant; Winnie's sister (Charlie's sister in the 1966 version)
Buffalo Bill—owner of the Wild West show
Chief Sitting Bull—Sioux chief and holy man; Annie's protector
Tommy Keeler§—knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American (not in the '66 version)
Charlie Davenport—manager of the Wild West show
Winnie Tate§—Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act (not in the '66 version)
Pawnee Bill—owner of a competing western show
Foster Wilson—hotel owner
Little Boy-show opens on him
Annie's brothers and sisters: Jessie, Nellie, Little Jake, and Minnie (Minnie was written out of the 1999 revival)
Notes
§Tommy and Winnie and their songs were written out of the film & 1966 revision. The 1999 revival restored their characters and songs.
Musical numbers
Original 1946 production
Act I
Overture — Orchestra
"Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie Davenport, Dolly Tate, and ensemble
"I'm a Bad, Bad Man" — Frank Butler
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie Oakley and her siblings
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie, Annie, and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"Moonshine Lullaby" § — Annie and siblings
"I'll Share It All With You" — Winnie Tate and Tommy Keeler
"Ballyhoo" — Riding Mistress and Show People
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and ensemble
"Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance" — Wild Horse, Indian Braves and Maidens
"I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie and ensemble
Adoption Dance — Annie, Wild Horse and Braves
Act II
Entr'acte — Orchestra
"I Got Lost In His Arms" § — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope?" — Winnie and Tommy
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Ensemble
Notes
§: omitted from the 1950 film version
"Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both Betty Hutton and Judy Garland.
"Take It in Your Stride" was a solo for Annie written for the original production. It was replaced by a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" when Merman found the number too difficult. It was recorded by Liz Larsen for the album Lost in Boston.
1999 revival
Act I
"There's No Business Like Show Business" - Frank, Dolly, Winnie and Company
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie
"I'll Share It All With You" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Kids, Ensemble Trio
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and Young Men
Finale: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun (Reprise)" - Annie
Act II
Entr'acte: The European Tour — Annie and Company
"I Got Lost In His Arms" — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie, Frank and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revision, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the 1999 revival
Productions
Original productions
Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946, and ran for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, the show starred Ethel Merman as Annie, Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, Lea Penman as Dolly Tate, Art Bernett as Foster Wilson, Harry Bellaver as Chief Sitting Bull, Kenneth Bowers as Tommy Keeler, Marty May as Charlie Davenport, Warren Berlinger as the Little Boy and William O'Neal as Buffalo Bill.
The musical toured the U.S. from October 3, 1947, starting in Dallas, Texas, with Mary Martin as Annie. This tour also played Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin stayed with the tour until mid-1948.
The show had its West End premiere on June 7, 1947, at the London Coliseum where it ran for 1,304 performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Frank.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on July 19, 1947. It starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank.
A French version, Annie du Far-West, starring Marcel Merkes and Lily Fayol, began production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 19, 1950, and ran for over a year.
1958 Broadway revival
The first Broadway revival was staged in 1958 at the New York City Center, directed by Donald Burr and produced by Jean Dalrymple, director of the NYCC Light Opera Company. This production opened on February 19, 1958, and ran until March 2, for 16 performances. Betty Jane Watson played the role of Annie with David Atkinson as Frank, Margaret Hamilton as Dolly, James Rennie as Chief Buffalo Bill, and Jack Whiting as Charles Davenport. Included in the cast was Harry Bellaver, reprising his original role of Chief Sitting Bull. The program didn't list the performer who was to play Annie, and instead a "to-be-announced" statement was substituted for the name. At the last minute, Watson signed for the role. Even the program for the second week of the two-week engagement didn't list her name, except as understudy; this was the first time in memory that a leading performer wasn't listed.
1966 Broadway revival
The show had its second Broadway revival in 1966 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center. This production opened on May 31, 1966, and ran until July 9, followed by a short 10-week U.S. Tour. It returned to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on September 21 for 78 performances. Ethel Merman reprised her original role as Annie with Bruce Yarnell as Frank, Benay Venuta as Dolly, and Jerry Orbach as Charles Davenport. The libretto and score were revised: The secondary romance between Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate was completely eliminated, including their songs "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", and the song "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was specially written for the revival and added to the second act. This version of the show is available for licensing for amateur performances. This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19, 1967, and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s to be telecast.
1973 Shady Grove Music Fair production
Jay Harnick directed a revival at the Shady Grove Music Fair starring Barbara Eden, John Bennett Perry and Sandra Peabody that ran from 1973 to 1974.
1976 Mexican production
In 1976 a Spanish-language version was produced in Mexico City with the name of Annie es un tiro. It was directed by José Luis Ibáñez and starred by Mexican film star Silvia Pinal. The production was represented at the Teatro Hidalgo and was co starred by the actor and singer Manuel López Ochoa. The success of the production produced the first Spanish-language version of the musical's soundtrack.
1977 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production
In 1977, Gower Champion directed a revival for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera starring Debbie Reynolds as Annie. The Assistant Director was James Mitchell. Harve Presnell, Reynolds's former co-star in the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Frank Butler. The cast featured Art Lund as Buffalo Bill, Bibi Osterwald as Dolly Tate, Gavin MacLeod as Charlie Davenport,
Peter Bruni as Foster Wilson, Don Potter as Pawnee Bill, and Manu Tupou as Sitting Bull. The cast also included Trey Wilson and Debbie Shapiro. The production later toured various North American cities, but never ran on Broadway, its planned destination.
1986 UK tour and London revival
In 1986, a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production, with American rock star Suzi Quatro as Annie and Eric Flynn as Frank, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre. It moved to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and then to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it played from July 29 to October 4. The cast recorded an album, Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast and Quatro's songs "I Got Lost in His Arms"/"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" were released as a single. Since then "I Got Lost in His Arms" has also been included in the compilation albums The Divas Collection (2003) and Songs from the Greatest Musicals (2008).
1992 London revival
A short-lived London production ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, starring Kim Criswell as Annie. Criswell's studio cast recording of the show - made with Thomas Hampson and conductor John McGlinn - provided the impetus for the production. Pippa Ailion was the Casting Director for this production.
1999 Broadway revival
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998, to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999, at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001, after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.
This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreography by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
Notable replacements
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999, until January 16, 2000. Peters and Wopat left the show on September 2, 2000. Former Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd made her Broadway debut as Annie on September 6, 2000, with Patrick Cassidy as Frank Butler. Country music singer Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut as Annie from January 26, 2001, to June 22, 2001, opposite Brent Barrett as Frank. On June 23, 2001, former Wings star Crystal Bernard, who had been playing Annie in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, assumed the role of Annie in the Broadway production, with Tom Wopat returning as Frank Butler.
2000 U.S. tour
The 1999 Broadway production, in a "slightly revised version", toured in a U.S. national tour starting in Dallas, Texas, on July 25, 2000, with Marilu Henner and Rex Smith. Tom Wopat joined the tour in late October 2000, replacing Smith.
2006 Prince Music Theater production
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater version for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate, and Arthur Ryan as Sitting Bull. The production was well received by critics. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison, Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington.
2009 London revival
Jane Horrocks, Julian Ovenden and director Richard Jones mounted a major London revival at the Young Vic, Waterloo. The show opened at the off west end venue on October 16, 2009, initially booking until January 2, 2010, but with an extra week added due to popular demand. The production featured new arrangements by Jason Carr for a band consisting four pianos. London's Guardian newspaper awarded the show 5 stars, claiming that "Richard Jones's brilliant production offers the wittiest musical staging London has seen in years."
2010 Ravinia Festival concert
A concert staging of the original version of Annie Get Your Gun took place at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago from August 13–15, 2010 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley's birth. Directed by Lonny Price, the concert starred Patti LuPone as Annie, Patrick Cassidy as Frank and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill. The concert received unanimously strong reviews, notably for LuPone and Price's direction.
Other major productions
Lucie Arnaz starred in a production in the summer of 1978 with Harve Presnell at the Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. This was the first major production of the musical done in the New York area after the 1966 revival.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced a well-reviewed production in June 1987 starring Judy Kaye as Annie and Richard White as Frank.
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2014 Carter Calvert and David Weitzer starred in a production that opened the Algonquin Arts Theatre's 2014-2015 Broadway Season. It was also the first show to be performed after the Algonquin underwent the task of installing new seating which had not been done since 1938.
In October 2015, a two night concert version was presented at the New York City Center Gala starring Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) and Andy Karl (Frank Butler). The concerts are directed by John Rando, and the cast features Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate), Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill), Brad Oscar (Charlie) and Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill).
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. Although MGM purchased the rights to the film version with an announced intention of starring legendary singer-actress Judy Garland as Annie, early work on the film was plagued with difficulties, some attributed to Garland's health. Garland was fired and replaced by the brassier, blonde Betty Hutton.
In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC. The Mary Martin version has been re-broadcast sporadically over the years, but the 1967 videotapes starring Ethel Merman have apparently been irretrievably lost. Only a video and audio clip of "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" is known to exist, as does an audio-only recording of the entire 90-minute show.
Recordings
There are several recordings of the Annie Get Your Gun score, including:
1946 Original Broadway Cast: an original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1946, featuring the cast of the original 1946 Broadway production. The principal stars were Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. The album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
1957 TV Cast: a recording based on the TV version shown in 1957, with Mary Martin and John Raitt.
1963 Studio Cast featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet: not based on a theatre production.
1966 Broadway Revival Cast
1976 Spanish-language version with Mexican cast.
1986 1986 London Cast
1991 Studio Cast: Kim Criswell (Annie), Thomas Hampson (Frank), Jason Graae (Tommy), Rebecca Luker (Winnie), David Garrison (Charlie), David Healy (Buffalo Bill), Alfred Marks (Sitting Bull), Gregory Jbara (Foster Wilson) Simon Green (Pawnee Bill), Peta Bartlett (Dolly), Kerry Potter, Hayley Spencer, Emma Long (Annie's sisters: Minnie, Jessie Nellie), Paul Keating (Annie's brother: Little Jake), Nick Curtis, Carey Wilson, Michael Pearn (Trainman, Waiter, Porter), Clare Buckfield (Small Girl), John McGlinn (Mac), Bruce Ogston (An Indian), Ambrosian Singers, London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn. Producer: Simon Woods; Balance Engineer: John Kurlander; Editor Matthew Cocker; Production Assistant: Alison Fox. Recorded July 1990, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. CD: EMI CDC 7 54206 2.
1999 Broadway Revival Cast (Grammy Award)
Conductor John Owen Edwards along with JAY Records recorded the first-ever complete recording, with all musical numbers, scene change music and incidental music, of the show's score in the 1990s with Judy Kaye and Barry Bostwick. Christopher Lee had the role of Sitting Bull.
Reception
The original Broadway production opened to favorable reviews. Critics unanimously praised Ethel Merman's performance as Annie Oakley, though some thought the score and book were not particularly distinguished. John Chapman of the Daily News declared that the production had "good lyrics and tunes by Irving Berlin...[and] the razzle-dazzle atmosphere of a big-time show" but pronounced Merman the best part of the show, stating "She is a better comedienne than she ever was before", stating that "Annie is a good, standard, lavish, big musical and I'm sure it will be a huge success--but it isn't the greatest show in the world". Louis Kronenberger of PM stated that the show was 'in many ways routine", but greatly praised Merman's performance, opining, "For me, Annie is mainly Miss Merman's show, though the rest of it is competent enough of its kind...Irving Berlin's score is musically not exciting--of the real songs, only one or two are tuneful".
Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun declared, "The big news about Annie Get Your Gun is that it reveals Ethel Merman in her best form since Anything Goes...She shouts the Berlin music with good effect. She often comes to the aid of a sagging book". He stated, "Irving Berlin's score is not a notable one, but his tunes are singable and pleasant and his lyrics are particularly good. The book? It's on the flimsy side, definitely. And rather witless too". Lewis Nichols of The New York Times said, "It has a pleasant score by Irving Berlin...and it has Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters. The colors are pretty, the dancing is amiable and unaffected, and Broadway by this time is well used to a book which doesn't get anywhere in particular".
However, the show itself was greatly lauded by some critics: Vernon Rice of the New York Post proclaimed, "Irving Berlin has outdone himself this time. No use trying to pick a hit tune, for all the tunes are hits...Ethel Merman is at her lusty, free and easy best...She is now able to develop a consistent characterization and stay with it to the show's end. And when she opens her mouth to sing, she sings!" William Hawkins of the New York World-Telegram said that Merman was "bright as a whip, sure as her shooting, and generously the foremost lady clown of her time" and asserted that the show itself was comparable to those of Rodgers and Hammerstein, proclaiming, "For verve and buoyancy, unslackening, there has seldom if ever been a show like it...the girls in Annie have the beauty and character of looks one associates with a Rodgers and Hammerstein show. And the production has in every way the distinction that has become their hallmark".
Historians have viewed the show as inaccurate, citing among other reasons its portrayal of Annie as a loud, boisterous character, when in reality she had a quiet personality and did needlepoint in her spare time.
Redface
Native Americans have criticized the shows portrayal of Redface and promotion of cultural stereotypes. Particularly in the song "I'm an Indian Too" sung by Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.
Native Americans did protest outside the New York theatre, as well as movie theaters, holding picket signs stating: "Don't See "Annie Get Your Gun". As a result of this reaction, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.
Awards and nominations
Mary Martin received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for "Spreading Theatre to the Country While the Originals Perform in New York" (1947-48 US Tour)
1966 Broadway revival
1999 Broadway revival
2009 London revival
Notes
References
Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Kantor, Michael, and Maslon, Laurence (2004). Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bullfinch Press.
Nolan, Frederick (2002). The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Cambridge, Mass.: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. .
Suskin, Stephen (1990). Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schrimmer Books. .
Annie Get Your Gun plot summary & character descriptions from StageAgent.com
The Judy Garland Online Discography "Annie Get Your Gun" pages.
Listing at the RNH site
1999 Revival at RNH
'Annie Get Your Gun' Story, Cast, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre.com
External links
(Mary Martin)
(Ethel Merman)
Curtain Up reviews from 2/8/01 and 3/9/99
1946 musicals
1950s American television specials
1957 in American television
1957 television films
1960s American television specials
1967 in American television
1967 television films
1967 films
American television films
American films
Broadway musicals
Cultural depictions of Annie Oakley
Cultural depictions of Buffalo Bill
Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull
Musicals by Herbert Fields
Musicals by Irving Berlin
Musicals inspired by real-life events
Musical television films
Plays set in the 19th century
Plays set in the United States
West End musicals
Tony Award-winning musicals
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"This Is Not a Movie may refer to:\n\nThis Is Not a Movie (2010 film), a Mexican science fiction film directed by Olallo Rubio\nThis Is Not a Movie (2019 film), a Canadian documentary film directed by Yung Chang\nThis Is Not a Film, an Iranian documentary film directed by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb",
"Satya Harischandra is a 1951 Indian Nepali language film based on Raja Satya Harischandra. It was the first ever Nepali language movie. \n\nSatya Harischadra is said to have directed by DB Pariyar. It is supposed to be the first movie in Nepali language. Recently, Nepali literature and explorer Abhinash Shrestha has shown an unreleased poster of the movie Satya Harischandra, where we can find the name of Harischadra instead of Satya Harischandra. By this poster, there seems some contradiction because this poster shows Harischandra is the real name of this movie and DB Pariyar is not the director of this movie. The poster reveals that the director of Satya Harischadra is Sangh Rathi. Satya Harischadra was made inspired by Hindi movie Raja Harischandra.\n\nCast \n Prem\n Kanta\n Sheela\n Sandow\n\nRelated topics\n List of Hindu mythological films\n\nNotes\n\nIndian films\n1951 films\nFilms about Raja Harishchandra"
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"new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999.",
"Is it a movie",
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what is it about
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What is Annie Get Your Gun about?
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Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
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In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances. This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie. CANNOTANSWER
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was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters,
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Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)".
History and background
Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose the music; Fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother Herbert would write the book. Kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in Hollywood, returned to New York on November 2, 1945, to begin work on the score to Annie Get Your Gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Kern was hospitalized, and he died on November 11, 1945. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the musical's score; Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his songs. Berlin initially declined to write the score, worrying that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes in "a situation show". Hammerstein persuaded him to study the script and try writing some songs based on it, and within days, Berlin returned with the songs "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". Berlin's songs suited the story and Ethel Merman's abilities, and he readily composed the rest of the score to Annie Get Your Gun. The show's eventual hit song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show because Berlin mistakenly got the impression that Richard Rodgers did not like it. In imitation of the structure of Oklahoma! a secondary romance between two of the members of the Wild West Show was added to the musical during its development.
According to some sources, the role of Annie was originally offered to Mary Martin, who turned it down. This is not true. Dorothy Fields went to the hospital after Ethel Merman gave birth to her son to ask her if she would do the show. The show was conceived for Ethel Merman. When time came to send out the post-Broadway national tour and Merman was unwilling to do it, Martin jumped at the chance, going on the road for approximately two years and belting out the songs, which had the effect of lowering her voice from its normal lyric-coloratura range to mezzo-soprano-alto.
For the 1999 revival, Peter Stone revised the libretto, eliminating what were considered insensitive references to American Indians, including the songs "Colonel Buffalo Bill" and "I'm An Indian Too". Stone said, "The big challenge is taking a book that was wonderfully crafted for its time and make it wonderfully crafted for our time... It was terribly insensitive...to Indians.... But it had to be dealt with in a way that was heartfelt and not obvious... In this case, it was with the permission of the heirs. They're terribly pleased with it." Stone also altered the structure of the musical, beginning it with "There's No Business Like Show Business" and presenting the musical as a "show within a show".
Plot summary
Act I
When the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West show visits Cincinnati, Ohio ("Colonel Buffalo Bill"), Frank Butler, the show's handsome, womanizing star ("I'm a Bad, Bad, Man"), challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Foster Wilson, a local hotel owner, doesn't appreciate the Wild West show taking over his hotel, so Frank gives him a side bet of one hundred dollars on the match. Annie Oakley enters and shoots a bird off Dolly Tate's hat, and then explains her simple backwoods ways to Wilson with the help of her siblings ("Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"). When Wilson learns she's a brilliant shot, he enters her in the shooting match against Frank Butler.
While waiting for the match to start, Annie meets Frank Butler and is instantly smitten with him, not knowing he will be her opponent. When she asks Frank if he likes her, Frank explains that the girl he wants will "wear satin... and smell of cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"). The rough and naive Annie comically laments that "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun". At the shooting match, Annie finds out that Frank is the "big swollen-headed stiff" from the Wild West show. She wins the contest, and Buffalo Bill and Charlie Davenport, the show's manager, invite Annie to join the Wild West Show. Annie agrees because she loves Frank even though she has no idea what "show business" is. Frank, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill explain that "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Over the course of working together, Frank becomes enamored of the plain-spoken, honest, tomboyish Annie and, as they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a train, he explains to her what "love" is ("They Say It's Wonderful"). Buffalo Bill and Charlie discover that their rival, Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while the Wild West show plays in nearby Minneapolis. They ask Annie to do a special shooting stunt on a motorcycle to draw Pawnee Bill's business away. Annie agrees because the trick will surprise Frank. She sings her siblings to sleep with the "Moonshine Lullaby".
As Annie and Frank prepare for the show, Frank plans to propose to Annie after the show and then ruefully admits that "My Defenses Are Down". When Annie performs her trick and becomes a star, Chief Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe ("I'm An Indian Too"). Hurt and angry, Frank walks out on Annie and the show, joining the competing Pawnee Bill's show.
Act II
Returning to New York from a tour of Europe with the Buffalo Bill show, Annie learns that the show has gone broke. Sitting Bull, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill plot to merge Buffalo Bill's show with Pawnee Bill's as they believe that show is doing well financially. Annie, now well-dressed and more refined and worldly, still longs for Frank ("I Got Lost in His Arms").
At a grand reception for Buffalo Bill's troupe at the Hotel Brevoort, Pawnee Bill, Dolly, and Frank also plot a merger of the two companies, assuming Buffalo Bill's show made a fortune touring Europe. When they all meet, they soon discover both shows are broke. Annie, however, has received sharpshooting medals from all the rulers of Europe worth one hundred thousand dollars, and she decides to sell the medals to finance the merger, rejoicing in the simple things ("I Got the Sun in the Mornin'"). When Frank appears, he and Annie confess their love and decide to marry, although with comically different ideas: Frank wants "some little chapel", while Annie wants "A wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls/ A lot of ushers in tail coats/ Reporters and photographers" ("An Old-Fashioned Wedding"o). When Annie shows Frank her medals, Frank again has his pride hurt. They call off the merger and the wedding, but challenge each other to one last shooting match to decide who is the best shot.
On the ferry to the Governors Island match site, Dolly attempts to ruin Annie's chances by tampering with her guns. She is caught and stopped by Sitting Bull and Charlie. However, they then decide to follow through with Dolly's plan so that Annie will lose the match, knowing that would soothe Frank's ego allowing the two to reconcile and the merger to take place.
As the match is ready to begin, Annie and Frank's egos come out again with each claiming they are better than the other ("Anything You Can Do"). Sitting Bull convinces Annie to deliberately lose the match to Frank, reminding her that she "can't get a man with a gun." That done, Frank and Annie finally reconcile, deciding to marry and merge the shows.
Notes:
This description is based on the 1966 revised book.
In the 1999 book, Frank also deliberately misses his shots in the final match, which ends in a tie.
o written for 1966 revision and included in 1999 Broadway Revival; not in the original production
§ omitted from the 1999 Broadway Revival
Notable Casts
Notes
Characters
Annie Oakley—a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
Frank Butler—the Wild West show's star
Dolly Tate—Frank's flamboyant assistant; Winnie's sister (Charlie's sister in the 1966 version)
Buffalo Bill—owner of the Wild West show
Chief Sitting Bull—Sioux chief and holy man; Annie's protector
Tommy Keeler§—knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American (not in the '66 version)
Charlie Davenport—manager of the Wild West show
Winnie Tate§—Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act (not in the '66 version)
Pawnee Bill—owner of a competing western show
Foster Wilson—hotel owner
Little Boy-show opens on him
Annie's brothers and sisters: Jessie, Nellie, Little Jake, and Minnie (Minnie was written out of the 1999 revival)
Notes
§Tommy and Winnie and their songs were written out of the film & 1966 revision. The 1999 revival restored their characters and songs.
Musical numbers
Original 1946 production
Act I
Overture — Orchestra
"Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie Davenport, Dolly Tate, and ensemble
"I'm a Bad, Bad Man" — Frank Butler
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie Oakley and her siblings
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie, Annie, and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"Moonshine Lullaby" § — Annie and siblings
"I'll Share It All With You" — Winnie Tate and Tommy Keeler
"Ballyhoo" — Riding Mistress and Show People
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and ensemble
"Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance" — Wild Horse, Indian Braves and Maidens
"I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie and ensemble
Adoption Dance — Annie, Wild Horse and Braves
Act II
Entr'acte — Orchestra
"I Got Lost In His Arms" § — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope?" — Winnie and Tommy
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Ensemble
Notes
§: omitted from the 1950 film version
"Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both Betty Hutton and Judy Garland.
"Take It in Your Stride" was a solo for Annie written for the original production. It was replaced by a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" when Merman found the number too difficult. It was recorded by Liz Larsen for the album Lost in Boston.
1999 revival
Act I
"There's No Business Like Show Business" - Frank, Dolly, Winnie and Company
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie
"I'll Share It All With You" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Kids, Ensemble Trio
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and Young Men
Finale: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun (Reprise)" - Annie
Act II
Entr'acte: The European Tour — Annie and Company
"I Got Lost In His Arms" — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie, Frank and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revision, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the 1999 revival
Productions
Original productions
Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946, and ran for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, the show starred Ethel Merman as Annie, Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, Lea Penman as Dolly Tate, Art Bernett as Foster Wilson, Harry Bellaver as Chief Sitting Bull, Kenneth Bowers as Tommy Keeler, Marty May as Charlie Davenport, Warren Berlinger as the Little Boy and William O'Neal as Buffalo Bill.
The musical toured the U.S. from October 3, 1947, starting in Dallas, Texas, with Mary Martin as Annie. This tour also played Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin stayed with the tour until mid-1948.
The show had its West End premiere on June 7, 1947, at the London Coliseum where it ran for 1,304 performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Frank.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on July 19, 1947. It starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank.
A French version, Annie du Far-West, starring Marcel Merkes and Lily Fayol, began production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 19, 1950, and ran for over a year.
1958 Broadway revival
The first Broadway revival was staged in 1958 at the New York City Center, directed by Donald Burr and produced by Jean Dalrymple, director of the NYCC Light Opera Company. This production opened on February 19, 1958, and ran until March 2, for 16 performances. Betty Jane Watson played the role of Annie with David Atkinson as Frank, Margaret Hamilton as Dolly, James Rennie as Chief Buffalo Bill, and Jack Whiting as Charles Davenport. Included in the cast was Harry Bellaver, reprising his original role of Chief Sitting Bull. The program didn't list the performer who was to play Annie, and instead a "to-be-announced" statement was substituted for the name. At the last minute, Watson signed for the role. Even the program for the second week of the two-week engagement didn't list her name, except as understudy; this was the first time in memory that a leading performer wasn't listed.
1966 Broadway revival
The show had its second Broadway revival in 1966 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center. This production opened on May 31, 1966, and ran until July 9, followed by a short 10-week U.S. Tour. It returned to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on September 21 for 78 performances. Ethel Merman reprised her original role as Annie with Bruce Yarnell as Frank, Benay Venuta as Dolly, and Jerry Orbach as Charles Davenport. The libretto and score were revised: The secondary romance between Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate was completely eliminated, including their songs "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", and the song "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was specially written for the revival and added to the second act. This version of the show is available for licensing for amateur performances. This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19, 1967, and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s to be telecast.
1973 Shady Grove Music Fair production
Jay Harnick directed a revival at the Shady Grove Music Fair starring Barbara Eden, John Bennett Perry and Sandra Peabody that ran from 1973 to 1974.
1976 Mexican production
In 1976 a Spanish-language version was produced in Mexico City with the name of Annie es un tiro. It was directed by José Luis Ibáñez and starred by Mexican film star Silvia Pinal. The production was represented at the Teatro Hidalgo and was co starred by the actor and singer Manuel López Ochoa. The success of the production produced the first Spanish-language version of the musical's soundtrack.
1977 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production
In 1977, Gower Champion directed a revival for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera starring Debbie Reynolds as Annie. The Assistant Director was James Mitchell. Harve Presnell, Reynolds's former co-star in the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Frank Butler. The cast featured Art Lund as Buffalo Bill, Bibi Osterwald as Dolly Tate, Gavin MacLeod as Charlie Davenport,
Peter Bruni as Foster Wilson, Don Potter as Pawnee Bill, and Manu Tupou as Sitting Bull. The cast also included Trey Wilson and Debbie Shapiro. The production later toured various North American cities, but never ran on Broadway, its planned destination.
1986 UK tour and London revival
In 1986, a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production, with American rock star Suzi Quatro as Annie and Eric Flynn as Frank, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre. It moved to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and then to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it played from July 29 to October 4. The cast recorded an album, Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast and Quatro's songs "I Got Lost in His Arms"/"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" were released as a single. Since then "I Got Lost in His Arms" has also been included in the compilation albums The Divas Collection (2003) and Songs from the Greatest Musicals (2008).
1992 London revival
A short-lived London production ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, starring Kim Criswell as Annie. Criswell's studio cast recording of the show - made with Thomas Hampson and conductor John McGlinn - provided the impetus for the production. Pippa Ailion was the Casting Director for this production.
1999 Broadway revival
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998, to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999, at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001, after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.
This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreography by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
Notable replacements
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999, until January 16, 2000. Peters and Wopat left the show on September 2, 2000. Former Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd made her Broadway debut as Annie on September 6, 2000, with Patrick Cassidy as Frank Butler. Country music singer Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut as Annie from January 26, 2001, to June 22, 2001, opposite Brent Barrett as Frank. On June 23, 2001, former Wings star Crystal Bernard, who had been playing Annie in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, assumed the role of Annie in the Broadway production, with Tom Wopat returning as Frank Butler.
2000 U.S. tour
The 1999 Broadway production, in a "slightly revised version", toured in a U.S. national tour starting in Dallas, Texas, on July 25, 2000, with Marilu Henner and Rex Smith. Tom Wopat joined the tour in late October 2000, replacing Smith.
2006 Prince Music Theater production
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater version for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate, and Arthur Ryan as Sitting Bull. The production was well received by critics. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison, Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington.
2009 London revival
Jane Horrocks, Julian Ovenden and director Richard Jones mounted a major London revival at the Young Vic, Waterloo. The show opened at the off west end venue on October 16, 2009, initially booking until January 2, 2010, but with an extra week added due to popular demand. The production featured new arrangements by Jason Carr for a band consisting four pianos. London's Guardian newspaper awarded the show 5 stars, claiming that "Richard Jones's brilliant production offers the wittiest musical staging London has seen in years."
2010 Ravinia Festival concert
A concert staging of the original version of Annie Get Your Gun took place at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago from August 13–15, 2010 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley's birth. Directed by Lonny Price, the concert starred Patti LuPone as Annie, Patrick Cassidy as Frank and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill. The concert received unanimously strong reviews, notably for LuPone and Price's direction.
Other major productions
Lucie Arnaz starred in a production in the summer of 1978 with Harve Presnell at the Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. This was the first major production of the musical done in the New York area after the 1966 revival.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced a well-reviewed production in June 1987 starring Judy Kaye as Annie and Richard White as Frank.
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2014 Carter Calvert and David Weitzer starred in a production that opened the Algonquin Arts Theatre's 2014-2015 Broadway Season. It was also the first show to be performed after the Algonquin underwent the task of installing new seating which had not been done since 1938.
In October 2015, a two night concert version was presented at the New York City Center Gala starring Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) and Andy Karl (Frank Butler). The concerts are directed by John Rando, and the cast features Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate), Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill), Brad Oscar (Charlie) and Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill).
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. Although MGM purchased the rights to the film version with an announced intention of starring legendary singer-actress Judy Garland as Annie, early work on the film was plagued with difficulties, some attributed to Garland's health. Garland was fired and replaced by the brassier, blonde Betty Hutton.
In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC. The Mary Martin version has been re-broadcast sporadically over the years, but the 1967 videotapes starring Ethel Merman have apparently been irretrievably lost. Only a video and audio clip of "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" is known to exist, as does an audio-only recording of the entire 90-minute show.
Recordings
There are several recordings of the Annie Get Your Gun score, including:
1946 Original Broadway Cast: an original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1946, featuring the cast of the original 1946 Broadway production. The principal stars were Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. The album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
1957 TV Cast: a recording based on the TV version shown in 1957, with Mary Martin and John Raitt.
1963 Studio Cast featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet: not based on a theatre production.
1966 Broadway Revival Cast
1976 Spanish-language version with Mexican cast.
1986 1986 London Cast
1991 Studio Cast: Kim Criswell (Annie), Thomas Hampson (Frank), Jason Graae (Tommy), Rebecca Luker (Winnie), David Garrison (Charlie), David Healy (Buffalo Bill), Alfred Marks (Sitting Bull), Gregory Jbara (Foster Wilson) Simon Green (Pawnee Bill), Peta Bartlett (Dolly), Kerry Potter, Hayley Spencer, Emma Long (Annie's sisters: Minnie, Jessie Nellie), Paul Keating (Annie's brother: Little Jake), Nick Curtis, Carey Wilson, Michael Pearn (Trainman, Waiter, Porter), Clare Buckfield (Small Girl), John McGlinn (Mac), Bruce Ogston (An Indian), Ambrosian Singers, London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn. Producer: Simon Woods; Balance Engineer: John Kurlander; Editor Matthew Cocker; Production Assistant: Alison Fox. Recorded July 1990, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. CD: EMI CDC 7 54206 2.
1999 Broadway Revival Cast (Grammy Award)
Conductor John Owen Edwards along with JAY Records recorded the first-ever complete recording, with all musical numbers, scene change music and incidental music, of the show's score in the 1990s with Judy Kaye and Barry Bostwick. Christopher Lee had the role of Sitting Bull.
Reception
The original Broadway production opened to favorable reviews. Critics unanimously praised Ethel Merman's performance as Annie Oakley, though some thought the score and book were not particularly distinguished. John Chapman of the Daily News declared that the production had "good lyrics and tunes by Irving Berlin...[and] the razzle-dazzle atmosphere of a big-time show" but pronounced Merman the best part of the show, stating "She is a better comedienne than she ever was before", stating that "Annie is a good, standard, lavish, big musical and I'm sure it will be a huge success--but it isn't the greatest show in the world". Louis Kronenberger of PM stated that the show was 'in many ways routine", but greatly praised Merman's performance, opining, "For me, Annie is mainly Miss Merman's show, though the rest of it is competent enough of its kind...Irving Berlin's score is musically not exciting--of the real songs, only one or two are tuneful".
Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun declared, "The big news about Annie Get Your Gun is that it reveals Ethel Merman in her best form since Anything Goes...She shouts the Berlin music with good effect. She often comes to the aid of a sagging book". He stated, "Irving Berlin's score is not a notable one, but his tunes are singable and pleasant and his lyrics are particularly good. The book? It's on the flimsy side, definitely. And rather witless too". Lewis Nichols of The New York Times said, "It has a pleasant score by Irving Berlin...and it has Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters. The colors are pretty, the dancing is amiable and unaffected, and Broadway by this time is well used to a book which doesn't get anywhere in particular".
However, the show itself was greatly lauded by some critics: Vernon Rice of the New York Post proclaimed, "Irving Berlin has outdone himself this time. No use trying to pick a hit tune, for all the tunes are hits...Ethel Merman is at her lusty, free and easy best...She is now able to develop a consistent characterization and stay with it to the show's end. And when she opens her mouth to sing, she sings!" William Hawkins of the New York World-Telegram said that Merman was "bright as a whip, sure as her shooting, and generously the foremost lady clown of her time" and asserted that the show itself was comparable to those of Rodgers and Hammerstein, proclaiming, "For verve and buoyancy, unslackening, there has seldom if ever been a show like it...the girls in Annie have the beauty and character of looks one associates with a Rodgers and Hammerstein show. And the production has in every way the distinction that has become their hallmark".
Historians have viewed the show as inaccurate, citing among other reasons its portrayal of Annie as a loud, boisterous character, when in reality she had a quiet personality and did needlepoint in her spare time.
Redface
Native Americans have criticized the shows portrayal of Redface and promotion of cultural stereotypes. Particularly in the song "I'm an Indian Too" sung by Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.
Native Americans did protest outside the New York theatre, as well as movie theaters, holding picket signs stating: "Don't See "Annie Get Your Gun". As a result of this reaction, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.
Awards and nominations
Mary Martin received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for "Spreading Theatre to the Country While the Originals Perform in New York" (1947-48 US Tour)
1966 Broadway revival
1999 Broadway revival
2009 London revival
Notes
References
Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Kantor, Michael, and Maslon, Laurence (2004). Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bullfinch Press.
Nolan, Frederick (2002). The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Cambridge, Mass.: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. .
Suskin, Stephen (1990). Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schrimmer Books. .
Annie Get Your Gun plot summary & character descriptions from StageAgent.com
The Judy Garland Online Discography "Annie Get Your Gun" pages.
Listing at the RNH site
1999 Revival at RNH
'Annie Get Your Gun' Story, Cast, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre.com
External links
(Mary Martin)
(Ethel Merman)
Curtain Up reviews from 2/8/01 and 3/9/99
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Musicals by Herbert Fields
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"\"It Is What It Is\" is an idiomatic phrase, indicating the immutable nature of an object or circumstance and may refer to:\n It Is What It Is, a 2001 film by Billy Frolick\n It Is What It Is, a 2007 autobiography by David Coulthard\n It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, a project by Jeremy Deller\n It Is What It Is, a radio show hosted by Sean Baligian\n\nMusic\n B.A.R.S. The Barry Adrian Reese Story or It Is What It Is, a 2007 album by Cassidy\n It Is What It Is (ABN album) (2008)\n It Is What It Is (Johnny Logan album) (2017)\n It Is What It Is (Thundercat album) (2020)\n It Is What It Is, a 1982 album by The Hitmen\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 1988 song by Derrick May from the compilation album Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit\n \"It Is What It Is (What It Is)\", a 1992 song by Adam Again from Dig\n\"It Is What It Is\", a 1995 song by The Highwaymen from the album The Road Goes On Forever\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2010 song by Lifehouse from Smoke & Mirrors\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2013 song by Blood Orange from Cupid Deluxe\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2013 song by Kacey Musgraves from Same Trailer Different Park\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2016 song by Lecrae from Church Clothes 3\n \"It Is What It Is\", a 2009 song by Vic Chesnutt from At the Cut\n\nSee also \n Fihi Ma Fihi, a Persian prose work by Rumi\n Tautophrase\n What It Is (disambiguation)",
"What We Do Is Secret may refer to:\n \"What We Do Is Secret\", a song by the Germs from the 1979 album (GI)\n What We Do Is Secret (EP), a 1981 EP by the Germs released after their breakup\n What We Do Is Secret (film), a 2007 biographical film about the Germs\n What We Do Is Secret (novel), a 2005 novel by Thorn Kief Hillsbery"
] |
[
"Annie Get Your Gun (musical)",
"1999 Broadway revival",
"When is the brodadway revival",
"new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999.",
"Is it a movie",
"Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001",
"what is it about",
"was structured as a \"show-within-a-show\", set as a Big Top travelling circus. \"Frank Butler\" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters,"
] |
C_181903b43ebf4af8bf4f87ebdf12b8ac_0
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when do they used to have the show
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When was Annie Get Your Gun a show?
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Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
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In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances. This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)".
History and background
Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose the music; Fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother Herbert would write the book. Kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in Hollywood, returned to New York on November 2, 1945, to begin work on the score to Annie Get Your Gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Kern was hospitalized, and he died on November 11, 1945. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the musical's score; Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his songs. Berlin initially declined to write the score, worrying that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes in "a situation show". Hammerstein persuaded him to study the script and try writing some songs based on it, and within days, Berlin returned with the songs "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". Berlin's songs suited the story and Ethel Merman's abilities, and he readily composed the rest of the score to Annie Get Your Gun. The show's eventual hit song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show because Berlin mistakenly got the impression that Richard Rodgers did not like it. In imitation of the structure of Oklahoma! a secondary romance between two of the members of the Wild West Show was added to the musical during its development.
According to some sources, the role of Annie was originally offered to Mary Martin, who turned it down. This is not true. Dorothy Fields went to the hospital after Ethel Merman gave birth to her son to ask her if she would do the show. The show was conceived for Ethel Merman. When time came to send out the post-Broadway national tour and Merman was unwilling to do it, Martin jumped at the chance, going on the road for approximately two years and belting out the songs, which had the effect of lowering her voice from its normal lyric-coloratura range to mezzo-soprano-alto.
For the 1999 revival, Peter Stone revised the libretto, eliminating what were considered insensitive references to American Indians, including the songs "Colonel Buffalo Bill" and "I'm An Indian Too". Stone said, "The big challenge is taking a book that was wonderfully crafted for its time and make it wonderfully crafted for our time... It was terribly insensitive...to Indians.... But it had to be dealt with in a way that was heartfelt and not obvious... In this case, it was with the permission of the heirs. They're terribly pleased with it." Stone also altered the structure of the musical, beginning it with "There's No Business Like Show Business" and presenting the musical as a "show within a show".
Plot summary
Act I
When the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West show visits Cincinnati, Ohio ("Colonel Buffalo Bill"), Frank Butler, the show's handsome, womanizing star ("I'm a Bad, Bad, Man"), challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Foster Wilson, a local hotel owner, doesn't appreciate the Wild West show taking over his hotel, so Frank gives him a side bet of one hundred dollars on the match. Annie Oakley enters and shoots a bird off Dolly Tate's hat, and then explains her simple backwoods ways to Wilson with the help of her siblings ("Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"). When Wilson learns she's a brilliant shot, he enters her in the shooting match against Frank Butler.
While waiting for the match to start, Annie meets Frank Butler and is instantly smitten with him, not knowing he will be her opponent. When she asks Frank if he likes her, Frank explains that the girl he wants will "wear satin... and smell of cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"). The rough and naive Annie comically laments that "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun". At the shooting match, Annie finds out that Frank is the "big swollen-headed stiff" from the Wild West show. She wins the contest, and Buffalo Bill and Charlie Davenport, the show's manager, invite Annie to join the Wild West Show. Annie agrees because she loves Frank even though she has no idea what "show business" is. Frank, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill explain that "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Over the course of working together, Frank becomes enamored of the plain-spoken, honest, tomboyish Annie and, as they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a train, he explains to her what "love" is ("They Say It's Wonderful"). Buffalo Bill and Charlie discover that their rival, Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while the Wild West show plays in nearby Minneapolis. They ask Annie to do a special shooting stunt on a motorcycle to draw Pawnee Bill's business away. Annie agrees because the trick will surprise Frank. She sings her siblings to sleep with the "Moonshine Lullaby".
As Annie and Frank prepare for the show, Frank plans to propose to Annie after the show and then ruefully admits that "My Defenses Are Down". When Annie performs her trick and becomes a star, Chief Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe ("I'm An Indian Too"). Hurt and angry, Frank walks out on Annie and the show, joining the competing Pawnee Bill's show.
Act II
Returning to New York from a tour of Europe with the Buffalo Bill show, Annie learns that the show has gone broke. Sitting Bull, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill plot to merge Buffalo Bill's show with Pawnee Bill's as they believe that show is doing well financially. Annie, now well-dressed and more refined and worldly, still longs for Frank ("I Got Lost in His Arms").
At a grand reception for Buffalo Bill's troupe at the Hotel Brevoort, Pawnee Bill, Dolly, and Frank also plot a merger of the two companies, assuming Buffalo Bill's show made a fortune touring Europe. When they all meet, they soon discover both shows are broke. Annie, however, has received sharpshooting medals from all the rulers of Europe worth one hundred thousand dollars, and she decides to sell the medals to finance the merger, rejoicing in the simple things ("I Got the Sun in the Mornin'"). When Frank appears, he and Annie confess their love and decide to marry, although with comically different ideas: Frank wants "some little chapel", while Annie wants "A wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls/ A lot of ushers in tail coats/ Reporters and photographers" ("An Old-Fashioned Wedding"o). When Annie shows Frank her medals, Frank again has his pride hurt. They call off the merger and the wedding, but challenge each other to one last shooting match to decide who is the best shot.
On the ferry to the Governors Island match site, Dolly attempts to ruin Annie's chances by tampering with her guns. She is caught and stopped by Sitting Bull and Charlie. However, they then decide to follow through with Dolly's plan so that Annie will lose the match, knowing that would soothe Frank's ego allowing the two to reconcile and the merger to take place.
As the match is ready to begin, Annie and Frank's egos come out again with each claiming they are better than the other ("Anything You Can Do"). Sitting Bull convinces Annie to deliberately lose the match to Frank, reminding her that she "can't get a man with a gun." That done, Frank and Annie finally reconcile, deciding to marry and merge the shows.
Notes:
This description is based on the 1966 revised book.
In the 1999 book, Frank also deliberately misses his shots in the final match, which ends in a tie.
o written for 1966 revision and included in 1999 Broadway Revival; not in the original production
§ omitted from the 1999 Broadway Revival
Notable Casts
Notes
Characters
Annie Oakley—a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
Frank Butler—the Wild West show's star
Dolly Tate—Frank's flamboyant assistant; Winnie's sister (Charlie's sister in the 1966 version)
Buffalo Bill—owner of the Wild West show
Chief Sitting Bull—Sioux chief and holy man; Annie's protector
Tommy Keeler§—knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American (not in the '66 version)
Charlie Davenport—manager of the Wild West show
Winnie Tate§—Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act (not in the '66 version)
Pawnee Bill—owner of a competing western show
Foster Wilson—hotel owner
Little Boy-show opens on him
Annie's brothers and sisters: Jessie, Nellie, Little Jake, and Minnie (Minnie was written out of the 1999 revival)
Notes
§Tommy and Winnie and their songs were written out of the film & 1966 revision. The 1999 revival restored their characters and songs.
Musical numbers
Original 1946 production
Act I
Overture — Orchestra
"Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie Davenport, Dolly Tate, and ensemble
"I'm a Bad, Bad Man" — Frank Butler
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie Oakley and her siblings
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie, Annie, and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"Moonshine Lullaby" § — Annie and siblings
"I'll Share It All With You" — Winnie Tate and Tommy Keeler
"Ballyhoo" — Riding Mistress and Show People
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and ensemble
"Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance" — Wild Horse, Indian Braves and Maidens
"I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie and ensemble
Adoption Dance — Annie, Wild Horse and Braves
Act II
Entr'acte — Orchestra
"I Got Lost In His Arms" § — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope?" — Winnie and Tommy
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Ensemble
Notes
§: omitted from the 1950 film version
"Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both Betty Hutton and Judy Garland.
"Take It in Your Stride" was a solo for Annie written for the original production. It was replaced by a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" when Merman found the number too difficult. It was recorded by Liz Larsen for the album Lost in Boston.
1999 revival
Act I
"There's No Business Like Show Business" - Frank, Dolly, Winnie and Company
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie
"I'll Share It All With You" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Kids, Ensemble Trio
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and Young Men
Finale: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun (Reprise)" - Annie
Act II
Entr'acte: The European Tour — Annie and Company
"I Got Lost In His Arms" — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie, Frank and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revision, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the 1999 revival
Productions
Original productions
Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946, and ran for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, the show starred Ethel Merman as Annie, Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, Lea Penman as Dolly Tate, Art Bernett as Foster Wilson, Harry Bellaver as Chief Sitting Bull, Kenneth Bowers as Tommy Keeler, Marty May as Charlie Davenport, Warren Berlinger as the Little Boy and William O'Neal as Buffalo Bill.
The musical toured the U.S. from October 3, 1947, starting in Dallas, Texas, with Mary Martin as Annie. This tour also played Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin stayed with the tour until mid-1948.
The show had its West End premiere on June 7, 1947, at the London Coliseum where it ran for 1,304 performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Frank.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on July 19, 1947. It starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank.
A French version, Annie du Far-West, starring Marcel Merkes and Lily Fayol, began production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 19, 1950, and ran for over a year.
1958 Broadway revival
The first Broadway revival was staged in 1958 at the New York City Center, directed by Donald Burr and produced by Jean Dalrymple, director of the NYCC Light Opera Company. This production opened on February 19, 1958, and ran until March 2, for 16 performances. Betty Jane Watson played the role of Annie with David Atkinson as Frank, Margaret Hamilton as Dolly, James Rennie as Chief Buffalo Bill, and Jack Whiting as Charles Davenport. Included in the cast was Harry Bellaver, reprising his original role of Chief Sitting Bull. The program didn't list the performer who was to play Annie, and instead a "to-be-announced" statement was substituted for the name. At the last minute, Watson signed for the role. Even the program for the second week of the two-week engagement didn't list her name, except as understudy; this was the first time in memory that a leading performer wasn't listed.
1966 Broadway revival
The show had its second Broadway revival in 1966 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center. This production opened on May 31, 1966, and ran until July 9, followed by a short 10-week U.S. Tour. It returned to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on September 21 for 78 performances. Ethel Merman reprised her original role as Annie with Bruce Yarnell as Frank, Benay Venuta as Dolly, and Jerry Orbach as Charles Davenport. The libretto and score were revised: The secondary romance between Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate was completely eliminated, including their songs "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", and the song "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was specially written for the revival and added to the second act. This version of the show is available for licensing for amateur performances. This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19, 1967, and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s to be telecast.
1973 Shady Grove Music Fair production
Jay Harnick directed a revival at the Shady Grove Music Fair starring Barbara Eden, John Bennett Perry and Sandra Peabody that ran from 1973 to 1974.
1976 Mexican production
In 1976 a Spanish-language version was produced in Mexico City with the name of Annie es un tiro. It was directed by José Luis Ibáñez and starred by Mexican film star Silvia Pinal. The production was represented at the Teatro Hidalgo and was co starred by the actor and singer Manuel López Ochoa. The success of the production produced the first Spanish-language version of the musical's soundtrack.
1977 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production
In 1977, Gower Champion directed a revival for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera starring Debbie Reynolds as Annie. The Assistant Director was James Mitchell. Harve Presnell, Reynolds's former co-star in the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Frank Butler. The cast featured Art Lund as Buffalo Bill, Bibi Osterwald as Dolly Tate, Gavin MacLeod as Charlie Davenport,
Peter Bruni as Foster Wilson, Don Potter as Pawnee Bill, and Manu Tupou as Sitting Bull. The cast also included Trey Wilson and Debbie Shapiro. The production later toured various North American cities, but never ran on Broadway, its planned destination.
1986 UK tour and London revival
In 1986, a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production, with American rock star Suzi Quatro as Annie and Eric Flynn as Frank, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre. It moved to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and then to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it played from July 29 to October 4. The cast recorded an album, Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast and Quatro's songs "I Got Lost in His Arms"/"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" were released as a single. Since then "I Got Lost in His Arms" has also been included in the compilation albums The Divas Collection (2003) and Songs from the Greatest Musicals (2008).
1992 London revival
A short-lived London production ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, starring Kim Criswell as Annie. Criswell's studio cast recording of the show - made with Thomas Hampson and conductor John McGlinn - provided the impetus for the production. Pippa Ailion was the Casting Director for this production.
1999 Broadway revival
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998, to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999, at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001, after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.
This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreography by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
Notable replacements
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999, until January 16, 2000. Peters and Wopat left the show on September 2, 2000. Former Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd made her Broadway debut as Annie on September 6, 2000, with Patrick Cassidy as Frank Butler. Country music singer Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut as Annie from January 26, 2001, to June 22, 2001, opposite Brent Barrett as Frank. On June 23, 2001, former Wings star Crystal Bernard, who had been playing Annie in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, assumed the role of Annie in the Broadway production, with Tom Wopat returning as Frank Butler.
2000 U.S. tour
The 1999 Broadway production, in a "slightly revised version", toured in a U.S. national tour starting in Dallas, Texas, on July 25, 2000, with Marilu Henner and Rex Smith. Tom Wopat joined the tour in late October 2000, replacing Smith.
2006 Prince Music Theater production
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater version for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate, and Arthur Ryan as Sitting Bull. The production was well received by critics. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison, Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington.
2009 London revival
Jane Horrocks, Julian Ovenden and director Richard Jones mounted a major London revival at the Young Vic, Waterloo. The show opened at the off west end venue on October 16, 2009, initially booking until January 2, 2010, but with an extra week added due to popular demand. The production featured new arrangements by Jason Carr for a band consisting four pianos. London's Guardian newspaper awarded the show 5 stars, claiming that "Richard Jones's brilliant production offers the wittiest musical staging London has seen in years."
2010 Ravinia Festival concert
A concert staging of the original version of Annie Get Your Gun took place at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago from August 13–15, 2010 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley's birth. Directed by Lonny Price, the concert starred Patti LuPone as Annie, Patrick Cassidy as Frank and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill. The concert received unanimously strong reviews, notably for LuPone and Price's direction.
Other major productions
Lucie Arnaz starred in a production in the summer of 1978 with Harve Presnell at the Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. This was the first major production of the musical done in the New York area after the 1966 revival.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced a well-reviewed production in June 1987 starring Judy Kaye as Annie and Richard White as Frank.
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2014 Carter Calvert and David Weitzer starred in a production that opened the Algonquin Arts Theatre's 2014-2015 Broadway Season. It was also the first show to be performed after the Algonquin underwent the task of installing new seating which had not been done since 1938.
In October 2015, a two night concert version was presented at the New York City Center Gala starring Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) and Andy Karl (Frank Butler). The concerts are directed by John Rando, and the cast features Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate), Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill), Brad Oscar (Charlie) and Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill).
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. Although MGM purchased the rights to the film version with an announced intention of starring legendary singer-actress Judy Garland as Annie, early work on the film was plagued with difficulties, some attributed to Garland's health. Garland was fired and replaced by the brassier, blonde Betty Hutton.
In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC. The Mary Martin version has been re-broadcast sporadically over the years, but the 1967 videotapes starring Ethel Merman have apparently been irretrievably lost. Only a video and audio clip of "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" is known to exist, as does an audio-only recording of the entire 90-minute show.
Recordings
There are several recordings of the Annie Get Your Gun score, including:
1946 Original Broadway Cast: an original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1946, featuring the cast of the original 1946 Broadway production. The principal stars were Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. The album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
1957 TV Cast: a recording based on the TV version shown in 1957, with Mary Martin and John Raitt.
1963 Studio Cast featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet: not based on a theatre production.
1966 Broadway Revival Cast
1976 Spanish-language version with Mexican cast.
1986 1986 London Cast
1991 Studio Cast: Kim Criswell (Annie), Thomas Hampson (Frank), Jason Graae (Tommy), Rebecca Luker (Winnie), David Garrison (Charlie), David Healy (Buffalo Bill), Alfred Marks (Sitting Bull), Gregory Jbara (Foster Wilson) Simon Green (Pawnee Bill), Peta Bartlett (Dolly), Kerry Potter, Hayley Spencer, Emma Long (Annie's sisters: Minnie, Jessie Nellie), Paul Keating (Annie's brother: Little Jake), Nick Curtis, Carey Wilson, Michael Pearn (Trainman, Waiter, Porter), Clare Buckfield (Small Girl), John McGlinn (Mac), Bruce Ogston (An Indian), Ambrosian Singers, London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn. Producer: Simon Woods; Balance Engineer: John Kurlander; Editor Matthew Cocker; Production Assistant: Alison Fox. Recorded July 1990, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. CD: EMI CDC 7 54206 2.
1999 Broadway Revival Cast (Grammy Award)
Conductor John Owen Edwards along with JAY Records recorded the first-ever complete recording, with all musical numbers, scene change music and incidental music, of the show's score in the 1990s with Judy Kaye and Barry Bostwick. Christopher Lee had the role of Sitting Bull.
Reception
The original Broadway production opened to favorable reviews. Critics unanimously praised Ethel Merman's performance as Annie Oakley, though some thought the score and book were not particularly distinguished. John Chapman of the Daily News declared that the production had "good lyrics and tunes by Irving Berlin...[and] the razzle-dazzle atmosphere of a big-time show" but pronounced Merman the best part of the show, stating "She is a better comedienne than she ever was before", stating that "Annie is a good, standard, lavish, big musical and I'm sure it will be a huge success--but it isn't the greatest show in the world". Louis Kronenberger of PM stated that the show was 'in many ways routine", but greatly praised Merman's performance, opining, "For me, Annie is mainly Miss Merman's show, though the rest of it is competent enough of its kind...Irving Berlin's score is musically not exciting--of the real songs, only one or two are tuneful".
Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun declared, "The big news about Annie Get Your Gun is that it reveals Ethel Merman in her best form since Anything Goes...She shouts the Berlin music with good effect. She often comes to the aid of a sagging book". He stated, "Irving Berlin's score is not a notable one, but his tunes are singable and pleasant and his lyrics are particularly good. The book? It's on the flimsy side, definitely. And rather witless too". Lewis Nichols of The New York Times said, "It has a pleasant score by Irving Berlin...and it has Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters. The colors are pretty, the dancing is amiable and unaffected, and Broadway by this time is well used to a book which doesn't get anywhere in particular".
However, the show itself was greatly lauded by some critics: Vernon Rice of the New York Post proclaimed, "Irving Berlin has outdone himself this time. No use trying to pick a hit tune, for all the tunes are hits...Ethel Merman is at her lusty, free and easy best...She is now able to develop a consistent characterization and stay with it to the show's end. And when she opens her mouth to sing, she sings!" William Hawkins of the New York World-Telegram said that Merman was "bright as a whip, sure as her shooting, and generously the foremost lady clown of her time" and asserted that the show itself was comparable to those of Rodgers and Hammerstein, proclaiming, "For verve and buoyancy, unslackening, there has seldom if ever been a show like it...the girls in Annie have the beauty and character of looks one associates with a Rodgers and Hammerstein show. And the production has in every way the distinction that has become their hallmark".
Historians have viewed the show as inaccurate, citing among other reasons its portrayal of Annie as a loud, boisterous character, when in reality she had a quiet personality and did needlepoint in her spare time.
Redface
Native Americans have criticized the shows portrayal of Redface and promotion of cultural stereotypes. Particularly in the song "I'm an Indian Too" sung by Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.
Native Americans did protest outside the New York theatre, as well as movie theaters, holding picket signs stating: "Don't See "Annie Get Your Gun". As a result of this reaction, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.
Awards and nominations
Mary Martin received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for "Spreading Theatre to the Country While the Originals Perform in New York" (1947-48 US Tour)
1966 Broadway revival
1999 Broadway revival
2009 London revival
Notes
References
Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Kantor, Michael, and Maslon, Laurence (2004). Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bullfinch Press.
Nolan, Frederick (2002). The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Cambridge, Mass.: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. .
Suskin, Stephen (1990). Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schrimmer Books. .
Annie Get Your Gun plot summary & character descriptions from StageAgent.com
The Judy Garland Online Discography "Annie Get Your Gun" pages.
Listing at the RNH site
1999 Revival at RNH
'Annie Get Your Gun' Story, Cast, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre.com
External links
(Mary Martin)
(Ethel Merman)
Curtain Up reviews from 2/8/01 and 3/9/99
1946 musicals
1950s American television specials
1957 in American television
1957 television films
1960s American television specials
1967 in American television
1967 television films
1967 films
American television films
American films
Broadway musicals
Cultural depictions of Annie Oakley
Cultural depictions of Buffalo Bill
Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull
Musicals by Herbert Fields
Musicals by Irving Berlin
Musicals inspired by real-life events
Musical television films
Plays set in the 19th century
Plays set in the United States
West End musicals
Tony Award-winning musicals
| false |
[
"Do Something Different is a show produced and broadcast by CBBC. It was hosted by music duo Sam and Mark. The show aims to get one million children to try out new things; literally to \"do something different\", also referred in the programme as 'DSD-ing'. A child who completes a DSD is referred to as a 'DSDer'.\n\nPremise\nThe idea of the show is to get one million children to do something that they haven't previously tried, by the end of summer 2007. It doesn't matter what activity the viewer chooses to do, as long as it is something 'different' from their normal pastimes and activities. Ideas suggested by the presenters have been incredibly diverse and have included cooking a Spanish Omelette, learning to DJ, taking up a new sport, learning the ukulele, and (somewhat tongue-in cheek) the suggestion to \"cross breed some lions and puffins\" to make 'luffins'.\n\nChannel and timeslot\nThe 'first run' of the series was transmitted during the UK schools' Easter holidays on BBC Two, as well as on the CBBC Channel. This initial run comprised ten 45 minute episodes. Each episode was first shown at 8 a.m. on BBC Two, with a different episode being shown for each of the ten weekdays of the Easter holidays.\n\nThe 'second run' of the show began transmission during the UK schools' summer holidays, in the same timeslot. Although it started one week earlier in the time slot 7:15am–8:00am on BBC TWO\n\nFormat\nEach of the Easter and Summer shows contained different 'strands' -\nDSD Challenge\nMy DSD - A different person every time telling you about the hobby they do and how to do it and where you can do it and when you can do it.\nSam Challenge / Mark Challenge\nBoys vs Girls\nLinks\n\nEach episode was recorded in a different location within the UK. In the links presenters Sam and Mark would try out a DSD, such as swimming with sharks, trying out the infamous 'cola and mentos' experiment, pigeon racing or racing cars at Silverstone.\n\nThe DSD Challenges were 18 minute films, divided into three sections. All three parts to a challenge were shown within one episode of the programme. The films followed the journey of a different viewer each episode, who had been challenged to do a specific DSD activity - for example, one child who was a hip-hop street dancer learned to be a ballroom dancer, and took part in a national competition. Some of the children used in the Easter shows were previously 'gamers' on the shows predecessor, Level Up.\n\nThe Sam and Mark Challenge films were similar to the DSD challenges, but they followed the progress of the two presenters being challenged to DSD. These had five parts, with one part from one of the challenges being shown in each episode of the programme. Sam's challenge was to train to become a stuntman in the US, and take part in a stunt-show. Mark's challenge was to learn hip-hop dancing, and take part in a one on one battle at the UK Hip Hop Dance Championships.\n\nThe Boys vs Girls segments of the show were presented by Ayesha. In these segments, a group of three boys and a group of three girls would learn a new activity. They would receive training in this activity from a child mentor who had excelled in that field. The activities included golf, pottery, indoor skydiving and playing the xylophone. Once they had received training, the boys and girls would compete against each other. After each team had a go at the activity, the mentor judged which group performed better. A different group of children was featured for each episode. Overall, the girls won during the Easter run, beating the boys 6 - 4.\n\nWebsite\nThe show is heavily dependent upon the website which accompanies the series. The website is divided into a number of sections, including 'How you can DSD', 'Pledge a DSD', and 'Ayesha's Stats'.\n\nIn the 'Plegde a DSD' section, viewers can suggest 'DSDs' for users to try out, and pledge to do the suggestions. Once a DSD has been pledged, the user can then mark it as completed, once they have tried the activity. Each child who registers on the website adds to the growing total, with the ultimate goal of reaching one million DSDs.\n\nThe 'Ayesha's Stats' area contains statistics such as the number of DSDs that have been completed, the regions of the UK that have the most DSDers, the most pledged and most popular DSDs.\n\nExternal links\n \nDo Something Different website - BBC - Web Archive\nDo Something Different website - CBBC - Web Archive\nDo Something Different episode guide - BBC\n\nBBC children's television shows\n2007 British television series debuts\n2007 British television series endings",
"The People vs. Jerry Sadowitz was a late night British TV show which ran from 1998 to 1999 on Channel Five. It featured comedian Jerry Sadowitz talking to members of the public. The idea being that the person Sadowitz found most deserving would win the prize of £10,000. Contestants could talk about any subject they liked except \"No politics, no religion!\". The show featured a lot of strong language.\n\nThe programme later went on to become known as The Beast of Jerry Sadowitz.\n\nPeople would have to explain their case until Sadowitz pushed a bell as a sign that they should stop and leave. Contestants refusing to do so were escorted off by Jerry's minder, played for one series by Dave Courtney. The minder had a non-speaking part in the show, and when a female contestant's statement \"It leaves a bad taste in my mouth\" prompted Courtney to ad-lib, \"That's spunk\" he received a furious dressing down from Sadowitz. Contestants were seldom allowed to talk for long before being interrupted and verbally abused. The prize money was never given out.\n\nPeople wishing to appear on the show would have to accept that the recording footage could be edited as the producers saw fit, used in any way they saw fit and waive any moral rights.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nBritish comedy television shows\nChannel 5 (British TV channel) original programming\nTelevision controversies in the United Kingdom\n1998 British television series debuts\n1999 British television series endings\nEnglish-language television shows"
] |
[
"Annie Get Your Gun (musical)",
"1999 Broadway revival",
"When is the brodadway revival",
"new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999.",
"Is it a movie",
"Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001",
"what is it about",
"was structured as a \"show-within-a-show\", set as a Big Top travelling circus. \"Frank Butler\" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters,",
"when do they used to have the show",
"I don't know."
] |
C_181903b43ebf4af8bf4f87ebdf12b8ac_0
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who perticipate in the show
| 5 |
Who participated in the 1999 Broadway Revival of Annie Get Your Gun?
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Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
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In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances. This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie. CANNOTANSWER
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This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun,
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Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)".
History and background
Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose the music; Fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother Herbert would write the book. Kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in Hollywood, returned to New York on November 2, 1945, to begin work on the score to Annie Get Your Gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Kern was hospitalized, and he died on November 11, 1945. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the musical's score; Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his songs. Berlin initially declined to write the score, worrying that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes in "a situation show". Hammerstein persuaded him to study the script and try writing some songs based on it, and within days, Berlin returned with the songs "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". Berlin's songs suited the story and Ethel Merman's abilities, and he readily composed the rest of the score to Annie Get Your Gun. The show's eventual hit song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show because Berlin mistakenly got the impression that Richard Rodgers did not like it. In imitation of the structure of Oklahoma! a secondary romance between two of the members of the Wild West Show was added to the musical during its development.
According to some sources, the role of Annie was originally offered to Mary Martin, who turned it down. This is not true. Dorothy Fields went to the hospital after Ethel Merman gave birth to her son to ask her if she would do the show. The show was conceived for Ethel Merman. When time came to send out the post-Broadway national tour and Merman was unwilling to do it, Martin jumped at the chance, going on the road for approximately two years and belting out the songs, which had the effect of lowering her voice from its normal lyric-coloratura range to mezzo-soprano-alto.
For the 1999 revival, Peter Stone revised the libretto, eliminating what were considered insensitive references to American Indians, including the songs "Colonel Buffalo Bill" and "I'm An Indian Too". Stone said, "The big challenge is taking a book that was wonderfully crafted for its time and make it wonderfully crafted for our time... It was terribly insensitive...to Indians.... But it had to be dealt with in a way that was heartfelt and not obvious... In this case, it was with the permission of the heirs. They're terribly pleased with it." Stone also altered the structure of the musical, beginning it with "There's No Business Like Show Business" and presenting the musical as a "show within a show".
Plot summary
Act I
When the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West show visits Cincinnati, Ohio ("Colonel Buffalo Bill"), Frank Butler, the show's handsome, womanizing star ("I'm a Bad, Bad, Man"), challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Foster Wilson, a local hotel owner, doesn't appreciate the Wild West show taking over his hotel, so Frank gives him a side bet of one hundred dollars on the match. Annie Oakley enters and shoots a bird off Dolly Tate's hat, and then explains her simple backwoods ways to Wilson with the help of her siblings ("Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"). When Wilson learns she's a brilliant shot, he enters her in the shooting match against Frank Butler.
While waiting for the match to start, Annie meets Frank Butler and is instantly smitten with him, not knowing he will be her opponent. When she asks Frank if he likes her, Frank explains that the girl he wants will "wear satin... and smell of cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"). The rough and naive Annie comically laments that "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun". At the shooting match, Annie finds out that Frank is the "big swollen-headed stiff" from the Wild West show. She wins the contest, and Buffalo Bill and Charlie Davenport, the show's manager, invite Annie to join the Wild West Show. Annie agrees because she loves Frank even though she has no idea what "show business" is. Frank, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill explain that "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Over the course of working together, Frank becomes enamored of the plain-spoken, honest, tomboyish Annie and, as they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a train, he explains to her what "love" is ("They Say It's Wonderful"). Buffalo Bill and Charlie discover that their rival, Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while the Wild West show plays in nearby Minneapolis. They ask Annie to do a special shooting stunt on a motorcycle to draw Pawnee Bill's business away. Annie agrees because the trick will surprise Frank. She sings her siblings to sleep with the "Moonshine Lullaby".
As Annie and Frank prepare for the show, Frank plans to propose to Annie after the show and then ruefully admits that "My Defenses Are Down". When Annie performs her trick and becomes a star, Chief Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe ("I'm An Indian Too"). Hurt and angry, Frank walks out on Annie and the show, joining the competing Pawnee Bill's show.
Act II
Returning to New York from a tour of Europe with the Buffalo Bill show, Annie learns that the show has gone broke. Sitting Bull, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill plot to merge Buffalo Bill's show with Pawnee Bill's as they believe that show is doing well financially. Annie, now well-dressed and more refined and worldly, still longs for Frank ("I Got Lost in His Arms").
At a grand reception for Buffalo Bill's troupe at the Hotel Brevoort, Pawnee Bill, Dolly, and Frank also plot a merger of the two companies, assuming Buffalo Bill's show made a fortune touring Europe. When they all meet, they soon discover both shows are broke. Annie, however, has received sharpshooting medals from all the rulers of Europe worth one hundred thousand dollars, and she decides to sell the medals to finance the merger, rejoicing in the simple things ("I Got the Sun in the Mornin'"). When Frank appears, he and Annie confess their love and decide to marry, although with comically different ideas: Frank wants "some little chapel", while Annie wants "A wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls/ A lot of ushers in tail coats/ Reporters and photographers" ("An Old-Fashioned Wedding"o). When Annie shows Frank her medals, Frank again has his pride hurt. They call off the merger and the wedding, but challenge each other to one last shooting match to decide who is the best shot.
On the ferry to the Governors Island match site, Dolly attempts to ruin Annie's chances by tampering with her guns. She is caught and stopped by Sitting Bull and Charlie. However, they then decide to follow through with Dolly's plan so that Annie will lose the match, knowing that would soothe Frank's ego allowing the two to reconcile and the merger to take place.
As the match is ready to begin, Annie and Frank's egos come out again with each claiming they are better than the other ("Anything You Can Do"). Sitting Bull convinces Annie to deliberately lose the match to Frank, reminding her that she "can't get a man with a gun." That done, Frank and Annie finally reconcile, deciding to marry and merge the shows.
Notes:
This description is based on the 1966 revised book.
In the 1999 book, Frank also deliberately misses his shots in the final match, which ends in a tie.
o written for 1966 revision and included in 1999 Broadway Revival; not in the original production
§ omitted from the 1999 Broadway Revival
Notable Casts
Notes
Characters
Annie Oakley—a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
Frank Butler—the Wild West show's star
Dolly Tate—Frank's flamboyant assistant; Winnie's sister (Charlie's sister in the 1966 version)
Buffalo Bill—owner of the Wild West show
Chief Sitting Bull—Sioux chief and holy man; Annie's protector
Tommy Keeler§—knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American (not in the '66 version)
Charlie Davenport—manager of the Wild West show
Winnie Tate§—Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act (not in the '66 version)
Pawnee Bill—owner of a competing western show
Foster Wilson—hotel owner
Little Boy-show opens on him
Annie's brothers and sisters: Jessie, Nellie, Little Jake, and Minnie (Minnie was written out of the 1999 revival)
Notes
§Tommy and Winnie and their songs were written out of the film & 1966 revision. The 1999 revival restored their characters and songs.
Musical numbers
Original 1946 production
Act I
Overture — Orchestra
"Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie Davenport, Dolly Tate, and ensemble
"I'm a Bad, Bad Man" — Frank Butler
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie Oakley and her siblings
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie, Annie, and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"Moonshine Lullaby" § — Annie and siblings
"I'll Share It All With You" — Winnie Tate and Tommy Keeler
"Ballyhoo" — Riding Mistress and Show People
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and ensemble
"Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance" — Wild Horse, Indian Braves and Maidens
"I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie and ensemble
Adoption Dance — Annie, Wild Horse and Braves
Act II
Entr'acte — Orchestra
"I Got Lost In His Arms" § — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope?" — Winnie and Tommy
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Ensemble
Notes
§: omitted from the 1950 film version
"Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both Betty Hutton and Judy Garland.
"Take It in Your Stride" was a solo for Annie written for the original production. It was replaced by a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" when Merman found the number too difficult. It was recorded by Liz Larsen for the album Lost in Boston.
1999 revival
Act I
"There's No Business Like Show Business" - Frank, Dolly, Winnie and Company
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie
"I'll Share It All With You" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Kids, Ensemble Trio
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and Young Men
Finale: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun (Reprise)" - Annie
Act II
Entr'acte: The European Tour — Annie and Company
"I Got Lost In His Arms" — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie, Frank and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revision, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the 1999 revival
Productions
Original productions
Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946, and ran for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, the show starred Ethel Merman as Annie, Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, Lea Penman as Dolly Tate, Art Bernett as Foster Wilson, Harry Bellaver as Chief Sitting Bull, Kenneth Bowers as Tommy Keeler, Marty May as Charlie Davenport, Warren Berlinger as the Little Boy and William O'Neal as Buffalo Bill.
The musical toured the U.S. from October 3, 1947, starting in Dallas, Texas, with Mary Martin as Annie. This tour also played Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin stayed with the tour until mid-1948.
The show had its West End premiere on June 7, 1947, at the London Coliseum where it ran for 1,304 performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Frank.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on July 19, 1947. It starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank.
A French version, Annie du Far-West, starring Marcel Merkes and Lily Fayol, began production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 19, 1950, and ran for over a year.
1958 Broadway revival
The first Broadway revival was staged in 1958 at the New York City Center, directed by Donald Burr and produced by Jean Dalrymple, director of the NYCC Light Opera Company. This production opened on February 19, 1958, and ran until March 2, for 16 performances. Betty Jane Watson played the role of Annie with David Atkinson as Frank, Margaret Hamilton as Dolly, James Rennie as Chief Buffalo Bill, and Jack Whiting as Charles Davenport. Included in the cast was Harry Bellaver, reprising his original role of Chief Sitting Bull. The program didn't list the performer who was to play Annie, and instead a "to-be-announced" statement was substituted for the name. At the last minute, Watson signed for the role. Even the program for the second week of the two-week engagement didn't list her name, except as understudy; this was the first time in memory that a leading performer wasn't listed.
1966 Broadway revival
The show had its second Broadway revival in 1966 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center. This production opened on May 31, 1966, and ran until July 9, followed by a short 10-week U.S. Tour. It returned to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on September 21 for 78 performances. Ethel Merman reprised her original role as Annie with Bruce Yarnell as Frank, Benay Venuta as Dolly, and Jerry Orbach as Charles Davenport. The libretto and score were revised: The secondary romance between Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate was completely eliminated, including their songs "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", and the song "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was specially written for the revival and added to the second act. This version of the show is available for licensing for amateur performances. This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19, 1967, and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s to be telecast.
1973 Shady Grove Music Fair production
Jay Harnick directed a revival at the Shady Grove Music Fair starring Barbara Eden, John Bennett Perry and Sandra Peabody that ran from 1973 to 1974.
1976 Mexican production
In 1976 a Spanish-language version was produced in Mexico City with the name of Annie es un tiro. It was directed by José Luis Ibáñez and starred by Mexican film star Silvia Pinal. The production was represented at the Teatro Hidalgo and was co starred by the actor and singer Manuel López Ochoa. The success of the production produced the first Spanish-language version of the musical's soundtrack.
1977 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production
In 1977, Gower Champion directed a revival for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera starring Debbie Reynolds as Annie. The Assistant Director was James Mitchell. Harve Presnell, Reynolds's former co-star in the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Frank Butler. The cast featured Art Lund as Buffalo Bill, Bibi Osterwald as Dolly Tate, Gavin MacLeod as Charlie Davenport,
Peter Bruni as Foster Wilson, Don Potter as Pawnee Bill, and Manu Tupou as Sitting Bull. The cast also included Trey Wilson and Debbie Shapiro. The production later toured various North American cities, but never ran on Broadway, its planned destination.
1986 UK tour and London revival
In 1986, a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production, with American rock star Suzi Quatro as Annie and Eric Flynn as Frank, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre. It moved to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and then to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it played from July 29 to October 4. The cast recorded an album, Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast and Quatro's songs "I Got Lost in His Arms"/"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" were released as a single. Since then "I Got Lost in His Arms" has also been included in the compilation albums The Divas Collection (2003) and Songs from the Greatest Musicals (2008).
1992 London revival
A short-lived London production ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, starring Kim Criswell as Annie. Criswell's studio cast recording of the show - made with Thomas Hampson and conductor John McGlinn - provided the impetus for the production. Pippa Ailion was the Casting Director for this production.
1999 Broadway revival
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998, to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999, at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001, after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.
This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreography by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
Notable replacements
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999, until January 16, 2000. Peters and Wopat left the show on September 2, 2000. Former Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd made her Broadway debut as Annie on September 6, 2000, with Patrick Cassidy as Frank Butler. Country music singer Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut as Annie from January 26, 2001, to June 22, 2001, opposite Brent Barrett as Frank. On June 23, 2001, former Wings star Crystal Bernard, who had been playing Annie in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, assumed the role of Annie in the Broadway production, with Tom Wopat returning as Frank Butler.
2000 U.S. tour
The 1999 Broadway production, in a "slightly revised version", toured in a U.S. national tour starting in Dallas, Texas, on July 25, 2000, with Marilu Henner and Rex Smith. Tom Wopat joined the tour in late October 2000, replacing Smith.
2006 Prince Music Theater production
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater version for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate, and Arthur Ryan as Sitting Bull. The production was well received by critics. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison, Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington.
2009 London revival
Jane Horrocks, Julian Ovenden and director Richard Jones mounted a major London revival at the Young Vic, Waterloo. The show opened at the off west end venue on October 16, 2009, initially booking until January 2, 2010, but with an extra week added due to popular demand. The production featured new arrangements by Jason Carr for a band consisting four pianos. London's Guardian newspaper awarded the show 5 stars, claiming that "Richard Jones's brilliant production offers the wittiest musical staging London has seen in years."
2010 Ravinia Festival concert
A concert staging of the original version of Annie Get Your Gun took place at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago from August 13–15, 2010 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley's birth. Directed by Lonny Price, the concert starred Patti LuPone as Annie, Patrick Cassidy as Frank and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill. The concert received unanimously strong reviews, notably for LuPone and Price's direction.
Other major productions
Lucie Arnaz starred in a production in the summer of 1978 with Harve Presnell at the Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. This was the first major production of the musical done in the New York area after the 1966 revival.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced a well-reviewed production in June 1987 starring Judy Kaye as Annie and Richard White as Frank.
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2014 Carter Calvert and David Weitzer starred in a production that opened the Algonquin Arts Theatre's 2014-2015 Broadway Season. It was also the first show to be performed after the Algonquin underwent the task of installing new seating which had not been done since 1938.
In October 2015, a two night concert version was presented at the New York City Center Gala starring Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) and Andy Karl (Frank Butler). The concerts are directed by John Rando, and the cast features Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate), Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill), Brad Oscar (Charlie) and Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill).
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. Although MGM purchased the rights to the film version with an announced intention of starring legendary singer-actress Judy Garland as Annie, early work on the film was plagued with difficulties, some attributed to Garland's health. Garland was fired and replaced by the brassier, blonde Betty Hutton.
In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC. The Mary Martin version has been re-broadcast sporadically over the years, but the 1967 videotapes starring Ethel Merman have apparently been irretrievably lost. Only a video and audio clip of "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" is known to exist, as does an audio-only recording of the entire 90-minute show.
Recordings
There are several recordings of the Annie Get Your Gun score, including:
1946 Original Broadway Cast: an original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1946, featuring the cast of the original 1946 Broadway production. The principal stars were Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. The album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
1957 TV Cast: a recording based on the TV version shown in 1957, with Mary Martin and John Raitt.
1963 Studio Cast featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet: not based on a theatre production.
1966 Broadway Revival Cast
1976 Spanish-language version with Mexican cast.
1986 1986 London Cast
1991 Studio Cast: Kim Criswell (Annie), Thomas Hampson (Frank), Jason Graae (Tommy), Rebecca Luker (Winnie), David Garrison (Charlie), David Healy (Buffalo Bill), Alfred Marks (Sitting Bull), Gregory Jbara (Foster Wilson) Simon Green (Pawnee Bill), Peta Bartlett (Dolly), Kerry Potter, Hayley Spencer, Emma Long (Annie's sisters: Minnie, Jessie Nellie), Paul Keating (Annie's brother: Little Jake), Nick Curtis, Carey Wilson, Michael Pearn (Trainman, Waiter, Porter), Clare Buckfield (Small Girl), John McGlinn (Mac), Bruce Ogston (An Indian), Ambrosian Singers, London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn. Producer: Simon Woods; Balance Engineer: John Kurlander; Editor Matthew Cocker; Production Assistant: Alison Fox. Recorded July 1990, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. CD: EMI CDC 7 54206 2.
1999 Broadway Revival Cast (Grammy Award)
Conductor John Owen Edwards along with JAY Records recorded the first-ever complete recording, with all musical numbers, scene change music and incidental music, of the show's score in the 1990s with Judy Kaye and Barry Bostwick. Christopher Lee had the role of Sitting Bull.
Reception
The original Broadway production opened to favorable reviews. Critics unanimously praised Ethel Merman's performance as Annie Oakley, though some thought the score and book were not particularly distinguished. John Chapman of the Daily News declared that the production had "good lyrics and tunes by Irving Berlin...[and] the razzle-dazzle atmosphere of a big-time show" but pronounced Merman the best part of the show, stating "She is a better comedienne than she ever was before", stating that "Annie is a good, standard, lavish, big musical and I'm sure it will be a huge success--but it isn't the greatest show in the world". Louis Kronenberger of PM stated that the show was 'in many ways routine", but greatly praised Merman's performance, opining, "For me, Annie is mainly Miss Merman's show, though the rest of it is competent enough of its kind...Irving Berlin's score is musically not exciting--of the real songs, only one or two are tuneful".
Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun declared, "The big news about Annie Get Your Gun is that it reveals Ethel Merman in her best form since Anything Goes...She shouts the Berlin music with good effect. She often comes to the aid of a sagging book". He stated, "Irving Berlin's score is not a notable one, but his tunes are singable and pleasant and his lyrics are particularly good. The book? It's on the flimsy side, definitely. And rather witless too". Lewis Nichols of The New York Times said, "It has a pleasant score by Irving Berlin...and it has Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters. The colors are pretty, the dancing is amiable and unaffected, and Broadway by this time is well used to a book which doesn't get anywhere in particular".
However, the show itself was greatly lauded by some critics: Vernon Rice of the New York Post proclaimed, "Irving Berlin has outdone himself this time. No use trying to pick a hit tune, for all the tunes are hits...Ethel Merman is at her lusty, free and easy best...She is now able to develop a consistent characterization and stay with it to the show's end. And when she opens her mouth to sing, she sings!" William Hawkins of the New York World-Telegram said that Merman was "bright as a whip, sure as her shooting, and generously the foremost lady clown of her time" and asserted that the show itself was comparable to those of Rodgers and Hammerstein, proclaiming, "For verve and buoyancy, unslackening, there has seldom if ever been a show like it...the girls in Annie have the beauty and character of looks one associates with a Rodgers and Hammerstein show. And the production has in every way the distinction that has become their hallmark".
Historians have viewed the show as inaccurate, citing among other reasons its portrayal of Annie as a loud, boisterous character, when in reality she had a quiet personality and did needlepoint in her spare time.
Redface
Native Americans have criticized the shows portrayal of Redface and promotion of cultural stereotypes. Particularly in the song "I'm an Indian Too" sung by Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.
Native Americans did protest outside the New York theatre, as well as movie theaters, holding picket signs stating: "Don't See "Annie Get Your Gun". As a result of this reaction, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.
Awards and nominations
Mary Martin received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for "Spreading Theatre to the Country While the Originals Perform in New York" (1947-48 US Tour)
1966 Broadway revival
1999 Broadway revival
2009 London revival
Notes
References
Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Kantor, Michael, and Maslon, Laurence (2004). Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bullfinch Press.
Nolan, Frederick (2002). The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Cambridge, Mass.: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. .
Suskin, Stephen (1990). Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schrimmer Books. .
Annie Get Your Gun plot summary & character descriptions from StageAgent.com
The Judy Garland Online Discography "Annie Get Your Gun" pages.
Listing at the RNH site
1999 Revival at RNH
'Annie Get Your Gun' Story, Cast, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre.com
External links
(Mary Martin)
(Ethel Merman)
Curtain Up reviews from 2/8/01 and 3/9/99
1946 musicals
1950s American television specials
1957 in American television
1957 television films
1960s American television specials
1967 in American television
1967 television films
1967 films
American television films
American films
Broadway musicals
Cultural depictions of Annie Oakley
Cultural depictions of Buffalo Bill
Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull
Musicals by Herbert Fields
Musicals by Irving Berlin
Musicals inspired by real-life events
Musical television films
Plays set in the 19th century
Plays set in the United States
West End musicals
Tony Award-winning musicals
| false |
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"GCH Palacegarden Malachy (24 January 2008 – 24 November 2017), also known as Malachy, was a male Pekingese who was named Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 2012 after reaching the Best in Show round in 2011. He was also the second ranked dog in the United States in 2011.\n\nShow career \nMalachy won his Best of Breed category for the first time in 2011. He went on to win the Toy Group as well, qualifying for the Best in Show round. However he lost out on the Best in Show title to Scottish Deerhound Foxcliffe Hickory Wind.\n\nEntering Westminster once more in 2012, he again won both his breed and the Toy Group (the runner up, an Affenpinscher named Banana Joe V Tani Kazari, was also the 2011 runner-up for the Toy Group, but would become famous as the following year's Best in Show). A series of upsets in breed judging prevented a number of early favourites from joining Malachy in the later rounds. These eliminations included the Cocker Spaniel Casablanca's Thrilling Seduction, aka \"Beckham\", who was the number one dog in America during 2011. He went into the Best in Show round as the favorite for the title, with odds of 6–1.\n\nHe was judged Best in Show over the other dogs on display by judge Cindy Vogels. His prize was a silver bowl, but no prize money. Vogels said of the dog, \"He’s a super dog who had a stupendous night\".\n\nMalachy was a crowd favorite during the judging. But following Malachy's win a large volume of negative commentary was posted online on Twitter, where viewers felt that the other dogs in the Best in Show round were robbed. In addition, he was compared to a troll doll, a mop, a wookiee, and Nicole \"Snooki\" Polizzi from TV show Jersey Shore.\n\nThe Westminster 2012 title was the 115th Best in Show title won by Malachy, and his last. He is to retire to live with David Fitzpatrick, his co-owner and handler. Malachy's grandson Wasabi won Best in Show at the 2021 Westminster Kennel Club dog show with David Fitzpatrick.\n\nSee also \n List of Best in Show winners of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n List of American Kennel Club Titles and Abbreviations for Championship Dogs\n\n2008 animal births\nBest in Show winners of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show",
"The Royal Canberra Show is an agricultural show that has been staged annually in Canberra since 1927 by the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society. The show has agriculture at its core, but it has expanded with the addition of rides, competitions and educational facilities. It is said that this is where \"city meets country\" and \"country meets city\".\n\nHistory\n\nThe Royal Canberra Show can trace its origins back to the first events organised by the Ginninderra Farmers' Union, which was formed in 1905. At first, it ran sporting events at Ginninderra, including ploughing matches, but in 1909 it held its first annual agricultural show. These shows were discontinued because of the First World War, despite the 1915 event being attended by 1,200 people and raising much-needed funds for the war effort. One of the driving forces, from the days of the Ginninderra Farmers' Union until 1944, was the Ginninderra blacksmith, Harry Curran, father of Babe Curran of Deasland, the district's preeminent wool grower. The Advance Hall and District Association organised a small district show in 1924 and 1925. The show of 1927 is officially recognised by the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society as the \"inaugural\" Canberra Show. The show continued to grow: the first two-day show was held in 1931, and the 1932 show was opened by Prime Minister J.A. Lyons. After a hiatus in the Second World War, the show resumed with the support of leading sheep breeder Sir Walter Merriman. In 1964, the show moved to its permanent home at the Canberra Showground. The Show was given \"Royal\" status in 1979.\n\nThe number of people who enter their livestock and other agricultural goods into the various competitions has increased, reflecting the significant role the Show plays in the development of the skills and excellence of those who live in the surrounding region, according to the Royal Canberra Show website. \n\nIn 2012, the show marked the International Year of the Farmer.\n\nThe 2021 Show, scheduled tor late February, was cancelled in November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the first cancellation since World War 2.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\nEvents in Canberra\nCanberra\n1927 establishments in Australia\nAnnual events in Australia\nFestivals established in 1927\nSummer events in Australia"
] |
[
"Annie Get Your Gun (musical)",
"1999 Broadway revival",
"When is the brodadway revival",
"new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999.",
"Is it a movie",
"Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001",
"what is it about",
"was structured as a \"show-within-a-show\", set as a Big Top travelling circus. \"Frank Butler\" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters,",
"when do they used to have the show",
"I don't know.",
"who perticipate in the show",
"This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun,"
] |
C_181903b43ebf4af8bf4f87ebdf12b8ac_0
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was it a success
| 6 |
Was the 1999 Broadway Revival of Annie Get Your Gun a success?
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Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
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In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances. This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie. CANNOTANSWER
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Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
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Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)".
History and background
Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose the music; Fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother Herbert would write the book. Kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in Hollywood, returned to New York on November 2, 1945, to begin work on the score to Annie Get Your Gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Kern was hospitalized, and he died on November 11, 1945. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the musical's score; Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his songs. Berlin initially declined to write the score, worrying that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes in "a situation show". Hammerstein persuaded him to study the script and try writing some songs based on it, and within days, Berlin returned with the songs "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". Berlin's songs suited the story and Ethel Merman's abilities, and he readily composed the rest of the score to Annie Get Your Gun. The show's eventual hit song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show because Berlin mistakenly got the impression that Richard Rodgers did not like it. In imitation of the structure of Oklahoma! a secondary romance between two of the members of the Wild West Show was added to the musical during its development.
According to some sources, the role of Annie was originally offered to Mary Martin, who turned it down. This is not true. Dorothy Fields went to the hospital after Ethel Merman gave birth to her son to ask her if she would do the show. The show was conceived for Ethel Merman. When time came to send out the post-Broadway national tour and Merman was unwilling to do it, Martin jumped at the chance, going on the road for approximately two years and belting out the songs, which had the effect of lowering her voice from its normal lyric-coloratura range to mezzo-soprano-alto.
For the 1999 revival, Peter Stone revised the libretto, eliminating what were considered insensitive references to American Indians, including the songs "Colonel Buffalo Bill" and "I'm An Indian Too". Stone said, "The big challenge is taking a book that was wonderfully crafted for its time and make it wonderfully crafted for our time... It was terribly insensitive...to Indians.... But it had to be dealt with in a way that was heartfelt and not obvious... In this case, it was with the permission of the heirs. They're terribly pleased with it." Stone also altered the structure of the musical, beginning it with "There's No Business Like Show Business" and presenting the musical as a "show within a show".
Plot summary
Act I
When the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West show visits Cincinnati, Ohio ("Colonel Buffalo Bill"), Frank Butler, the show's handsome, womanizing star ("I'm a Bad, Bad, Man"), challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Foster Wilson, a local hotel owner, doesn't appreciate the Wild West show taking over his hotel, so Frank gives him a side bet of one hundred dollars on the match. Annie Oakley enters and shoots a bird off Dolly Tate's hat, and then explains her simple backwoods ways to Wilson with the help of her siblings ("Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"). When Wilson learns she's a brilliant shot, he enters her in the shooting match against Frank Butler.
While waiting for the match to start, Annie meets Frank Butler and is instantly smitten with him, not knowing he will be her opponent. When she asks Frank if he likes her, Frank explains that the girl he wants will "wear satin... and smell of cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"). The rough and naive Annie comically laments that "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun". At the shooting match, Annie finds out that Frank is the "big swollen-headed stiff" from the Wild West show. She wins the contest, and Buffalo Bill and Charlie Davenport, the show's manager, invite Annie to join the Wild West Show. Annie agrees because she loves Frank even though she has no idea what "show business" is. Frank, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill explain that "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Over the course of working together, Frank becomes enamored of the plain-spoken, honest, tomboyish Annie and, as they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a train, he explains to her what "love" is ("They Say It's Wonderful"). Buffalo Bill and Charlie discover that their rival, Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while the Wild West show plays in nearby Minneapolis. They ask Annie to do a special shooting stunt on a motorcycle to draw Pawnee Bill's business away. Annie agrees because the trick will surprise Frank. She sings her siblings to sleep with the "Moonshine Lullaby".
As Annie and Frank prepare for the show, Frank plans to propose to Annie after the show and then ruefully admits that "My Defenses Are Down". When Annie performs her trick and becomes a star, Chief Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe ("I'm An Indian Too"). Hurt and angry, Frank walks out on Annie and the show, joining the competing Pawnee Bill's show.
Act II
Returning to New York from a tour of Europe with the Buffalo Bill show, Annie learns that the show has gone broke. Sitting Bull, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill plot to merge Buffalo Bill's show with Pawnee Bill's as they believe that show is doing well financially. Annie, now well-dressed and more refined and worldly, still longs for Frank ("I Got Lost in His Arms").
At a grand reception for Buffalo Bill's troupe at the Hotel Brevoort, Pawnee Bill, Dolly, and Frank also plot a merger of the two companies, assuming Buffalo Bill's show made a fortune touring Europe. When they all meet, they soon discover both shows are broke. Annie, however, has received sharpshooting medals from all the rulers of Europe worth one hundred thousand dollars, and she decides to sell the medals to finance the merger, rejoicing in the simple things ("I Got the Sun in the Mornin'"). When Frank appears, he and Annie confess their love and decide to marry, although with comically different ideas: Frank wants "some little chapel", while Annie wants "A wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls/ A lot of ushers in tail coats/ Reporters and photographers" ("An Old-Fashioned Wedding"o). When Annie shows Frank her medals, Frank again has his pride hurt. They call off the merger and the wedding, but challenge each other to one last shooting match to decide who is the best shot.
On the ferry to the Governors Island match site, Dolly attempts to ruin Annie's chances by tampering with her guns. She is caught and stopped by Sitting Bull and Charlie. However, they then decide to follow through with Dolly's plan so that Annie will lose the match, knowing that would soothe Frank's ego allowing the two to reconcile and the merger to take place.
As the match is ready to begin, Annie and Frank's egos come out again with each claiming they are better than the other ("Anything You Can Do"). Sitting Bull convinces Annie to deliberately lose the match to Frank, reminding her that she "can't get a man with a gun." That done, Frank and Annie finally reconcile, deciding to marry and merge the shows.
Notes:
This description is based on the 1966 revised book.
In the 1999 book, Frank also deliberately misses his shots in the final match, which ends in a tie.
o written for 1966 revision and included in 1999 Broadway Revival; not in the original production
§ omitted from the 1999 Broadway Revival
Notable Casts
Notes
Characters
Annie Oakley—a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
Frank Butler—the Wild West show's star
Dolly Tate—Frank's flamboyant assistant; Winnie's sister (Charlie's sister in the 1966 version)
Buffalo Bill—owner of the Wild West show
Chief Sitting Bull—Sioux chief and holy man; Annie's protector
Tommy Keeler§—knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American (not in the '66 version)
Charlie Davenport—manager of the Wild West show
Winnie Tate§—Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act (not in the '66 version)
Pawnee Bill—owner of a competing western show
Foster Wilson—hotel owner
Little Boy-show opens on him
Annie's brothers and sisters: Jessie, Nellie, Little Jake, and Minnie (Minnie was written out of the 1999 revival)
Notes
§Tommy and Winnie and their songs were written out of the film & 1966 revision. The 1999 revival restored their characters and songs.
Musical numbers
Original 1946 production
Act I
Overture — Orchestra
"Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie Davenport, Dolly Tate, and ensemble
"I'm a Bad, Bad Man" — Frank Butler
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie Oakley and her siblings
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie, Annie, and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"Moonshine Lullaby" § — Annie and siblings
"I'll Share It All With You" — Winnie Tate and Tommy Keeler
"Ballyhoo" — Riding Mistress and Show People
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and ensemble
"Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance" — Wild Horse, Indian Braves and Maidens
"I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie and ensemble
Adoption Dance — Annie, Wild Horse and Braves
Act II
Entr'acte — Orchestra
"I Got Lost In His Arms" § — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope?" — Winnie and Tommy
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Ensemble
Notes
§: omitted from the 1950 film version
"Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both Betty Hutton and Judy Garland.
"Take It in Your Stride" was a solo for Annie written for the original production. It was replaced by a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" when Merman found the number too difficult. It was recorded by Liz Larsen for the album Lost in Boston.
1999 revival
Act I
"There's No Business Like Show Business" - Frank, Dolly, Winnie and Company
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie
"I'll Share It All With You" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Kids, Ensemble Trio
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and Young Men
Finale: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun (Reprise)" - Annie
Act II
Entr'acte: The European Tour — Annie and Company
"I Got Lost In His Arms" — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie, Frank and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revision, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the 1999 revival
Productions
Original productions
Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946, and ran for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, the show starred Ethel Merman as Annie, Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, Lea Penman as Dolly Tate, Art Bernett as Foster Wilson, Harry Bellaver as Chief Sitting Bull, Kenneth Bowers as Tommy Keeler, Marty May as Charlie Davenport, Warren Berlinger as the Little Boy and William O'Neal as Buffalo Bill.
The musical toured the U.S. from October 3, 1947, starting in Dallas, Texas, with Mary Martin as Annie. This tour also played Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin stayed with the tour until mid-1948.
The show had its West End premiere on June 7, 1947, at the London Coliseum where it ran for 1,304 performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Frank.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on July 19, 1947. It starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank.
A French version, Annie du Far-West, starring Marcel Merkes and Lily Fayol, began production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 19, 1950, and ran for over a year.
1958 Broadway revival
The first Broadway revival was staged in 1958 at the New York City Center, directed by Donald Burr and produced by Jean Dalrymple, director of the NYCC Light Opera Company. This production opened on February 19, 1958, and ran until March 2, for 16 performances. Betty Jane Watson played the role of Annie with David Atkinson as Frank, Margaret Hamilton as Dolly, James Rennie as Chief Buffalo Bill, and Jack Whiting as Charles Davenport. Included in the cast was Harry Bellaver, reprising his original role of Chief Sitting Bull. The program didn't list the performer who was to play Annie, and instead a "to-be-announced" statement was substituted for the name. At the last minute, Watson signed for the role. Even the program for the second week of the two-week engagement didn't list her name, except as understudy; this was the first time in memory that a leading performer wasn't listed.
1966 Broadway revival
The show had its second Broadway revival in 1966 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center. This production opened on May 31, 1966, and ran until July 9, followed by a short 10-week U.S. Tour. It returned to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on September 21 for 78 performances. Ethel Merman reprised her original role as Annie with Bruce Yarnell as Frank, Benay Venuta as Dolly, and Jerry Orbach as Charles Davenport. The libretto and score were revised: The secondary romance between Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate was completely eliminated, including their songs "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", and the song "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was specially written for the revival and added to the second act. This version of the show is available for licensing for amateur performances. This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19, 1967, and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s to be telecast.
1973 Shady Grove Music Fair production
Jay Harnick directed a revival at the Shady Grove Music Fair starring Barbara Eden, John Bennett Perry and Sandra Peabody that ran from 1973 to 1974.
1976 Mexican production
In 1976 a Spanish-language version was produced in Mexico City with the name of Annie es un tiro. It was directed by José Luis Ibáñez and starred by Mexican film star Silvia Pinal. The production was represented at the Teatro Hidalgo and was co starred by the actor and singer Manuel López Ochoa. The success of the production produced the first Spanish-language version of the musical's soundtrack.
1977 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production
In 1977, Gower Champion directed a revival for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera starring Debbie Reynolds as Annie. The Assistant Director was James Mitchell. Harve Presnell, Reynolds's former co-star in the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Frank Butler. The cast featured Art Lund as Buffalo Bill, Bibi Osterwald as Dolly Tate, Gavin MacLeod as Charlie Davenport,
Peter Bruni as Foster Wilson, Don Potter as Pawnee Bill, and Manu Tupou as Sitting Bull. The cast also included Trey Wilson and Debbie Shapiro. The production later toured various North American cities, but never ran on Broadway, its planned destination.
1986 UK tour and London revival
In 1986, a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production, with American rock star Suzi Quatro as Annie and Eric Flynn as Frank, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre. It moved to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and then to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it played from July 29 to October 4. The cast recorded an album, Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast and Quatro's songs "I Got Lost in His Arms"/"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" were released as a single. Since then "I Got Lost in His Arms" has also been included in the compilation albums The Divas Collection (2003) and Songs from the Greatest Musicals (2008).
1992 London revival
A short-lived London production ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, starring Kim Criswell as Annie. Criswell's studio cast recording of the show - made with Thomas Hampson and conductor John McGlinn - provided the impetus for the production. Pippa Ailion was the Casting Director for this production.
1999 Broadway revival
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998, to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999, at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001, after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.
This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreography by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
Notable replacements
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999, until January 16, 2000. Peters and Wopat left the show on September 2, 2000. Former Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd made her Broadway debut as Annie on September 6, 2000, with Patrick Cassidy as Frank Butler. Country music singer Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut as Annie from January 26, 2001, to June 22, 2001, opposite Brent Barrett as Frank. On June 23, 2001, former Wings star Crystal Bernard, who had been playing Annie in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, assumed the role of Annie in the Broadway production, with Tom Wopat returning as Frank Butler.
2000 U.S. tour
The 1999 Broadway production, in a "slightly revised version", toured in a U.S. national tour starting in Dallas, Texas, on July 25, 2000, with Marilu Henner and Rex Smith. Tom Wopat joined the tour in late October 2000, replacing Smith.
2006 Prince Music Theater production
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater version for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate, and Arthur Ryan as Sitting Bull. The production was well received by critics. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison, Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington.
2009 London revival
Jane Horrocks, Julian Ovenden and director Richard Jones mounted a major London revival at the Young Vic, Waterloo. The show opened at the off west end venue on October 16, 2009, initially booking until January 2, 2010, but with an extra week added due to popular demand. The production featured new arrangements by Jason Carr for a band consisting four pianos. London's Guardian newspaper awarded the show 5 stars, claiming that "Richard Jones's brilliant production offers the wittiest musical staging London has seen in years."
2010 Ravinia Festival concert
A concert staging of the original version of Annie Get Your Gun took place at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago from August 13–15, 2010 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley's birth. Directed by Lonny Price, the concert starred Patti LuPone as Annie, Patrick Cassidy as Frank and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill. The concert received unanimously strong reviews, notably for LuPone and Price's direction.
Other major productions
Lucie Arnaz starred in a production in the summer of 1978 with Harve Presnell at the Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. This was the first major production of the musical done in the New York area after the 1966 revival.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced a well-reviewed production in June 1987 starring Judy Kaye as Annie and Richard White as Frank.
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2014 Carter Calvert and David Weitzer starred in a production that opened the Algonquin Arts Theatre's 2014-2015 Broadway Season. It was also the first show to be performed after the Algonquin underwent the task of installing new seating which had not been done since 1938.
In October 2015, a two night concert version was presented at the New York City Center Gala starring Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) and Andy Karl (Frank Butler). The concerts are directed by John Rando, and the cast features Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate), Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill), Brad Oscar (Charlie) and Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill).
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. Although MGM purchased the rights to the film version with an announced intention of starring legendary singer-actress Judy Garland as Annie, early work on the film was plagued with difficulties, some attributed to Garland's health. Garland was fired and replaced by the brassier, blonde Betty Hutton.
In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC. The Mary Martin version has been re-broadcast sporadically over the years, but the 1967 videotapes starring Ethel Merman have apparently been irretrievably lost. Only a video and audio clip of "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" is known to exist, as does an audio-only recording of the entire 90-minute show.
Recordings
There are several recordings of the Annie Get Your Gun score, including:
1946 Original Broadway Cast: an original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1946, featuring the cast of the original 1946 Broadway production. The principal stars were Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. The album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
1957 TV Cast: a recording based on the TV version shown in 1957, with Mary Martin and John Raitt.
1963 Studio Cast featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet: not based on a theatre production.
1966 Broadway Revival Cast
1976 Spanish-language version with Mexican cast.
1986 1986 London Cast
1991 Studio Cast: Kim Criswell (Annie), Thomas Hampson (Frank), Jason Graae (Tommy), Rebecca Luker (Winnie), David Garrison (Charlie), David Healy (Buffalo Bill), Alfred Marks (Sitting Bull), Gregory Jbara (Foster Wilson) Simon Green (Pawnee Bill), Peta Bartlett (Dolly), Kerry Potter, Hayley Spencer, Emma Long (Annie's sisters: Minnie, Jessie Nellie), Paul Keating (Annie's brother: Little Jake), Nick Curtis, Carey Wilson, Michael Pearn (Trainman, Waiter, Porter), Clare Buckfield (Small Girl), John McGlinn (Mac), Bruce Ogston (An Indian), Ambrosian Singers, London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn. Producer: Simon Woods; Balance Engineer: John Kurlander; Editor Matthew Cocker; Production Assistant: Alison Fox. Recorded July 1990, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. CD: EMI CDC 7 54206 2.
1999 Broadway Revival Cast (Grammy Award)
Conductor John Owen Edwards along with JAY Records recorded the first-ever complete recording, with all musical numbers, scene change music and incidental music, of the show's score in the 1990s with Judy Kaye and Barry Bostwick. Christopher Lee had the role of Sitting Bull.
Reception
The original Broadway production opened to favorable reviews. Critics unanimously praised Ethel Merman's performance as Annie Oakley, though some thought the score and book were not particularly distinguished. John Chapman of the Daily News declared that the production had "good lyrics and tunes by Irving Berlin...[and] the razzle-dazzle atmosphere of a big-time show" but pronounced Merman the best part of the show, stating "She is a better comedienne than she ever was before", stating that "Annie is a good, standard, lavish, big musical and I'm sure it will be a huge success--but it isn't the greatest show in the world". Louis Kronenberger of PM stated that the show was 'in many ways routine", but greatly praised Merman's performance, opining, "For me, Annie is mainly Miss Merman's show, though the rest of it is competent enough of its kind...Irving Berlin's score is musically not exciting--of the real songs, only one or two are tuneful".
Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun declared, "The big news about Annie Get Your Gun is that it reveals Ethel Merman in her best form since Anything Goes...She shouts the Berlin music with good effect. She often comes to the aid of a sagging book". He stated, "Irving Berlin's score is not a notable one, but his tunes are singable and pleasant and his lyrics are particularly good. The book? It's on the flimsy side, definitely. And rather witless too". Lewis Nichols of The New York Times said, "It has a pleasant score by Irving Berlin...and it has Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters. The colors are pretty, the dancing is amiable and unaffected, and Broadway by this time is well used to a book which doesn't get anywhere in particular".
However, the show itself was greatly lauded by some critics: Vernon Rice of the New York Post proclaimed, "Irving Berlin has outdone himself this time. No use trying to pick a hit tune, for all the tunes are hits...Ethel Merman is at her lusty, free and easy best...She is now able to develop a consistent characterization and stay with it to the show's end. And when she opens her mouth to sing, she sings!" William Hawkins of the New York World-Telegram said that Merman was "bright as a whip, sure as her shooting, and generously the foremost lady clown of her time" and asserted that the show itself was comparable to those of Rodgers and Hammerstein, proclaiming, "For verve and buoyancy, unslackening, there has seldom if ever been a show like it...the girls in Annie have the beauty and character of looks one associates with a Rodgers and Hammerstein show. And the production has in every way the distinction that has become their hallmark".
Historians have viewed the show as inaccurate, citing among other reasons its portrayal of Annie as a loud, boisterous character, when in reality she had a quiet personality and did needlepoint in her spare time.
Redface
Native Americans have criticized the shows portrayal of Redface and promotion of cultural stereotypes. Particularly in the song "I'm an Indian Too" sung by Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.
Native Americans did protest outside the New York theatre, as well as movie theaters, holding picket signs stating: "Don't See "Annie Get Your Gun". As a result of this reaction, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.
Awards and nominations
Mary Martin received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for "Spreading Theatre to the Country While the Originals Perform in New York" (1947-48 US Tour)
1966 Broadway revival
1999 Broadway revival
2009 London revival
Notes
References
Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Kantor, Michael, and Maslon, Laurence (2004). Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bullfinch Press.
Nolan, Frederick (2002). The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Cambridge, Mass.: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. .
Suskin, Stephen (1990). Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schrimmer Books. .
Annie Get Your Gun plot summary & character descriptions from StageAgent.com
The Judy Garland Online Discography "Annie Get Your Gun" pages.
Listing at the RNH site
1999 Revival at RNH
'Annie Get Your Gun' Story, Cast, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre.com
External links
(Mary Martin)
(Ethel Merman)
Curtain Up reviews from 2/8/01 and 3/9/99
1946 musicals
1950s American television specials
1957 in American television
1957 television films
1960s American television specials
1967 in American television
1967 television films
1967 films
American television films
American films
Broadway musicals
Cultural depictions of Annie Oakley
Cultural depictions of Buffalo Bill
Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull
Musicals by Herbert Fields
Musicals by Irving Berlin
Musicals inspired by real-life events
Musical television films
Plays set in the 19th century
Plays set in the United States
West End musicals
Tony Award-winning musicals
| true |
[
"Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Success, whilst another was planned:\n\n was a 34-gun ship, previously the French ship Jules. She was captured in 1650, renamed HMS Old Success in 1660 and sold in 1662.\n HMS Success was a 24-gun ship launched in 1655 as . She was renamed HMS Success in 1660 and was wrecked in 1680.\n was a 6-gun fireship purchased in 1672 that foundered in 1673.\n was a store hulk purchased in 1692 and sunk as a breakwater in 1707.\n was a 10-gun sloop purchased in 1709 that the French captured in 1710 off Lisbon.\n was a 24-gun storeship launched in 1709, hulked in 1730, and sold in 1748. \n was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1712, converted to a fireship in 1739, and sold in 1743.\n was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1736; her fate is unknown.\n was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1740 and broken up in 1779.\n was a 14-gun ketch launched in 1754. Her fate is unknown.\n was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1781 that the French captured in 1801 but that the British recaptured the same year. She became a convict ship in 1814 and was broken up in 1820.\n was a 3-gun gunvessel, previously in use as a barge. She was purchased in 1797 and sold in 1802.\n was a 28 gun sixth rate launched in 1825, and captained by James Stirling in his journey to Western Australia. She was used for harbour service from 1832 and was broken up 1849.\n HMS Success was to have been a wood screw sloop. She was ordered but not laid down and was cancelled in 1863.\n was a launched in 1901 and wrecked in 1914.\n HMS Success was an launched in 1918. She was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1919 and was sold in 1937.\n was an S-class destroyer launched in 1943. She was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy later that year and renamed . She was broken up in 1959.\n\nSee also\n , two ships of the Royal Australian Navy.\n\nCitations and references\nCitations\n\nReferences\n \n\nRoyal Navy ship names",
"HMAS Success was an Admiralty destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built for the Royal Navy during World War I, the ship was not completed until 1919, and spent less than eight months in British service before being transferred to the RAN at the start of 1920. The destroyer's career was uneventful, with almost all of it spent in Australian waters. Success was decommissioned in 1930, and was sold for ship breaking in 1937.\n\nDesign and construction\n\nSuccess was built to the Admiralty design of the S-class destroyer, which was designed and built as part of the British emergency war programme. The destroyer had a displacement of 1,075 tons, a length of overall and between perpendiculars, and a beam of . The propulsion machinery consisted of three Yarrow boilers feeding Brown-Curtis turbines, which supplied to the ship's two propeller shafts. Success had a maximum speed of , and a range of at . The ship's company was made up of 6 officers and 93 sailors.\n\nThe destroyer's primary armament consisted of three QF 4-inch Mark IV guns. These were supplemented by a 2-pounder pom-pom, two 9.5-inch howitzer bomb throwers, five .303 inch machine guns (a mix of Lewis and Maxim guns), two twin 21-inch torpedo tube sets, two depth charge throwers, and two depth charge chutes.\n\nSuccess was laid down by William Doxford and Sons Limited at their Sunderland shipyard in 1917. The destroyer was launched on 29 June 1918, and completed on 15 April 1919. The ship was briefly commissioned into the Royal Navy in April 1919, but was quickly marked for transfer to the RAN, along with four sister ships. Success was commissioned into the RAN on 27 January 1920.\n\nOperational history\n\nSuccess and three of her sister ships sailed for Australia on 20 February, visiting ports in the Mediterranean, India, Singapore, and the Netherlands East Indies before reaching Sydney on 29 April. Success operated in Australian waters until 6 October 1921, when she was placed in reserve. The destroyer was reactivated on 1 December 1925. In late May 1926, Success visited Port Moresby.\n\nDecommissioning and fate\nSuccess paid off on 21 May 1930. She was sold to Penguins Limited for ship breaking in 1937.\n\nCitations\n\nReferences\n\nS-class destroyers (1917) of the Royal Australian Navy\nShips built on the River Wear\n1918 ships"
] |
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"1999 Broadway revival",
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"new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999.",
"Is it a movie",
"Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001",
"what is it about",
"was structured as a \"show-within-a-show\", set as a Big Top travelling circus. \"Frank Butler\" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters,",
"when do they used to have the show",
"I don't know.",
"who perticipate in the show",
"This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun,",
"was it a success",
"Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical."
] |
C_181903b43ebf4af8bf4f87ebdf12b8ac_0
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what happened in 1999
| 7 |
In regards to Annie Get Your Gun, what happened in 1999?
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Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
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In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances. This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie. CANNOTANSWER
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Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre,
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Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)".
History and background
Dorothy Fields had the idea for a musical about Annie Oakley, to star her friend, Ethel Merman. Producer Mike Todd turned the project down, so Fields approached a new producing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. After the success of their first musical collaboration, Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors. They agreed to produce the musical and asked Jerome Kern to compose the music; Fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother Herbert would write the book. Kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in Hollywood, returned to New York on November 2, 1945, to begin work on the score to Annie Get Your Gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Kern was hospitalized, and he died on November 11, 1945. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the musical's score; Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his songs. Berlin initially declined to write the score, worrying that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes in "a situation show". Hammerstein persuaded him to study the script and try writing some songs based on it, and within days, Berlin returned with the songs "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". Berlin's songs suited the story and Ethel Merman's abilities, and he readily composed the rest of the score to Annie Get Your Gun. The show's eventual hit song, "There's No Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show because Berlin mistakenly got the impression that Richard Rodgers did not like it. In imitation of the structure of Oklahoma! a secondary romance between two of the members of the Wild West Show was added to the musical during its development.
According to some sources, the role of Annie was originally offered to Mary Martin, who turned it down. This is not true. Dorothy Fields went to the hospital after Ethel Merman gave birth to her son to ask her if she would do the show. The show was conceived for Ethel Merman. When time came to send out the post-Broadway national tour and Merman was unwilling to do it, Martin jumped at the chance, going on the road for approximately two years and belting out the songs, which had the effect of lowering her voice from its normal lyric-coloratura range to mezzo-soprano-alto.
For the 1999 revival, Peter Stone revised the libretto, eliminating what were considered insensitive references to American Indians, including the songs "Colonel Buffalo Bill" and "I'm An Indian Too". Stone said, "The big challenge is taking a book that was wonderfully crafted for its time and make it wonderfully crafted for our time... It was terribly insensitive...to Indians.... But it had to be dealt with in a way that was heartfelt and not obvious... In this case, it was with the permission of the heirs. They're terribly pleased with it." Stone also altered the structure of the musical, beginning it with "There's No Business Like Show Business" and presenting the musical as a "show within a show".
Plot summary
Act I
When the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West show visits Cincinnati, Ohio ("Colonel Buffalo Bill"), Frank Butler, the show's handsome, womanizing star ("I'm a Bad, Bad, Man"), challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Foster Wilson, a local hotel owner, doesn't appreciate the Wild West show taking over his hotel, so Frank gives him a side bet of one hundred dollars on the match. Annie Oakley enters and shoots a bird off Dolly Tate's hat, and then explains her simple backwoods ways to Wilson with the help of her siblings ("Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"). When Wilson learns she's a brilliant shot, he enters her in the shooting match against Frank Butler.
While waiting for the match to start, Annie meets Frank Butler and is instantly smitten with him, not knowing he will be her opponent. When she asks Frank if he likes her, Frank explains that the girl he wants will "wear satin... and smell of cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"). The rough and naive Annie comically laments that "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun". At the shooting match, Annie finds out that Frank is the "big swollen-headed stiff" from the Wild West show. She wins the contest, and Buffalo Bill and Charlie Davenport, the show's manager, invite Annie to join the Wild West Show. Annie agrees because she loves Frank even though she has no idea what "show business" is. Frank, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill explain that "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Over the course of working together, Frank becomes enamored of the plain-spoken, honest, tomboyish Annie and, as they travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a train, he explains to her what "love" is ("They Say It's Wonderful"). Buffalo Bill and Charlie discover that their rival, Pawnee Bill's Far East Show, will be playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while the Wild West show plays in nearby Minneapolis. They ask Annie to do a special shooting stunt on a motorcycle to draw Pawnee Bill's business away. Annie agrees because the trick will surprise Frank. She sings her siblings to sleep with the "Moonshine Lullaby".
As Annie and Frank prepare for the show, Frank plans to propose to Annie after the show and then ruefully admits that "My Defenses Are Down". When Annie performs her trick and becomes a star, Chief Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe ("I'm An Indian Too"). Hurt and angry, Frank walks out on Annie and the show, joining the competing Pawnee Bill's show.
Act II
Returning to New York from a tour of Europe with the Buffalo Bill show, Annie learns that the show has gone broke. Sitting Bull, Charlie, and Buffalo Bill plot to merge Buffalo Bill's show with Pawnee Bill's as they believe that show is doing well financially. Annie, now well-dressed and more refined and worldly, still longs for Frank ("I Got Lost in His Arms").
At a grand reception for Buffalo Bill's troupe at the Hotel Brevoort, Pawnee Bill, Dolly, and Frank also plot a merger of the two companies, assuming Buffalo Bill's show made a fortune touring Europe. When they all meet, they soon discover both shows are broke. Annie, however, has received sharpshooting medals from all the rulers of Europe worth one hundred thousand dollars, and she decides to sell the medals to finance the merger, rejoicing in the simple things ("I Got the Sun in the Mornin'"). When Frank appears, he and Annie confess their love and decide to marry, although with comically different ideas: Frank wants "some little chapel", while Annie wants "A wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls/ A lot of ushers in tail coats/ Reporters and photographers" ("An Old-Fashioned Wedding"o). When Annie shows Frank her medals, Frank again has his pride hurt. They call off the merger and the wedding, but challenge each other to one last shooting match to decide who is the best shot.
On the ferry to the Governors Island match site, Dolly attempts to ruin Annie's chances by tampering with her guns. She is caught and stopped by Sitting Bull and Charlie. However, they then decide to follow through with Dolly's plan so that Annie will lose the match, knowing that would soothe Frank's ego allowing the two to reconcile and the merger to take place.
As the match is ready to begin, Annie and Frank's egos come out again with each claiming they are better than the other ("Anything You Can Do"). Sitting Bull convinces Annie to deliberately lose the match to Frank, reminding her that she "can't get a man with a gun." That done, Frank and Annie finally reconcile, deciding to marry and merge the shows.
Notes:
This description is based on the 1966 revised book.
In the 1999 book, Frank also deliberately misses his shots in the final match, which ends in a tie.
o written for 1966 revision and included in 1999 Broadway Revival; not in the original production
§ omitted from the 1999 Broadway Revival
Notable Casts
Notes
Characters
Annie Oakley—a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
Frank Butler—the Wild West show's star
Dolly Tate—Frank's flamboyant assistant; Winnie's sister (Charlie's sister in the 1966 version)
Buffalo Bill—owner of the Wild West show
Chief Sitting Bull—Sioux chief and holy man; Annie's protector
Tommy Keeler§—knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American (not in the '66 version)
Charlie Davenport—manager of the Wild West show
Winnie Tate§—Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act (not in the '66 version)
Pawnee Bill—owner of a competing western show
Foster Wilson—hotel owner
Little Boy-show opens on him
Annie's brothers and sisters: Jessie, Nellie, Little Jake, and Minnie (Minnie was written out of the 1999 revival)
Notes
§Tommy and Winnie and their songs were written out of the film & 1966 revision. The 1999 revival restored their characters and songs.
Musical numbers
Original 1946 production
Act I
Overture — Orchestra
"Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie Davenport, Dolly Tate, and ensemble
"I'm a Bad, Bad Man" — Frank Butler
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie Oakley and her siblings
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie, Annie, and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"Moonshine Lullaby" § — Annie and siblings
"I'll Share It All With You" — Winnie Tate and Tommy Keeler
"Ballyhoo" — Riding Mistress and Show People
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and ensemble
"Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance" — Wild Horse, Indian Braves and Maidens
"I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie and ensemble
Adoption Dance — Annie, Wild Horse and Braves
Act II
Entr'acte — Orchestra
"I Got Lost In His Arms" § — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope?" — Winnie and Tommy
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and ensemble
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Ensemble
Notes
§: omitted from the 1950 film version
"Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both Betty Hutton and Judy Garland.
"Take It in Your Stride" was a solo for Annie written for the original production. It was replaced by a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" when Merman found the number too difficult. It was recorded by Liz Larsen for the album Lost in Boston.
1999 revival
Act I
"There's No Business Like Show Business" - Frank, Dolly, Winnie and Company
"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" — Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson
"The Girl That I Marry" — Frank and Annie
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" — Annie
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie
"I'll Share It All With You" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Kids, Ensemble Trio
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Reprise) — Annie
"They Say It's Wonderful" — Annie and Frank
"My Defenses Are Down" — Frank and Young Men
Finale: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun (Reprise)" - Annie
Act II
Entr'acte: The European Tour — Annie and Company
"I Got Lost In His Arms" — Annie
"Who Do You Love, I Hope" — Tommy, Winnie and Company
"I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" — Annie and Frank
"The Girl That I Marry" (Reprise) — Frank
"Anything You Can Do" — Annie and Frank
"They Say It's Wonderful" (Reprise) — Annie, Frank and Company
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revision, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the 1999 revival
Productions
Original productions
Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946, and ran for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, the show starred Ethel Merman as Annie, Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, Lea Penman as Dolly Tate, Art Bernett as Foster Wilson, Harry Bellaver as Chief Sitting Bull, Kenneth Bowers as Tommy Keeler, Marty May as Charlie Davenport, Warren Berlinger as the Little Boy and William O'Neal as Buffalo Bill.
The musical toured the U.S. from October 3, 1947, starting in Dallas, Texas, with Mary Martin as Annie. This tour also played Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin stayed with the tour until mid-1948.
The show had its West End premiere on June 7, 1947, at the London Coliseum where it ran for 1,304 performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Frank.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on July 19, 1947. It starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank.
A French version, Annie du Far-West, starring Marcel Merkes and Lily Fayol, began production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 19, 1950, and ran for over a year.
1958 Broadway revival
The first Broadway revival was staged in 1958 at the New York City Center, directed by Donald Burr and produced by Jean Dalrymple, director of the NYCC Light Opera Company. This production opened on February 19, 1958, and ran until March 2, for 16 performances. Betty Jane Watson played the role of Annie with David Atkinson as Frank, Margaret Hamilton as Dolly, James Rennie as Chief Buffalo Bill, and Jack Whiting as Charles Davenport. Included in the cast was Harry Bellaver, reprising his original role of Chief Sitting Bull. The program didn't list the performer who was to play Annie, and instead a "to-be-announced" statement was substituted for the name. At the last minute, Watson signed for the role. Even the program for the second week of the two-week engagement didn't list her name, except as understudy; this was the first time in memory that a leading performer wasn't listed.
1966 Broadway revival
The show had its second Broadway revival in 1966 at the Music Theater of Lincoln Center. This production opened on May 31, 1966, and ran until July 9, followed by a short 10-week U.S. Tour. It returned to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on September 21 for 78 performances. Ethel Merman reprised her original role as Annie with Bruce Yarnell as Frank, Benay Venuta as Dolly, and Jerry Orbach as Charles Davenport. The libretto and score were revised: The secondary romance between Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate was completely eliminated, including their songs "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", and the song "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was specially written for the revival and added to the second act. This version of the show is available for licensing for amateur performances. This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19, 1967, and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s to be telecast.
1973 Shady Grove Music Fair production
Jay Harnick directed a revival at the Shady Grove Music Fair starring Barbara Eden, John Bennett Perry and Sandra Peabody that ran from 1973 to 1974.
1976 Mexican production
In 1976 a Spanish-language version was produced in Mexico City with the name of Annie es un tiro. It was directed by José Luis Ibáñez and starred by Mexican film star Silvia Pinal. The production was represented at the Teatro Hidalgo and was co starred by the actor and singer Manuel López Ochoa. The success of the production produced the first Spanish-language version of the musical's soundtrack.
1977 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production
In 1977, Gower Champion directed a revival for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera starring Debbie Reynolds as Annie. The Assistant Director was James Mitchell. Harve Presnell, Reynolds's former co-star in the 1964 film The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played Frank Butler. The cast featured Art Lund as Buffalo Bill, Bibi Osterwald as Dolly Tate, Gavin MacLeod as Charlie Davenport,
Peter Bruni as Foster Wilson, Don Potter as Pawnee Bill, and Manu Tupou as Sitting Bull. The cast also included Trey Wilson and Debbie Shapiro. The production later toured various North American cities, but never ran on Broadway, its planned destination.
1986 UK tour and London revival
In 1986, a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production, with American rock star Suzi Quatro as Annie and Eric Flynn as Frank, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre. It moved to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and then to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it played from July 29 to October 4. The cast recorded an album, Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast and Quatro's songs "I Got Lost in His Arms"/"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" were released as a single. Since then "I Got Lost in His Arms" has also been included in the compilation albums The Divas Collection (2003) and Songs from the Greatest Musicals (2008).
1992 London revival
A short-lived London production ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, starring Kim Criswell as Annie. Criswell's studio cast recording of the show - made with Thomas Hampson and conductor John McGlinn - provided the impetus for the production. Pippa Ailion was the Casting Director for this production.
1999 Broadway revival
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998, to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999, at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001, after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.
This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreography by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
Notable replacements
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999, until January 16, 2000. Peters and Wopat left the show on September 2, 2000. Former Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd made her Broadway debut as Annie on September 6, 2000, with Patrick Cassidy as Frank Butler. Country music singer Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut as Annie from January 26, 2001, to June 22, 2001, opposite Brent Barrett as Frank. On June 23, 2001, former Wings star Crystal Bernard, who had been playing Annie in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, assumed the role of Annie in the Broadway production, with Tom Wopat returning as Frank Butler.
2000 U.S. tour
The 1999 Broadway production, in a "slightly revised version", toured in a U.S. national tour starting in Dallas, Texas, on July 25, 2000, with Marilu Henner and Rex Smith. Tom Wopat joined the tour in late October 2000, replacing Smith.
2006 Prince Music Theater production
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater version for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate, and Arthur Ryan as Sitting Bull. The production was well received by critics. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison, Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington.
2009 London revival
Jane Horrocks, Julian Ovenden and director Richard Jones mounted a major London revival at the Young Vic, Waterloo. The show opened at the off west end venue on October 16, 2009, initially booking until January 2, 2010, but with an extra week added due to popular demand. The production featured new arrangements by Jason Carr for a band consisting four pianos. London's Guardian newspaper awarded the show 5 stars, claiming that "Richard Jones's brilliant production offers the wittiest musical staging London has seen in years."
2010 Ravinia Festival concert
A concert staging of the original version of Annie Get Your Gun took place at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago from August 13–15, 2010 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley's birth. Directed by Lonny Price, the concert starred Patti LuPone as Annie, Patrick Cassidy as Frank and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill. The concert received unanimously strong reviews, notably for LuPone and Price's direction.
Other major productions
Lucie Arnaz starred in a production in the summer of 1978 with Harve Presnell at the Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. This was the first major production of the musical done in the New York area after the 1966 revival.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced a well-reviewed production in June 1987 starring Judy Kaye as Annie and Richard White as Frank.
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2014 Carter Calvert and David Weitzer starred in a production that opened the Algonquin Arts Theatre's 2014-2015 Broadway Season. It was also the first show to be performed after the Algonquin underwent the task of installing new seating which had not been done since 1938.
In October 2015, a two night concert version was presented at the New York City Center Gala starring Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) and Andy Karl (Frank Butler). The concerts are directed by John Rando, and the cast features Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate), Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill), Brad Oscar (Charlie) and Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill).
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. Although MGM purchased the rights to the film version with an announced intention of starring legendary singer-actress Judy Garland as Annie, early work on the film was plagued with difficulties, some attributed to Garland's health. Garland was fired and replaced by the brassier, blonde Betty Hutton.
In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC. The Mary Martin version has been re-broadcast sporadically over the years, but the 1967 videotapes starring Ethel Merman have apparently been irretrievably lost. Only a video and audio clip of "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" is known to exist, as does an audio-only recording of the entire 90-minute show.
Recordings
There are several recordings of the Annie Get Your Gun score, including:
1946 Original Broadway Cast: an original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1946, featuring the cast of the original 1946 Broadway production. The principal stars were Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. The album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
1957 TV Cast: a recording based on the TV version shown in 1957, with Mary Martin and John Raitt.
1963 Studio Cast featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet: not based on a theatre production.
1966 Broadway Revival Cast
1976 Spanish-language version with Mexican cast.
1986 1986 London Cast
1991 Studio Cast: Kim Criswell (Annie), Thomas Hampson (Frank), Jason Graae (Tommy), Rebecca Luker (Winnie), David Garrison (Charlie), David Healy (Buffalo Bill), Alfred Marks (Sitting Bull), Gregory Jbara (Foster Wilson) Simon Green (Pawnee Bill), Peta Bartlett (Dolly), Kerry Potter, Hayley Spencer, Emma Long (Annie's sisters: Minnie, Jessie Nellie), Paul Keating (Annie's brother: Little Jake), Nick Curtis, Carey Wilson, Michael Pearn (Trainman, Waiter, Porter), Clare Buckfield (Small Girl), John McGlinn (Mac), Bruce Ogston (An Indian), Ambrosian Singers, London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn. Producer: Simon Woods; Balance Engineer: John Kurlander; Editor Matthew Cocker; Production Assistant: Alison Fox. Recorded July 1990, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London. CD: EMI CDC 7 54206 2.
1999 Broadway Revival Cast (Grammy Award)
Conductor John Owen Edwards along with JAY Records recorded the first-ever complete recording, with all musical numbers, scene change music and incidental music, of the show's score in the 1990s with Judy Kaye and Barry Bostwick. Christopher Lee had the role of Sitting Bull.
Reception
The original Broadway production opened to favorable reviews. Critics unanimously praised Ethel Merman's performance as Annie Oakley, though some thought the score and book were not particularly distinguished. John Chapman of the Daily News declared that the production had "good lyrics and tunes by Irving Berlin...[and] the razzle-dazzle atmosphere of a big-time show" but pronounced Merman the best part of the show, stating "She is a better comedienne than she ever was before", stating that "Annie is a good, standard, lavish, big musical and I'm sure it will be a huge success--but it isn't the greatest show in the world". Louis Kronenberger of PM stated that the show was 'in many ways routine", but greatly praised Merman's performance, opining, "For me, Annie is mainly Miss Merman's show, though the rest of it is competent enough of its kind...Irving Berlin's score is musically not exciting--of the real songs, only one or two are tuneful".
Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun declared, "The big news about Annie Get Your Gun is that it reveals Ethel Merman in her best form since Anything Goes...She shouts the Berlin music with good effect. She often comes to the aid of a sagging book". He stated, "Irving Berlin's score is not a notable one, but his tunes are singable and pleasant and his lyrics are particularly good. The book? It's on the flimsy side, definitely. And rather witless too". Lewis Nichols of The New York Times said, "It has a pleasant score by Irving Berlin...and it has Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters. The colors are pretty, the dancing is amiable and unaffected, and Broadway by this time is well used to a book which doesn't get anywhere in particular".
However, the show itself was greatly lauded by some critics: Vernon Rice of the New York Post proclaimed, "Irving Berlin has outdone himself this time. No use trying to pick a hit tune, for all the tunes are hits...Ethel Merman is at her lusty, free and easy best...She is now able to develop a consistent characterization and stay with it to the show's end. And when she opens her mouth to sing, she sings!" William Hawkins of the New York World-Telegram said that Merman was "bright as a whip, sure as her shooting, and generously the foremost lady clown of her time" and asserted that the show itself was comparable to those of Rodgers and Hammerstein, proclaiming, "For verve and buoyancy, unslackening, there has seldom if ever been a show like it...the girls in Annie have the beauty and character of looks one associates with a Rodgers and Hammerstein show. And the production has in every way the distinction that has become their hallmark".
Historians have viewed the show as inaccurate, citing among other reasons its portrayal of Annie as a loud, boisterous character, when in reality she had a quiet personality and did needlepoint in her spare time.
Redface
Native Americans have criticized the shows portrayal of Redface and promotion of cultural stereotypes. Particularly in the song "I'm an Indian Too" sung by Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.
Native Americans did protest outside the New York theatre, as well as movie theaters, holding picket signs stating: "Don't See "Annie Get Your Gun". As a result of this reaction, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.
Awards and nominations
Mary Martin received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for "Spreading Theatre to the Country While the Originals Perform in New York" (1947-48 US Tour)
1966 Broadway revival
1999 Broadway revival
2009 London revival
Notes
References
Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Kantor, Michael, and Maslon, Laurence (2004). Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bullfinch Press.
Nolan, Frederick (2002). The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Cambridge, Mass.: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. .
Suskin, Stephen (1990). Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schrimmer Books. .
Annie Get Your Gun plot summary & character descriptions from StageAgent.com
The Judy Garland Online Discography "Annie Get Your Gun" pages.
Listing at the RNH site
1999 Revival at RNH
'Annie Get Your Gun' Story, Cast, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre.com
External links
(Mary Martin)
(Ethel Merman)
Curtain Up reviews from 2/8/01 and 3/9/99
1946 musicals
1950s American television specials
1957 in American television
1957 television films
1960s American television specials
1967 in American television
1967 television films
1967 films
American television films
American films
Broadway musicals
Cultural depictions of Annie Oakley
Cultural depictions of Buffalo Bill
Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull
Musicals by Herbert Fields
Musicals by Irving Berlin
Musicals inspired by real-life events
Musical television films
Plays set in the 19th century
Plays set in the United States
West End musicals
Tony Award-winning musicals
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[
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
] |
[
"Blue Öyster Cult",
"Black and white years (1971-75)"
] |
C_446f633f7a7549debfadba797ef202c7_0
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why is it called the black and white period
| 1 |
why is 1971-75 called the black and white period
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Blue Öyster Cult
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Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the well-known BOC songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars" and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct. Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from the debut album), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums. The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of headlining arenas. The album continued the trend of growing sales, and would eventually go gold. As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics. CANNOTANSWER
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Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik.
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Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.
Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar"), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals). The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band's lyrics.
History
Early years as Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971)
Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, which the band agreed to. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.
In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.
Braunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. His departure led Elektra to shelve the album recorded with him on vocals.
Eric Bloom was hired by the band as their acoustic engineer and eventually became lead singer, replacing Braunstein, through a series of three unlikely coincidences. One of which was Lanier decided to join Bloom on a drive to an upstate gig, where he spent the night with Bloom's old college bandmates and got to hear old tapes of Bloom's talent as lead vocalist. Because of this, Bloom was offered the job of lead singer for Soft White Underbelly. However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded yet another album's worth of material for Elektra, but only one single ("What Is Quicksand?" b/w "Arthur Comics") was released (and only in a promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records (this album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, by Rhino Handmade Records as St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings in 2001). The album featured Bloom as their main lead singer, but Roeser also sang lead on a few songs, a pattern of sharing lead vocals that have continued throughout the band's career. Under Bloom, Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group became Stony Brook University house bands which were popular on campus.
After a few more temporary band names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971 (see below for its origin).
New York City producer/composer and jingle writer David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight-track at Lucas' studio. Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard's brother, Joe Bouchard.
Black-and-white years (1971–1975)
Their debut album Blue Öyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black-and-white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.
Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their debut album, and also a reference to the novel of the same name by Stendhal), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums.
The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of being headliners. The album continued their upward sales trend, and would eventually go gold.
As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics.
Commercial success (1975–1981)
The band's first live album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975) achieved greater success and went gold. Its success gave the band more time to work on a follow-up. The band members were able to purchase home recording equipment to record demos for their next album.
Their next studio album, Agents of Fortune (1976), was their first to go platinum and was again produced by David Lucas. It contained the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the hard rock genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love", "E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". Having recorded demos of the songs at home before recording the album, the band's songwriting process had become more individual, with none of the songs featuring the collaborative writing between the band members that had been common on their earlier albums. Although the album still featured their trademark hard rock with sinister lyrics, the songs had become more conventional in structure, and the production was more polished. For the first and only time, the album featured lead vocals from all five band members, with Allen Lanier singing lead on the song True Confessions. With Albert Bouchard singing lead on three songs and Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser singing lead on one each, Eric Bloom ended up taking the lead on only four of the album's ten songs.
For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for which they became known. They were among the first acts to use lasers in performance.
Their next album, Spectres (1977), had the FM radio hit "Godzilla", and would become one of the band's better-selling albums, with other well-known songs like "I Love the Night" and "Goin' Through the Motions". However, its sales were not as strong as those for the previous album, going gold but not platinum, becoming their first album to sell less than its predecessor. It featured even more polished production, and continued the trend of the lead vocals extensively shared between members, although Allen Lanier did not sing lead. As with the previous album, Eric Bloom sang lead on fewer than half the songs.
The band then released another live album, Some Enchanted Evening (1978). Though it was intended as another double-live album in the vein of On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Columbia insisted that it be edited down to single-album length. It was a resounding commercial success, becoming Blue Öyster Cult's most popular album and eventually selling over two million copies. It also revealed that while the band's studio work was becoming increasingly well-produced, they were still very much a hard rock band on stage.
It was followed by the studio album Mirrors (1979). For Mirrors, instead of working with previous producers Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. It featured the band's glossiest production to date. It also gave Roeser, the lead vocalist on the band's biggest hits, bigger prominence as a vocalist, singing lead on four of the nine songs. However, the resulting album sales were disappointing.
Pearlman's association with Black Sabbath led to Sabbath's Heaven and Hell producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The album found the band returning to their hard rock roots, and although both of the Bouchard brothers and guitarist Roeser all got lead vocal turns, Bloom would sing the majority of the tracks. The result was positive, with Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) receiving good reviews. The album went to number 12 in the United Kingdom, but did not do as well in the United States. The song "Black Blade", which was written by Bloom with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock, is a kind of retelling of Moorcock's epic Elric of Melniboné saga. The band also did a co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath in support of the album, calling the tour "Black and Blue".
Birch produced the band's next album as well, Fire of Unknown Origin (1981), which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album. The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You", a song Roeser had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his solo album, Flat Out (1982), but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The revival of the band's heavier sound continued, albeit with fairly heavy use of synthesizers and some noticeable New Wave influence on a few tracks. It contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy Metal, but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which had not been written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. The album marked a strong commercial resurgence for the band and achieved gold status, their first studio album since Spectres to do so.
During the tour for Fire of Unknown Origin, Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. This marked the end of the band's original and best-known lineup.
Decline and fall (1982–1987)
After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman's poem "Imaginos". Blue Öyster Cult also released a third live album Extraterrestrial Live.
The band then went to the studio for the next album, The Revölution by Night (1983), with Bruce Fairbairn as producer. After two albums of a return to a harder rocking sound, the band adopted a more radio-friendly, AOR-oriented sound with Fairbairn providing a 1980s-style production. This approach met with some success, especially on its highest-charting single, Roeser's "Shooting Shark", co-written by Patti Smith and featuring Randy Jackson on bass, which reached number 83 on the charts. Bloom's "Take Me Away" achieved some FM radio play. However, the album didn't match sales of its predecessor, failed to achieve gold status, and marked the beginning of the band's second commercial decline. After touring for Revölution, Rick Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drummer.
Blue Öyster Cult re-united with Albert Bouchard for a California tour in February 1985, infamously known as the 'Albert Returns' Tour. This arrangement was only temporary and caused more tensions between the band and Bouchard, since he had thought he would be staying on permanently, which wasn't the case. The band had only intended to use him as a last-minute fill-in until another drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard's leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit the band shortly thereafter, leaving them without a keyboardist and with only three remaining original members. This incarnation of the band would sometimes be referred to as '3ÖC' by fans , which is a pun on the number of original members left.
Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and keyboardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the album Club Ninja, which was poorly received, with only "Dancin' in the Ruins"—one of several songs on the record written entirely by outside songwriters—enjoying minimal success on radio and MTV. The best-known original on the album is "Perfect Water" written by Dharma and Jim Carroll (noted author of The Basketball Diaries). While the band members have generally been disparaging about the album in retrospect, Joe Bouchard has stated that "Perfect Water" is "perfect genius".
The band toured in Germany, after which bassist Bouchard left, leaving only two members of the classic lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser. Some people referred to the band as "Two Öyster Cult" during this period. Jon Rogers was hired to replace Joe and this version of the band finished out the 1986 tour. After it wound up that year, the band took a temporary break from recording and touring. When Blue Öyster Cult received an offer to tour in Greece in the early summer of 1987, the band reformed. Wilcox quit while Zvoncheck was fired for making excessive financial demands. Allen Lanier then was offered to rejoin and agreed, so the new line-up now featured three founding members, along with Jon Rogers returning on bass and Ron Riddle as their newest drummer.
Columbia Records was not interested in releasing the Imaginos project as an Albert Bouchard solo album so it was arranged for the record to be released in 1988 by Columbia as a Blue Öyster Cult album, with some new lead vocal overdubs from Bloom and Roeser and lead guitar overdubs from Roeser. These replaced most of Albert Bouchard's lead vocals, as well as many lead guitar parts that had been recorded by session musicians. Joe Bouchard and Allen Lanier had earlier contributed some minor keyboard and backing vocal parts to the album, allowing all five original members to be credited. The album didn't sell well (despite a positive review in Rolling Stone magazine) and though the then-current Blue Öyster Cult lineup (minus both Bouchard brothers) toured to promote Imaginos, promotion by the label was virtually non-existent. When Columbia Records' parent company CBS Records was purchased by Sony and became Sony Music Entertainment, Blue Öyster Cult were dropped from the label.
1990s and early 2000s
The band spent the next 11 years touring without releasing an album of new material, though they did contribute two new songs to the Bad Channels movie soundtrack, released in 1992, and also released an album of re-recorded songs from the band's original lineup called Cult Classic in 1994. During these years, while the three original members remained constant, there were several changes in the band's rhythm section. Ron Riddle quit in 1991 and was followed by a series of other drummers including
Chuck Burgi (1991–1992, 1992–1995, 1996–1997), John Miceli (1992, 1995), John O'Reilly (1995–1996) and Bobby Rondinelli (1997–2004). As for the bass position, Rogers left in 1995, and was replaced by Danny Miranda.
In the late 1990s, Blue Öyster Cult secured a recording contract with CMC Records (later purchased by Sanctuary Records), and continued to tour frequently. Two studio albums were released, Heaven Forbid (1998) and Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001). Both albums featured songs co-written by cyberpunk/horror novelist John Shirley. The first mostly featured Miranda on bass and Burgi on drums, though a few tracks feature earliest bassist Jon Rogers and one track features Rondinelli on drums, who had joined the band near the end of the recording. Curse of the Hidden Mirror features Miranda and Rondinelli as the rhythm section, and the pair contributed to the songwriting as well. Neither album sold well.
Another live record and DVD A Long Day's Night followed in 2002, both drawn from one concert in Chicago. This album also featured the Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Miranda, Rondinelli lineup.
Although the band's lineup had remained stable from 1997 to 2004, they began to experience personnel changes again in 2004. Rondinelli left in 2004, and was replaced by Jules Radino. Miranda left during the same year to become the bassist for Queen + Paul Rodgers in place of the retired John Deacon. He was replaced by Richie Castellano, who would also take occasional turns as a lead vocalist onstage.
In 2001, Sony/Columbia's reissue arm, Legacy Records issued expanded versions of the first four Blue Öyster Cult studio albums, including some previously unreleased demos and outtakes from album sessions, live recordings (from the Live 72 EP), and post-St. Cecilia tunes from the Stalk-Forrest Group era.
Late 2000s and 2010s
Allen Lanier retired from live performances in 2007 after not appearing with the band since late 2006. Castellano switched to rhythm guitar and keyboards (Castellano also filled in on lead guitar and vocals for an ailing Buck Dharma in two shows in 2005), and the position of bassist was taken up by Rudy Sarzo (previously a member of Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), with the band employing Danny Miranda and Jon Rogers as guest bassists to fill in when Sarzo was unavailable. Sarzo then joined as an official member of the band, although Rogers continued to occasionally fill in when Sarzo was busy.
In February 2007, the Sony Legacy remaster series continued, releasing expanded versions of studio album Spectres and live album Some Enchanted Evening.
In June 2012, the band announced that bassist Rudy Sarzo was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton.
In August of the same year, it was announced that Sony Legacy would be releasing a 17-disc boxed set entitled The Complete Columbia Albums Collection on October 30, 2012. The set includes the first round of the remastered series plus the long-awaited remastered versions of On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin, Extraterrestrial Live, The Revölution by Night, Club Ninja and Imaginos. Also exclusive to this set are two discs of rare and unreleased B-sides, demos and radio broadcasts.
Also in 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blue Öyster Cult, the then-current incarnation of the band reunited for the first time in 25 years with other original members Joe and Albert Bouchard and Allen Lanier as guests for a special event in New York.
Founding keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on August 14, 2013.
In 2016, Albert Bouchard played again as guest with the current line-up of the band, playing at shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, where Blue Öyster Cult played the album Agents of Fortune in its entirety. The shows featured songs from Agents of Fortune that had either not been played live before ("True Confessions", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", "Sinful Love", "Tenderloin", "Debbie Denise"), songs that had not been played since the album's debut tour ("Morning Final"), and songs that were either no longer or never were played frequently ("This Ain't the Summer of Love", "Tattoo Vampire"), as well as the fan favorite "Five Guitars", which had not been played since Albert initially left the band in 1981. Albert played in the following songs at the show: "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (vocals, guitar), "Sinful Love" (vocals, guitar), "Tattoo Vampire" (guitar), "Morning Final" (guitar), "Tenderloin" (cymbals), "Debbie Denise" (vocals, acoustic guitar), "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (vocals, drums), and "Five Guitars" (guitar).
In a May 2017 appearance on Castellano's "Band Geek" podcast, Bloom confirmed that there were tentative plans to release a new album in 2018 and that the band was currently considering offers from multiple record labels. He also stated that former bassist Danny Miranda would be playing with the band for the remainder of the year due to Sulton's prior touring commitments with Todd Rundgren. During the same year, the band's official website started to list Miranda as an official member, stating that Miranda had "returned to BÖC" in early 2017.
Buck Dharma stated in February 2019 that the band would be recording a new album to be released by fall. On July 10, 2019, it was announced that the band had signed to Frontiers Music, and would in fact be releasing the new album in 2020. "It's been a long time since BÖC's last studio album. Recording with Danny, Richie and Jules should be a great experience as we've been touring together for years, and Buck and I look forward to including them in the creative and recording process," said Bloom. "The current band is GREAT and has never been recorded other than live, so we feel now's the time for new songs to be written and recorded. About half of the songs for the new record exist and the rest will be finished during the process," added Buck Dharma. In February 2020, Richie Castellano posted a short video to Facebook featuring himself and Eric Bloom, stating that the band are working on the new Blue Oyster Cult record remotely by using ConnectionOpen online audio collaboration tool.
The Symbol Remains (2020–present)
In August 2020, the band announced on their website that their fifteenth studio album The Symbol Remains would be released on October 9, 2020. The span of nineteen years between Curse of the Hidden Mirror and The Symbol Remains marks the longest gap between studio albums in Blue Öyster Cult's career. The album was released to great critical reception, with tracks such as "Box in my Head" and "Nightmare Epiphany" often praised as a return to form after the band had seemingly turned away from rock and towards pop.
Musical style
Blue Öyster Cult is a hard rock band, whose music has been described as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, occult rock, biker boogie, acid rock, and progressive rock. They have also been recognized for helping pioneer genres such as stoner metal and speed metal. The band has also experimented with additional genres on specific albums. An example of this is Mirrors (1979).
The band is influenced by artists such as Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.
While Blue Öyster Cult has been noted for heavy rock, they would often add their own tongue-in-cheek style. Keeping with their image, the band would often include out-of-context fragments of Pearlman's The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos into their lyrics, giving their songs cryptic meanings. Additionally, the band would keep a folder of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations to insert into their music.
Band name and logo
The name "Blue Öyster Cult" came from a 1960s poem written by manager Sandy Pearlman. It was part of his "Imaginos" poetry, later used more extensively on their album Imaginos (1988). Pearlman had also come up with the band's earlier name, "Soft White Underbelly", from a phrase used by Winston Churchill in describing Italy during World War II. In Pearlman's poetry, the "Blue Oyster Cult" was a group of aliens who had assembled secretly to guide Earth's history. "Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release..."
In a 1976 interview published in the U.K. music magazine ZigZag, Pearlman told the story explaining the origin of the band's name was an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer".
The addition of an umlaut was suggested by Allen Lanier, but rock critic Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it just after Pearlman came up with the name, reportedly "because of the Wagnerian aspect of Metal". Other bands later copied the practice of using umlauts or diacritic marks in their own band names, such as Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and parodied by Spın̈al Tap.
The hook-and-cross logo was designed by Bill Gawlik in January 1972, and appears on all of the band's albums. In Greek mythology, "... the hook-and-cross symbol is that of Kronos (Cronus), the king of the Titans and father of Zeus ... and is the alchemical symbol for lead (a heavy metal), one of the heaviest of metals." Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description "heavy metal" would be apt for the band's sound. The hook-and-cross symbol also resembled the astrological symbol for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, and the sickle, which is associated with both Kronos (Cronus) and Saturn (both the planet and the Roman god). The logo's "... metaphysical, alchemical and mythological connotations, combined with its similarity to some religious symbols gave it a flair of decadence and mystery ..."
The band was billed, for the only time, as "The Blue Öyster Cult" on the cover and label of their second album, Tyranny and Mutation.
Legacy and influence
Blue Öyster Cult have been influential to the realm of hard rock and heavy metal, leading them to being referred to as "the thinking man's heavy metal band" due to their often cryptic lyrics, literate songwriting, and links to famous authors. They have influenced many acts including Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fates Warning, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Steel Panther, Green River (and later Mudhoney), Body Count, Possessed, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Opeth, White Zombie, Kvelertak, HIM, Turbonegro, Radio Birdman, The Cult, The Minutemen, Firehose, Hoodoo Gurus, Widespread Panic, Queens of the Stone Age, Umphrey's McGee, Stabbing Westward, Royal Trux, and Moe.
The band's influence has extended beyond the musical sphere. The lyrics of "Astronomy" have been named by author Shawn St. Jean as inspirational to the later chapters of his fantasy novel Clotho's Loom, wherein Sandy Pearlman's "Four Winds Bar" provides the setting for a portion of the action. Titles and lines from the band's songs provided structure and narrative for the third Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling) novel – Career of Evil (a Cormoran Strike novel).
Their hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was featured in the famous Saturday Night Live sketch "More Cowbell". The original recording was produced at The Record Plant in New York by David Lucas, who sang background vocals with Roeser, and introduced the now-famous cowbell part, which may have been played by himself, Albert Bouchard, or Eric Bloom.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in writer/director John Carpenter's horror film classic, Halloween (1978), the opening sequence of the miniseries adaptation of The Stand (1994) by Stephen King, and covered by The Mutton Birds for Peter Jackson's horror-comedy film The Frighteners (1996). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used throughout the comedy film The Stoned Age (1994) and plays a role in its storyline. In the film Gone Girl (2014), the song plays on the radio during a car driving scene with actor Ben Affleck. The song was also used as the opening theme and main story element in the 1996 FMV computer game "Ripper", by Take Two Interactive, and was also featured in the 2021 video game Returnal.
Members
Current members
Buck Dharma – lead guitar, lead vocals and backing vocals (1967–present)
Eric Bloom – lead vocals and backing vocals, "stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizers (1969–present)
Danny Miranda – bass, backing vocals (1995–2004, 2017–present)
Richie Castellano – keyboards, rhythm guitar, additional lead guitar, backing vocals, additional lead vocals (2007–present), bass (2004–2007)
Jules Radino – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Lyrics
During their career, Blue Öyster Cult have frequently collaborated with outside lyricists, though in the late '70s, the band members also wrote lyrics for some of their songs. Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult have included all the original members (Bloom, Roeser, Albert & Joe Bouchard, and Lanier), producer Sandy Pearlman, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley.
Discography
Studio albums
Blue Öyster Cult (1972)
Tyranny and Mutation (1973)
Secret Treaties (1974)
Agents of Fortune (1976)
Spectres (1977)
Mirrors (1979)
Cultösaurus Erectus (1980)
Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)
The Revölution by Night (1983)
Club Ninja (1985)
Imaginos (1988)
Cult Classic (1994)
Heaven Forbid (1998)
Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001)
The Symbol Remains (2020)
Bibliography
Blue Öyster Cult: Secrets Revealed!, by Martin Popoff, 303 pages (Canada, 2016)
Blue Öyster Cult: La Carrière du mal, by Mathieu Bollon and Aurélien Lemant, Camion Blanc publishing, 722 pages (France, 2013)
on track... Blue Öyster Cult (every album, every song), by Jacob Holm-Lupo, Sonic Bond Publishing, 158 pages (UK, 2019)
References
External links
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Columbia Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups from Long Island
Musical quintets
Occult rock musical groups
Psychedelic rock music groups from New York (state)
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"Video cameras can possess a function called black balance which calibrates the signal for no light, just as they have a \"white balance\" function which gives reference to true white to the CCDs. Unlike white balance, black balance is not adjusted every time. This function is found in higher end 'professional' cameras rather than in cameras for amateurs.\n\nPurpose\nThe main purpose of black balance is to eliminate any residual current being output from the pixel sites under conditions of complete darkness, often referred to as thermal noise. This is why the camera automatically closes the iris completely when it does the black balance.\n\nConditions under which black balance are typically done are when the camera experiences a large change in operating temperature, especially from colder to warmer. Otherwise, it is a periodic thing to allow for other minor factors that could come into play.\n\nWith CMOS sensor technology, black balancing may not be as necessary as it is with CCD type devices. It is common to talk about how clean and relatively noise free CMOS sensors are by design.\n\nAvailability\nBlack balancing is done only in professional cameras. Amateur handycam users need not worry about black balance. Professional camcorders like the Sony DSR 400, Panasonic DVC Pro etc. have a switch which has to be flicked upwards to do the white balance. The same switch when pressed downwards does a black balance. In the Panasonic 102 3ccd series, the white balance switch when pressed just once triggers white balancing and when depressed and held for a few seconds completes the black balance. Most camera operators never touch the black balance. Black balance can be done if the colours do not seem to be truly represented even after doing the white balance.\n\nFrequency of black balance adjustment\nThere is a lot of debate on whether it is necessary to do the black balance every time.\n\nPanasonic 102 XB camera operating instructions manual suggests that black balance be performed when:\nThe camera is used for the first time\nThe camera is first used after a long period of disuse\nThe ambient temperature changes greatly\nWhen switching to normal shutter or slow shutter\nWhen switching between progressive and interlaced modes\n\nReferences\n mediacollege.com\nPanasonic AXB 102B operating instructions manual\ndvinfo.net\n\nImage processing",
"Peak bone mass is the maximum amount of bone a person has during their life. It typically occurs in the early 20s in females and late 20s in males. Peak bone mass is typically lower in females than males, and is also lower in White people and Asians compared to black populations. A way to determine bone mass is to look at the size and density of the mineralized tissue in the periosteal envelope and using the bone mineral density (BMD) of a person can determine the strength of that bone. Research has shown that puberty affects bone size much more because during this time males typically undergo a longer bone maturation period than women which is why women are more prone to osteoporosis than men.\n\nReferences\n\nPhysiology"
] |
[
"Blue Öyster Cult",
"Black and white years (1971-75)",
"why is it called the black and white period",
"Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik."
] |
C_446f633f7a7549debfadba797ef202c7_0
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did they have any hits from this album?
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did Blue Öyster Cult have any hits from Blue Öyster Cult album?
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Blue Öyster Cult
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Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the well-known BOC songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars" and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct. Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from the debut album), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums. The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of headlining arenas. The album continued the trend of growing sales, and would eventually go gold. As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics. CANNOTANSWER
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The album featured the well-known BOC songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars" and "Then Came the Last Days of May".
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Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.
Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar"), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals). The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band's lyrics.
History
Early years as Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971)
Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, which the band agreed to. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.
In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.
Braunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. His departure led Elektra to shelve the album recorded with him on vocals.
Eric Bloom was hired by the band as their acoustic engineer and eventually became lead singer, replacing Braunstein, through a series of three unlikely coincidences. One of which was Lanier decided to join Bloom on a drive to an upstate gig, where he spent the night with Bloom's old college bandmates and got to hear old tapes of Bloom's talent as lead vocalist. Because of this, Bloom was offered the job of lead singer for Soft White Underbelly. However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded yet another album's worth of material for Elektra, but only one single ("What Is Quicksand?" b/w "Arthur Comics") was released (and only in a promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records (this album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, by Rhino Handmade Records as St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings in 2001). The album featured Bloom as their main lead singer, but Roeser also sang lead on a few songs, a pattern of sharing lead vocals that have continued throughout the band's career. Under Bloom, Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group became Stony Brook University house bands which were popular on campus.
After a few more temporary band names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971 (see below for its origin).
New York City producer/composer and jingle writer David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight-track at Lucas' studio. Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard's brother, Joe Bouchard.
Black-and-white years (1971–1975)
Their debut album Blue Öyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black-and-white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.
Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their debut album, and also a reference to the novel of the same name by Stendhal), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums.
The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of being headliners. The album continued their upward sales trend, and would eventually go gold.
As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics.
Commercial success (1975–1981)
The band's first live album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975) achieved greater success and went gold. Its success gave the band more time to work on a follow-up. The band members were able to purchase home recording equipment to record demos for their next album.
Their next studio album, Agents of Fortune (1976), was their first to go platinum and was again produced by David Lucas. It contained the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the hard rock genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love", "E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". Having recorded demos of the songs at home before recording the album, the band's songwriting process had become more individual, with none of the songs featuring the collaborative writing between the band members that had been common on their earlier albums. Although the album still featured their trademark hard rock with sinister lyrics, the songs had become more conventional in structure, and the production was more polished. For the first and only time, the album featured lead vocals from all five band members, with Allen Lanier singing lead on the song True Confessions. With Albert Bouchard singing lead on three songs and Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser singing lead on one each, Eric Bloom ended up taking the lead on only four of the album's ten songs.
For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for which they became known. They were among the first acts to use lasers in performance.
Their next album, Spectres (1977), had the FM radio hit "Godzilla", and would become one of the band's better-selling albums, with other well-known songs like "I Love the Night" and "Goin' Through the Motions". However, its sales were not as strong as those for the previous album, going gold but not platinum, becoming their first album to sell less than its predecessor. It featured even more polished production, and continued the trend of the lead vocals extensively shared between members, although Allen Lanier did not sing lead. As with the previous album, Eric Bloom sang lead on fewer than half the songs.
The band then released another live album, Some Enchanted Evening (1978). Though it was intended as another double-live album in the vein of On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Columbia insisted that it be edited down to single-album length. It was a resounding commercial success, becoming Blue Öyster Cult's most popular album and eventually selling over two million copies. It also revealed that while the band's studio work was becoming increasingly well-produced, they were still very much a hard rock band on stage.
It was followed by the studio album Mirrors (1979). For Mirrors, instead of working with previous producers Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. It featured the band's glossiest production to date. It also gave Roeser, the lead vocalist on the band's biggest hits, bigger prominence as a vocalist, singing lead on four of the nine songs. However, the resulting album sales were disappointing.
Pearlman's association with Black Sabbath led to Sabbath's Heaven and Hell producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The album found the band returning to their hard rock roots, and although both of the Bouchard brothers and guitarist Roeser all got lead vocal turns, Bloom would sing the majority of the tracks. The result was positive, with Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) receiving good reviews. The album went to number 12 in the United Kingdom, but did not do as well in the United States. The song "Black Blade", which was written by Bloom with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock, is a kind of retelling of Moorcock's epic Elric of Melniboné saga. The band also did a co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath in support of the album, calling the tour "Black and Blue".
Birch produced the band's next album as well, Fire of Unknown Origin (1981), which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album. The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You", a song Roeser had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his solo album, Flat Out (1982), but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The revival of the band's heavier sound continued, albeit with fairly heavy use of synthesizers and some noticeable New Wave influence on a few tracks. It contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy Metal, but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which had not been written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. The album marked a strong commercial resurgence for the band and achieved gold status, their first studio album since Spectres to do so.
During the tour for Fire of Unknown Origin, Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. This marked the end of the band's original and best-known lineup.
Decline and fall (1982–1987)
After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman's poem "Imaginos". Blue Öyster Cult also released a third live album Extraterrestrial Live.
The band then went to the studio for the next album, The Revölution by Night (1983), with Bruce Fairbairn as producer. After two albums of a return to a harder rocking sound, the band adopted a more radio-friendly, AOR-oriented sound with Fairbairn providing a 1980s-style production. This approach met with some success, especially on its highest-charting single, Roeser's "Shooting Shark", co-written by Patti Smith and featuring Randy Jackson on bass, which reached number 83 on the charts. Bloom's "Take Me Away" achieved some FM radio play. However, the album didn't match sales of its predecessor, failed to achieve gold status, and marked the beginning of the band's second commercial decline. After touring for Revölution, Rick Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drummer.
Blue Öyster Cult re-united with Albert Bouchard for a California tour in February 1985, infamously known as the 'Albert Returns' Tour. This arrangement was only temporary and caused more tensions between the band and Bouchard, since he had thought he would be staying on permanently, which wasn't the case. The band had only intended to use him as a last-minute fill-in until another drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard's leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit the band shortly thereafter, leaving them without a keyboardist and with only three remaining original members. This incarnation of the band would sometimes be referred to as '3ÖC' by fans , which is a pun on the number of original members left.
Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and keyboardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the album Club Ninja, which was poorly received, with only "Dancin' in the Ruins"—one of several songs on the record written entirely by outside songwriters—enjoying minimal success on radio and MTV. The best-known original on the album is "Perfect Water" written by Dharma and Jim Carroll (noted author of The Basketball Diaries). While the band members have generally been disparaging about the album in retrospect, Joe Bouchard has stated that "Perfect Water" is "perfect genius".
The band toured in Germany, after which bassist Bouchard left, leaving only two members of the classic lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser. Some people referred to the band as "Two Öyster Cult" during this period. Jon Rogers was hired to replace Joe and this version of the band finished out the 1986 tour. After it wound up that year, the band took a temporary break from recording and touring. When Blue Öyster Cult received an offer to tour in Greece in the early summer of 1987, the band reformed. Wilcox quit while Zvoncheck was fired for making excessive financial demands. Allen Lanier then was offered to rejoin and agreed, so the new line-up now featured three founding members, along with Jon Rogers returning on bass and Ron Riddle as their newest drummer.
Columbia Records was not interested in releasing the Imaginos project as an Albert Bouchard solo album so it was arranged for the record to be released in 1988 by Columbia as a Blue Öyster Cult album, with some new lead vocal overdubs from Bloom and Roeser and lead guitar overdubs from Roeser. These replaced most of Albert Bouchard's lead vocals, as well as many lead guitar parts that had been recorded by session musicians. Joe Bouchard and Allen Lanier had earlier contributed some minor keyboard and backing vocal parts to the album, allowing all five original members to be credited. The album didn't sell well (despite a positive review in Rolling Stone magazine) and though the then-current Blue Öyster Cult lineup (minus both Bouchard brothers) toured to promote Imaginos, promotion by the label was virtually non-existent. When Columbia Records' parent company CBS Records was purchased by Sony and became Sony Music Entertainment, Blue Öyster Cult were dropped from the label.
1990s and early 2000s
The band spent the next 11 years touring without releasing an album of new material, though they did contribute two new songs to the Bad Channels movie soundtrack, released in 1992, and also released an album of re-recorded songs from the band's original lineup called Cult Classic in 1994. During these years, while the three original members remained constant, there were several changes in the band's rhythm section. Ron Riddle quit in 1991 and was followed by a series of other drummers including
Chuck Burgi (1991–1992, 1992–1995, 1996–1997), John Miceli (1992, 1995), John O'Reilly (1995–1996) and Bobby Rondinelli (1997–2004). As for the bass position, Rogers left in 1995, and was replaced by Danny Miranda.
In the late 1990s, Blue Öyster Cult secured a recording contract with CMC Records (later purchased by Sanctuary Records), and continued to tour frequently. Two studio albums were released, Heaven Forbid (1998) and Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001). Both albums featured songs co-written by cyberpunk/horror novelist John Shirley. The first mostly featured Miranda on bass and Burgi on drums, though a few tracks feature earliest bassist Jon Rogers and one track features Rondinelli on drums, who had joined the band near the end of the recording. Curse of the Hidden Mirror features Miranda and Rondinelli as the rhythm section, and the pair contributed to the songwriting as well. Neither album sold well.
Another live record and DVD A Long Day's Night followed in 2002, both drawn from one concert in Chicago. This album also featured the Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Miranda, Rondinelli lineup.
Although the band's lineup had remained stable from 1997 to 2004, they began to experience personnel changes again in 2004. Rondinelli left in 2004, and was replaced by Jules Radino. Miranda left during the same year to become the bassist for Queen + Paul Rodgers in place of the retired John Deacon. He was replaced by Richie Castellano, who would also take occasional turns as a lead vocalist onstage.
In 2001, Sony/Columbia's reissue arm, Legacy Records issued expanded versions of the first four Blue Öyster Cult studio albums, including some previously unreleased demos and outtakes from album sessions, live recordings (from the Live 72 EP), and post-St. Cecilia tunes from the Stalk-Forrest Group era.
Late 2000s and 2010s
Allen Lanier retired from live performances in 2007 after not appearing with the band since late 2006. Castellano switched to rhythm guitar and keyboards (Castellano also filled in on lead guitar and vocals for an ailing Buck Dharma in two shows in 2005), and the position of bassist was taken up by Rudy Sarzo (previously a member of Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), with the band employing Danny Miranda and Jon Rogers as guest bassists to fill in when Sarzo was unavailable. Sarzo then joined as an official member of the band, although Rogers continued to occasionally fill in when Sarzo was busy.
In February 2007, the Sony Legacy remaster series continued, releasing expanded versions of studio album Spectres and live album Some Enchanted Evening.
In June 2012, the band announced that bassist Rudy Sarzo was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton.
In August of the same year, it was announced that Sony Legacy would be releasing a 17-disc boxed set entitled The Complete Columbia Albums Collection on October 30, 2012. The set includes the first round of the remastered series plus the long-awaited remastered versions of On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin, Extraterrestrial Live, The Revölution by Night, Club Ninja and Imaginos. Also exclusive to this set are two discs of rare and unreleased B-sides, demos and radio broadcasts.
Also in 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blue Öyster Cult, the then-current incarnation of the band reunited for the first time in 25 years with other original members Joe and Albert Bouchard and Allen Lanier as guests for a special event in New York.
Founding keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on August 14, 2013.
In 2016, Albert Bouchard played again as guest with the current line-up of the band, playing at shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, where Blue Öyster Cult played the album Agents of Fortune in its entirety. The shows featured songs from Agents of Fortune that had either not been played live before ("True Confessions", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", "Sinful Love", "Tenderloin", "Debbie Denise"), songs that had not been played since the album's debut tour ("Morning Final"), and songs that were either no longer or never were played frequently ("This Ain't the Summer of Love", "Tattoo Vampire"), as well as the fan favorite "Five Guitars", which had not been played since Albert initially left the band in 1981. Albert played in the following songs at the show: "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (vocals, guitar), "Sinful Love" (vocals, guitar), "Tattoo Vampire" (guitar), "Morning Final" (guitar), "Tenderloin" (cymbals), "Debbie Denise" (vocals, acoustic guitar), "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (vocals, drums), and "Five Guitars" (guitar).
In a May 2017 appearance on Castellano's "Band Geek" podcast, Bloom confirmed that there were tentative plans to release a new album in 2018 and that the band was currently considering offers from multiple record labels. He also stated that former bassist Danny Miranda would be playing with the band for the remainder of the year due to Sulton's prior touring commitments with Todd Rundgren. During the same year, the band's official website started to list Miranda as an official member, stating that Miranda had "returned to BÖC" in early 2017.
Buck Dharma stated in February 2019 that the band would be recording a new album to be released by fall. On July 10, 2019, it was announced that the band had signed to Frontiers Music, and would in fact be releasing the new album in 2020. "It's been a long time since BÖC's last studio album. Recording with Danny, Richie and Jules should be a great experience as we've been touring together for years, and Buck and I look forward to including them in the creative and recording process," said Bloom. "The current band is GREAT and has never been recorded other than live, so we feel now's the time for new songs to be written and recorded. About half of the songs for the new record exist and the rest will be finished during the process," added Buck Dharma. In February 2020, Richie Castellano posted a short video to Facebook featuring himself and Eric Bloom, stating that the band are working on the new Blue Oyster Cult record remotely by using ConnectionOpen online audio collaboration tool.
The Symbol Remains (2020–present)
In August 2020, the band announced on their website that their fifteenth studio album The Symbol Remains would be released on October 9, 2020. The span of nineteen years between Curse of the Hidden Mirror and The Symbol Remains marks the longest gap between studio albums in Blue Öyster Cult's career. The album was released to great critical reception, with tracks such as "Box in my Head" and "Nightmare Epiphany" often praised as a return to form after the band had seemingly turned away from rock and towards pop.
Musical style
Blue Öyster Cult is a hard rock band, whose music has been described as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, occult rock, biker boogie, acid rock, and progressive rock. They have also been recognized for helping pioneer genres such as stoner metal and speed metal. The band has also experimented with additional genres on specific albums. An example of this is Mirrors (1979).
The band is influenced by artists such as Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.
While Blue Öyster Cult has been noted for heavy rock, they would often add their own tongue-in-cheek style. Keeping with their image, the band would often include out-of-context fragments of Pearlman's The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos into their lyrics, giving their songs cryptic meanings. Additionally, the band would keep a folder of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations to insert into their music.
Band name and logo
The name "Blue Öyster Cult" came from a 1960s poem written by manager Sandy Pearlman. It was part of his "Imaginos" poetry, later used more extensively on their album Imaginos (1988). Pearlman had also come up with the band's earlier name, "Soft White Underbelly", from a phrase used by Winston Churchill in describing Italy during World War II. In Pearlman's poetry, the "Blue Oyster Cult" was a group of aliens who had assembled secretly to guide Earth's history. "Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release..."
In a 1976 interview published in the U.K. music magazine ZigZag, Pearlman told the story explaining the origin of the band's name was an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer".
The addition of an umlaut was suggested by Allen Lanier, but rock critic Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it just after Pearlman came up with the name, reportedly "because of the Wagnerian aspect of Metal". Other bands later copied the practice of using umlauts or diacritic marks in their own band names, such as Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and parodied by Spın̈al Tap.
The hook-and-cross logo was designed by Bill Gawlik in January 1972, and appears on all of the band's albums. In Greek mythology, "... the hook-and-cross symbol is that of Kronos (Cronus), the king of the Titans and father of Zeus ... and is the alchemical symbol for lead (a heavy metal), one of the heaviest of metals." Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description "heavy metal" would be apt for the band's sound. The hook-and-cross symbol also resembled the astrological symbol for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, and the sickle, which is associated with both Kronos (Cronus) and Saturn (both the planet and the Roman god). The logo's "... metaphysical, alchemical and mythological connotations, combined with its similarity to some religious symbols gave it a flair of decadence and mystery ..."
The band was billed, for the only time, as "The Blue Öyster Cult" on the cover and label of their second album, Tyranny and Mutation.
Legacy and influence
Blue Öyster Cult have been influential to the realm of hard rock and heavy metal, leading them to being referred to as "the thinking man's heavy metal band" due to their often cryptic lyrics, literate songwriting, and links to famous authors. They have influenced many acts including Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fates Warning, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Steel Panther, Green River (and later Mudhoney), Body Count, Possessed, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Opeth, White Zombie, Kvelertak, HIM, Turbonegro, Radio Birdman, The Cult, The Minutemen, Firehose, Hoodoo Gurus, Widespread Panic, Queens of the Stone Age, Umphrey's McGee, Stabbing Westward, Royal Trux, and Moe.
The band's influence has extended beyond the musical sphere. The lyrics of "Astronomy" have been named by author Shawn St. Jean as inspirational to the later chapters of his fantasy novel Clotho's Loom, wherein Sandy Pearlman's "Four Winds Bar" provides the setting for a portion of the action. Titles and lines from the band's songs provided structure and narrative for the third Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling) novel – Career of Evil (a Cormoran Strike novel).
Their hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was featured in the famous Saturday Night Live sketch "More Cowbell". The original recording was produced at The Record Plant in New York by David Lucas, who sang background vocals with Roeser, and introduced the now-famous cowbell part, which may have been played by himself, Albert Bouchard, or Eric Bloom.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in writer/director John Carpenter's horror film classic, Halloween (1978), the opening sequence of the miniseries adaptation of The Stand (1994) by Stephen King, and covered by The Mutton Birds for Peter Jackson's horror-comedy film The Frighteners (1996). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used throughout the comedy film The Stoned Age (1994) and plays a role in its storyline. In the film Gone Girl (2014), the song plays on the radio during a car driving scene with actor Ben Affleck. The song was also used as the opening theme and main story element in the 1996 FMV computer game "Ripper", by Take Two Interactive, and was also featured in the 2021 video game Returnal.
Members
Current members
Buck Dharma – lead guitar, lead vocals and backing vocals (1967–present)
Eric Bloom – lead vocals and backing vocals, "stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizers (1969–present)
Danny Miranda – bass, backing vocals (1995–2004, 2017–present)
Richie Castellano – keyboards, rhythm guitar, additional lead guitar, backing vocals, additional lead vocals (2007–present), bass (2004–2007)
Jules Radino – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Lyrics
During their career, Blue Öyster Cult have frequently collaborated with outside lyricists, though in the late '70s, the band members also wrote lyrics for some of their songs. Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult have included all the original members (Bloom, Roeser, Albert & Joe Bouchard, and Lanier), producer Sandy Pearlman, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley.
Discography
Studio albums
Blue Öyster Cult (1972)
Tyranny and Mutation (1973)
Secret Treaties (1974)
Agents of Fortune (1976)
Spectres (1977)
Mirrors (1979)
Cultösaurus Erectus (1980)
Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)
The Revölution by Night (1983)
Club Ninja (1985)
Imaginos (1988)
Cult Classic (1994)
Heaven Forbid (1998)
Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001)
The Symbol Remains (2020)
Bibliography
Blue Öyster Cult: Secrets Revealed!, by Martin Popoff, 303 pages (Canada, 2016)
Blue Öyster Cult: La Carrière du mal, by Mathieu Bollon and Aurélien Lemant, Camion Blanc publishing, 722 pages (France, 2013)
on track... Blue Öyster Cult (every album, every song), by Jacob Holm-Lupo, Sonic Bond Publishing, 158 pages (UK, 2019)
References
External links
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Columbia Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups from Long Island
Musical quintets
Occult rock musical groups
Psychedelic rock music groups from New York (state)
| false |
[
"The Hollies' Greatest Hits was the first greatest hits collection by British pop group The Hollies. The album was released by Imperial Records in the U.S. in May 1967 and by Capitol Records in Canada, under the title The Hits of the Hollies and with two different tracks, in July 1967. This was released a year before Parlophone issued its own hits album in England and six years before Epic issued another album in North America with this title. When Imperial was dissolved into United Artists Records in 1971, this album went out of print, prompting Epic (the group's then-current label) to issue its own \"Greatest Hits\" album two years later.\n\nThe album was available in both mono and stereo formats. A little over half of the songs on the stereo version were electronically altered (e), meaning that the mono tapes were used. The Canadian version of the album deleted the songs \"Memphis\" and \"Tell Me to My Face\", substituting early Hollies hits \"Stay\" and \"(Ain't That) Just Like Me\".\n\nNeither Capitol Records, which assumed control of the United Artists catalog in 1979, nor Parlophone Records, the current holder of the group's catalog, have issued this album on CD, as the 1973 U.S./Canadian greatest hits album on Epic, also titled The Hollies' Greatest Hits, contains six of these hits (\"Bus Stop\", \"Pay You Back With Interest\", \"Look Through Any Window\", \"Stop Stop Stop\", \"Just One Look\" and \"On a Carousel\").\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks composed by Graham Nash, Allan Clarke and Tony Hicks, except where indicated.\n\nSide 1\n\"Bus Stop\" § e (Graham Gouldman) – 2:51 (from Bus Stop)\n\"Pay You Back with Interest\" § stereo – 2:39 (from Stop! Stop! Stop!)\n\"Here I Go Again\" e (Clive Westlake, Mort Shuman) – 2:17 (from Here I Go Again)\n\"Tell Me to My Face\" § stereo – 3:02 (from Stop! Stop! Stop!)\n\"I'm Alive\" e (Clint Ballard Jr.) – 2:22 (from Hear! Here!)\n\"Look Through Any Window\" (Gouldman, Charles Silverman) – 2:16 (from Hear! Here!)\n\nSide 2\n\"Stop Stop Stop\" § stereo – 2:52 (from Stop! Stop! Stop!)\n\"Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It\" stereo (Doris Payne, Gregory Carroll) – 2:17 (from Bus Stop)\n\"Just One Look\" e (Payne, Carroll) – 2:30 (from Here I Go Again)\n\"Memphis\" e (Chuck Berry) – 2:30 (from Here I Go Again)\n\"I Can't Let Go\" stereo (Chip Taylor-Al Gorgoni) – 2:25 (from Beat Group!)\n\"On a Carousel\" § e – 3:08 (from Imperial single 66231)\n\nCanadian Track Listing \nAll tracks composed by Graham Nash, Allan Clarke and Tony Hicks, except where indicated. Also indicates the original Canadian LP's\n\nSide 1\n\"Stop Stop Stop\" § – 2:52 (from Stop! Stop! Stop!)\n\"Look Through Any Window\" (Graham Gouldman, Charles Silverman) – 2:16 (from I Can't Let Go / Look Through Any Window)\n\"I Can't Let Go\" (Chip Taylor-Al Gorgoni) – 2:25 (from I Can't Let Go / Look Through Any Window)\n\"Stay\" (Maurice Williams) - 2:13 (from Stay with The Hollies)\n\"Pay You Back with Interest\" § – 2:39 (from Stop! Stop! Stop!)\n\"Here I Go Again\" (Clive Westlake, Mort Shuman) – 2:17 (from Stay with The Hollies)\n\nSide 2\n\"Bus Stop\" § (Graham Gouldman) – 2:51 (from Bus Stop)\n\"I'm Alive\" (Clint Ballard Jr.) – 2:22 (from In The Hollies Style)\n\"(Ain't That) Just Like Me\" (Earl Carroll, Billy Guy) - 2:09 (from Stay with The Hollies)\n\"On a Carousel\" § – 3:08 (from Capitol of Canada single 72450)\n\"Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It\" (Doris Payne, Gregory Carroll) – 2:17 (non-single LP debut)\n\"Just One Look\" (Payne, Carroll) – 2:30 (from Stay with The Hollies)\n\nPersonnel\nAllan Clarke - vocals, harmonica, guitar\nTony Hicks - lead guitar, vocals\nGraham Nash - rhythm guitar, vocals\nEric Haydock - bass guitar\nBernie Calvert - bass guitar on §\nBobby Elliott - drums\nDon Rathbone - drums on \"(Ain't That) Just Like Me\"\n\nReferences \n\nThe Hollies compilation albums\n1967 greatest hits albums\nImperial Records compilation albums\nAlbums produced by Ron Richards (producer)",
"ZOEgirl released multiple compilation albums.\n\nWith All of My Heart – The Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits\n\nWith All of My Heart – The Greatest Hits is the first compilation album released by ZOEgirl on December 27, 2005. It introduced two new song which were previously unreleased: \"Unchangeable\" and \"One Day\". The album was reissued on October 28, 2008 as Greatest Hits. It retains the same songs and order, except for the removal of three songs: \"Give Me One Reason\", \"Feel Alright\" and \"Different Kind Of Free\".\n\nThe Early Years\n\nThe Early Years is a compilation album by ZOEgirl, released on August 15, 2006. It features their early hits.\n\nTrack listing:\n\"I Believe\" (from their self-titled album, 2000)\n\"Anything Is Possible\" (from their self-titled album, 2000)\n\"Suddenly\" (from their self-titled album, 2000)\n\"Little Did I Know\" (from their self-titled album, 2000)\n\"Even If\" (from Life, 2001)\n\"Dismissed\" (from Life, 2001)\n\"Ordinary Day\" (from Life, 2001)\n\"Here and Now\" (from Life, 2001)\n\"You Get Me\" (from Different Kind of FREE, 2003)\n\"Inside Out\" (from Different Kind of FREE, 2003)\n\nTop 5 Hits\nTrack listing:\n \"I Believe\" (from their self-titled album)\n \"You Get Me\" (from Different Kind of FREE)\n \"Beautiful Name\" (from Different Kind of FREE)\n \"About You\" (from Room to Breathe)\n \"Scream\" (from Room to Breathe)\n\nThe Ultimate Collection\n\nThe Ultimate Collection is ZOEgirl's last compilation album. This album features most of ZOEgirl's greatest hits. It consists of two discs, each featuring a dozen of tracks.\n\nTrack listing:\nDisc 1:\n\"I Believe\" (from self-titled album)\n\"Anything Is Possible\" (from self-titled album)\n\"With All Of My Heart\"(from the Life album)\n\"You Get Me\"(from Different Kind of FREE)\n\"Forever 17\"(from the Life album)\n\"Suddenly\" (from self-titled album)\n\"Scream\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\"Dead Serious\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\"Different Kind of FREE\"(from Different Kind of FREE)\n\"Dismissed\"(from the Life album)\n\"Even If\"(from the Life album)\n\"Forevermore\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\nDisc 2:\n\"Let It Out\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\"Beautiful Name\"(from Different Kind of FREE)\n\"One Day\"(from With All of My Heart – The Greatest Hits)\n\"Skin Deep\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\"About You\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\"Plain\"(from the Life album)\n\"Good Girl\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\"Inside Out\" (from Different Kind of FREE)\n\"Living For You\"(from self-titled album)\n\"What Child Is This\"(from Unexpected Gifts: 12 New Sounds Of Christmas)\n\"Reason To Live\"(from Room to Breathe)\n\"Unchangeable\"(from With All of My Heart – The Greatest Hits)\n\nZOEgirl albums"
] |
[
"Blue Öyster Cult",
"Black and white years (1971-75)",
"why is it called the black and white period",
"Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik.",
"did they have any hits from this album?",
"The album featured the well-known BOC songs \"Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll\", \"Stairway to the Stars\" and \"Then Came the Last Days of May\"."
] |
C_446f633f7a7549debfadba797ef202c7_0
|
did they have any tours?
| 3 |
did Blue Öyster Cult have any tours?
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Blue Öyster Cult
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Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the well-known BOC songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars" and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct. Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from the debut album), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums. The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of headlining arenas. The album continued the trend of growing sales, and would eventually go gold. As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics. CANNOTANSWER
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During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.
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Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.
Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar"), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals). The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band's lyrics.
History
Early years as Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971)
Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, which the band agreed to. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.
In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.
Braunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. His departure led Elektra to shelve the album recorded with him on vocals.
Eric Bloom was hired by the band as their acoustic engineer and eventually became lead singer, replacing Braunstein, through a series of three unlikely coincidences. One of which was Lanier decided to join Bloom on a drive to an upstate gig, where he spent the night with Bloom's old college bandmates and got to hear old tapes of Bloom's talent as lead vocalist. Because of this, Bloom was offered the job of lead singer for Soft White Underbelly. However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded yet another album's worth of material for Elektra, but only one single ("What Is Quicksand?" b/w "Arthur Comics") was released (and only in a promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records (this album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, by Rhino Handmade Records as St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings in 2001). The album featured Bloom as their main lead singer, but Roeser also sang lead on a few songs, a pattern of sharing lead vocals that have continued throughout the band's career. Under Bloom, Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group became Stony Brook University house bands which were popular on campus.
After a few more temporary band names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971 (see below for its origin).
New York City producer/composer and jingle writer David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight-track at Lucas' studio. Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard's brother, Joe Bouchard.
Black-and-white years (1971–1975)
Their debut album Blue Öyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black-and-white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.
Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their debut album, and also a reference to the novel of the same name by Stendhal), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums.
The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of being headliners. The album continued their upward sales trend, and would eventually go gold.
As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics.
Commercial success (1975–1981)
The band's first live album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975) achieved greater success and went gold. Its success gave the band more time to work on a follow-up. The band members were able to purchase home recording equipment to record demos for their next album.
Their next studio album, Agents of Fortune (1976), was their first to go platinum and was again produced by David Lucas. It contained the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the hard rock genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love", "E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". Having recorded demos of the songs at home before recording the album, the band's songwriting process had become more individual, with none of the songs featuring the collaborative writing between the band members that had been common on their earlier albums. Although the album still featured their trademark hard rock with sinister lyrics, the songs had become more conventional in structure, and the production was more polished. For the first and only time, the album featured lead vocals from all five band members, with Allen Lanier singing lead on the song True Confessions. With Albert Bouchard singing lead on three songs and Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser singing lead on one each, Eric Bloom ended up taking the lead on only four of the album's ten songs.
For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for which they became known. They were among the first acts to use lasers in performance.
Their next album, Spectres (1977), had the FM radio hit "Godzilla", and would become one of the band's better-selling albums, with other well-known songs like "I Love the Night" and "Goin' Through the Motions". However, its sales were not as strong as those for the previous album, going gold but not platinum, becoming their first album to sell less than its predecessor. It featured even more polished production, and continued the trend of the lead vocals extensively shared between members, although Allen Lanier did not sing lead. As with the previous album, Eric Bloom sang lead on fewer than half the songs.
The band then released another live album, Some Enchanted Evening (1978). Though it was intended as another double-live album in the vein of On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Columbia insisted that it be edited down to single-album length. It was a resounding commercial success, becoming Blue Öyster Cult's most popular album and eventually selling over two million copies. It also revealed that while the band's studio work was becoming increasingly well-produced, they were still very much a hard rock band on stage.
It was followed by the studio album Mirrors (1979). For Mirrors, instead of working with previous producers Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. It featured the band's glossiest production to date. It also gave Roeser, the lead vocalist on the band's biggest hits, bigger prominence as a vocalist, singing lead on four of the nine songs. However, the resulting album sales were disappointing.
Pearlman's association with Black Sabbath led to Sabbath's Heaven and Hell producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The album found the band returning to their hard rock roots, and although both of the Bouchard brothers and guitarist Roeser all got lead vocal turns, Bloom would sing the majority of the tracks. The result was positive, with Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) receiving good reviews. The album went to number 12 in the United Kingdom, but did not do as well in the United States. The song "Black Blade", which was written by Bloom with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock, is a kind of retelling of Moorcock's epic Elric of Melniboné saga. The band also did a co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath in support of the album, calling the tour "Black and Blue".
Birch produced the band's next album as well, Fire of Unknown Origin (1981), which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album. The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You", a song Roeser had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his solo album, Flat Out (1982), but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The revival of the band's heavier sound continued, albeit with fairly heavy use of synthesizers and some noticeable New Wave influence on a few tracks. It contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy Metal, but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which had not been written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. The album marked a strong commercial resurgence for the band and achieved gold status, their first studio album since Spectres to do so.
During the tour for Fire of Unknown Origin, Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. This marked the end of the band's original and best-known lineup.
Decline and fall (1982–1987)
After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman's poem "Imaginos". Blue Öyster Cult also released a third live album Extraterrestrial Live.
The band then went to the studio for the next album, The Revölution by Night (1983), with Bruce Fairbairn as producer. After two albums of a return to a harder rocking sound, the band adopted a more radio-friendly, AOR-oriented sound with Fairbairn providing a 1980s-style production. This approach met with some success, especially on its highest-charting single, Roeser's "Shooting Shark", co-written by Patti Smith and featuring Randy Jackson on bass, which reached number 83 on the charts. Bloom's "Take Me Away" achieved some FM radio play. However, the album didn't match sales of its predecessor, failed to achieve gold status, and marked the beginning of the band's second commercial decline. After touring for Revölution, Rick Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drummer.
Blue Öyster Cult re-united with Albert Bouchard for a California tour in February 1985, infamously known as the 'Albert Returns' Tour. This arrangement was only temporary and caused more tensions between the band and Bouchard, since he had thought he would be staying on permanently, which wasn't the case. The band had only intended to use him as a last-minute fill-in until another drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard's leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit the band shortly thereafter, leaving them without a keyboardist and with only three remaining original members. This incarnation of the band would sometimes be referred to as '3ÖC' by fans , which is a pun on the number of original members left.
Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and keyboardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the album Club Ninja, which was poorly received, with only "Dancin' in the Ruins"—one of several songs on the record written entirely by outside songwriters—enjoying minimal success on radio and MTV. The best-known original on the album is "Perfect Water" written by Dharma and Jim Carroll (noted author of The Basketball Diaries). While the band members have generally been disparaging about the album in retrospect, Joe Bouchard has stated that "Perfect Water" is "perfect genius".
The band toured in Germany, after which bassist Bouchard left, leaving only two members of the classic lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser. Some people referred to the band as "Two Öyster Cult" during this period. Jon Rogers was hired to replace Joe and this version of the band finished out the 1986 tour. After it wound up that year, the band took a temporary break from recording and touring. When Blue Öyster Cult received an offer to tour in Greece in the early summer of 1987, the band reformed. Wilcox quit while Zvoncheck was fired for making excessive financial demands. Allen Lanier then was offered to rejoin and agreed, so the new line-up now featured three founding members, along with Jon Rogers returning on bass and Ron Riddle as their newest drummer.
Columbia Records was not interested in releasing the Imaginos project as an Albert Bouchard solo album so it was arranged for the record to be released in 1988 by Columbia as a Blue Öyster Cult album, with some new lead vocal overdubs from Bloom and Roeser and lead guitar overdubs from Roeser. These replaced most of Albert Bouchard's lead vocals, as well as many lead guitar parts that had been recorded by session musicians. Joe Bouchard and Allen Lanier had earlier contributed some minor keyboard and backing vocal parts to the album, allowing all five original members to be credited. The album didn't sell well (despite a positive review in Rolling Stone magazine) and though the then-current Blue Öyster Cult lineup (minus both Bouchard brothers) toured to promote Imaginos, promotion by the label was virtually non-existent. When Columbia Records' parent company CBS Records was purchased by Sony and became Sony Music Entertainment, Blue Öyster Cult were dropped from the label.
1990s and early 2000s
The band spent the next 11 years touring without releasing an album of new material, though they did contribute two new songs to the Bad Channels movie soundtrack, released in 1992, and also released an album of re-recorded songs from the band's original lineup called Cult Classic in 1994. During these years, while the three original members remained constant, there were several changes in the band's rhythm section. Ron Riddle quit in 1991 and was followed by a series of other drummers including
Chuck Burgi (1991–1992, 1992–1995, 1996–1997), John Miceli (1992, 1995), John O'Reilly (1995–1996) and Bobby Rondinelli (1997–2004). As for the bass position, Rogers left in 1995, and was replaced by Danny Miranda.
In the late 1990s, Blue Öyster Cult secured a recording contract with CMC Records (later purchased by Sanctuary Records), and continued to tour frequently. Two studio albums were released, Heaven Forbid (1998) and Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001). Both albums featured songs co-written by cyberpunk/horror novelist John Shirley. The first mostly featured Miranda on bass and Burgi on drums, though a few tracks feature earliest bassist Jon Rogers and one track features Rondinelli on drums, who had joined the band near the end of the recording. Curse of the Hidden Mirror features Miranda and Rondinelli as the rhythm section, and the pair contributed to the songwriting as well. Neither album sold well.
Another live record and DVD A Long Day's Night followed in 2002, both drawn from one concert in Chicago. This album also featured the Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Miranda, Rondinelli lineup.
Although the band's lineup had remained stable from 1997 to 2004, they began to experience personnel changes again in 2004. Rondinelli left in 2004, and was replaced by Jules Radino. Miranda left during the same year to become the bassist for Queen + Paul Rodgers in place of the retired John Deacon. He was replaced by Richie Castellano, who would also take occasional turns as a lead vocalist onstage.
In 2001, Sony/Columbia's reissue arm, Legacy Records issued expanded versions of the first four Blue Öyster Cult studio albums, including some previously unreleased demos and outtakes from album sessions, live recordings (from the Live 72 EP), and post-St. Cecilia tunes from the Stalk-Forrest Group era.
Late 2000s and 2010s
Allen Lanier retired from live performances in 2007 after not appearing with the band since late 2006. Castellano switched to rhythm guitar and keyboards (Castellano also filled in on lead guitar and vocals for an ailing Buck Dharma in two shows in 2005), and the position of bassist was taken up by Rudy Sarzo (previously a member of Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), with the band employing Danny Miranda and Jon Rogers as guest bassists to fill in when Sarzo was unavailable. Sarzo then joined as an official member of the band, although Rogers continued to occasionally fill in when Sarzo was busy.
In February 2007, the Sony Legacy remaster series continued, releasing expanded versions of studio album Spectres and live album Some Enchanted Evening.
In June 2012, the band announced that bassist Rudy Sarzo was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton.
In August of the same year, it was announced that Sony Legacy would be releasing a 17-disc boxed set entitled The Complete Columbia Albums Collection on October 30, 2012. The set includes the first round of the remastered series plus the long-awaited remastered versions of On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin, Extraterrestrial Live, The Revölution by Night, Club Ninja and Imaginos. Also exclusive to this set are two discs of rare and unreleased B-sides, demos and radio broadcasts.
Also in 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blue Öyster Cult, the then-current incarnation of the band reunited for the first time in 25 years with other original members Joe and Albert Bouchard and Allen Lanier as guests for a special event in New York.
Founding keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on August 14, 2013.
In 2016, Albert Bouchard played again as guest with the current line-up of the band, playing at shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, where Blue Öyster Cult played the album Agents of Fortune in its entirety. The shows featured songs from Agents of Fortune that had either not been played live before ("True Confessions", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", "Sinful Love", "Tenderloin", "Debbie Denise"), songs that had not been played since the album's debut tour ("Morning Final"), and songs that were either no longer or never were played frequently ("This Ain't the Summer of Love", "Tattoo Vampire"), as well as the fan favorite "Five Guitars", which had not been played since Albert initially left the band in 1981. Albert played in the following songs at the show: "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (vocals, guitar), "Sinful Love" (vocals, guitar), "Tattoo Vampire" (guitar), "Morning Final" (guitar), "Tenderloin" (cymbals), "Debbie Denise" (vocals, acoustic guitar), "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (vocals, drums), and "Five Guitars" (guitar).
In a May 2017 appearance on Castellano's "Band Geek" podcast, Bloom confirmed that there were tentative plans to release a new album in 2018 and that the band was currently considering offers from multiple record labels. He also stated that former bassist Danny Miranda would be playing with the band for the remainder of the year due to Sulton's prior touring commitments with Todd Rundgren. During the same year, the band's official website started to list Miranda as an official member, stating that Miranda had "returned to BÖC" in early 2017.
Buck Dharma stated in February 2019 that the band would be recording a new album to be released by fall. On July 10, 2019, it was announced that the band had signed to Frontiers Music, and would in fact be releasing the new album in 2020. "It's been a long time since BÖC's last studio album. Recording with Danny, Richie and Jules should be a great experience as we've been touring together for years, and Buck and I look forward to including them in the creative and recording process," said Bloom. "The current band is GREAT and has never been recorded other than live, so we feel now's the time for new songs to be written and recorded. About half of the songs for the new record exist and the rest will be finished during the process," added Buck Dharma. In February 2020, Richie Castellano posted a short video to Facebook featuring himself and Eric Bloom, stating that the band are working on the new Blue Oyster Cult record remotely by using ConnectionOpen online audio collaboration tool.
The Symbol Remains (2020–present)
In August 2020, the band announced on their website that their fifteenth studio album The Symbol Remains would be released on October 9, 2020. The span of nineteen years between Curse of the Hidden Mirror and The Symbol Remains marks the longest gap between studio albums in Blue Öyster Cult's career. The album was released to great critical reception, with tracks such as "Box in my Head" and "Nightmare Epiphany" often praised as a return to form after the band had seemingly turned away from rock and towards pop.
Musical style
Blue Öyster Cult is a hard rock band, whose music has been described as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, occult rock, biker boogie, acid rock, and progressive rock. They have also been recognized for helping pioneer genres such as stoner metal and speed metal. The band has also experimented with additional genres on specific albums. An example of this is Mirrors (1979).
The band is influenced by artists such as Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.
While Blue Öyster Cult has been noted for heavy rock, they would often add their own tongue-in-cheek style. Keeping with their image, the band would often include out-of-context fragments of Pearlman's The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos into their lyrics, giving their songs cryptic meanings. Additionally, the band would keep a folder of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations to insert into their music.
Band name and logo
The name "Blue Öyster Cult" came from a 1960s poem written by manager Sandy Pearlman. It was part of his "Imaginos" poetry, later used more extensively on their album Imaginos (1988). Pearlman had also come up with the band's earlier name, "Soft White Underbelly", from a phrase used by Winston Churchill in describing Italy during World War II. In Pearlman's poetry, the "Blue Oyster Cult" was a group of aliens who had assembled secretly to guide Earth's history. "Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release..."
In a 1976 interview published in the U.K. music magazine ZigZag, Pearlman told the story explaining the origin of the band's name was an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer".
The addition of an umlaut was suggested by Allen Lanier, but rock critic Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it just after Pearlman came up with the name, reportedly "because of the Wagnerian aspect of Metal". Other bands later copied the practice of using umlauts or diacritic marks in their own band names, such as Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and parodied by Spın̈al Tap.
The hook-and-cross logo was designed by Bill Gawlik in January 1972, and appears on all of the band's albums. In Greek mythology, "... the hook-and-cross symbol is that of Kronos (Cronus), the king of the Titans and father of Zeus ... and is the alchemical symbol for lead (a heavy metal), one of the heaviest of metals." Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description "heavy metal" would be apt for the band's sound. The hook-and-cross symbol also resembled the astrological symbol for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, and the sickle, which is associated with both Kronos (Cronus) and Saturn (both the planet and the Roman god). The logo's "... metaphysical, alchemical and mythological connotations, combined with its similarity to some religious symbols gave it a flair of decadence and mystery ..."
The band was billed, for the only time, as "The Blue Öyster Cult" on the cover and label of their second album, Tyranny and Mutation.
Legacy and influence
Blue Öyster Cult have been influential to the realm of hard rock and heavy metal, leading them to being referred to as "the thinking man's heavy metal band" due to their often cryptic lyrics, literate songwriting, and links to famous authors. They have influenced many acts including Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fates Warning, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Steel Panther, Green River (and later Mudhoney), Body Count, Possessed, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Opeth, White Zombie, Kvelertak, HIM, Turbonegro, Radio Birdman, The Cult, The Minutemen, Firehose, Hoodoo Gurus, Widespread Panic, Queens of the Stone Age, Umphrey's McGee, Stabbing Westward, Royal Trux, and Moe.
The band's influence has extended beyond the musical sphere. The lyrics of "Astronomy" have been named by author Shawn St. Jean as inspirational to the later chapters of his fantasy novel Clotho's Loom, wherein Sandy Pearlman's "Four Winds Bar" provides the setting for a portion of the action. Titles and lines from the band's songs provided structure and narrative for the third Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling) novel – Career of Evil (a Cormoran Strike novel).
Their hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was featured in the famous Saturday Night Live sketch "More Cowbell". The original recording was produced at The Record Plant in New York by David Lucas, who sang background vocals with Roeser, and introduced the now-famous cowbell part, which may have been played by himself, Albert Bouchard, or Eric Bloom.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in writer/director John Carpenter's horror film classic, Halloween (1978), the opening sequence of the miniseries adaptation of The Stand (1994) by Stephen King, and covered by The Mutton Birds for Peter Jackson's horror-comedy film The Frighteners (1996). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used throughout the comedy film The Stoned Age (1994) and plays a role in its storyline. In the film Gone Girl (2014), the song plays on the radio during a car driving scene with actor Ben Affleck. The song was also used as the opening theme and main story element in the 1996 FMV computer game "Ripper", by Take Two Interactive, and was also featured in the 2021 video game Returnal.
Members
Current members
Buck Dharma – lead guitar, lead vocals and backing vocals (1967–present)
Eric Bloom – lead vocals and backing vocals, "stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizers (1969–present)
Danny Miranda – bass, backing vocals (1995–2004, 2017–present)
Richie Castellano – keyboards, rhythm guitar, additional lead guitar, backing vocals, additional lead vocals (2007–present), bass (2004–2007)
Jules Radino – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Lyrics
During their career, Blue Öyster Cult have frequently collaborated with outside lyricists, though in the late '70s, the band members also wrote lyrics for some of their songs. Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult have included all the original members (Bloom, Roeser, Albert & Joe Bouchard, and Lanier), producer Sandy Pearlman, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley.
Discography
Studio albums
Blue Öyster Cult (1972)
Tyranny and Mutation (1973)
Secret Treaties (1974)
Agents of Fortune (1976)
Spectres (1977)
Mirrors (1979)
Cultösaurus Erectus (1980)
Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)
The Revölution by Night (1983)
Club Ninja (1985)
Imaginos (1988)
Cult Classic (1994)
Heaven Forbid (1998)
Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001)
The Symbol Remains (2020)
Bibliography
Blue Öyster Cult: Secrets Revealed!, by Martin Popoff, 303 pages (Canada, 2016)
Blue Öyster Cult: La Carrière du mal, by Mathieu Bollon and Aurélien Lemant, Camion Blanc publishing, 722 pages (France, 2013)
on track... Blue Öyster Cult (every album, every song), by Jacob Holm-Lupo, Sonic Bond Publishing, 158 pages (UK, 2019)
References
External links
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Columbia Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups from Long Island
Musical quintets
Occult rock musical groups
Psychedelic rock music groups from New York (state)
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[
"The Glitter and Doom Tour was a concert tour by American rock musician Tom Waits from June-August 2008.\n\nBackground\nThe tour was announced at a performance art press conference on May 5, 2008.\n\nTickets\nTickets for Waits' summer shows were limited to two per person but, in an effort to beat ticket touts, a valid I.D. (passport or driving license) matching the name on the ticket was required to gain entry. Any concert-goer who did not have a valid I.D. or was found to be in possession of a ticket that had been resold – electronic scanners were employed – was not allowed in and did not get a refund.\n\nBand \nAs of July 22 Tom Waits band consisted of the following:\n Vincent Henry - woodwinds\n Casey Waits - drums\n Omar Torrez - guitar/banjo\n Patrick Warren - keyboard\n Seth Ford-Young - bass\n Sullivan Waits - clarinet/conga\n\nTour dates\n\nNotes \n\n2008 concert tours\nTom Waits concert tours",
"As of 26 June 2017, 835 players have made an appearance for the British and Irish Lions, a rugby union team selected from players eligible for any of the Home Nations – the national sides of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Lions generally select international players, but they can pick uncapped players available to any one of the four unions. Despite the Lions team name only being used officially since 1950, tours since 1910 by combined teams have been undertaken with the support of the four home unions, and these along with other tours since 1888 by combined teams have been recognised retrospectively as Lions tours. Eligible players in these tours are included in this list.\n\nUnlike the majority of international sides, who will only recognise people that have participated in test matches against international opposition, the Lions consider an appearance for the team against any opposition sufficient to be recognised as a Lions player. This includes players who have appeared as a replacement during a Lions match, but not those who have only been named as part of a Lions touring squad or included as part of a match day squad as a replacement and not participated in a match.\n\nCeremonial caps were presented for the first time in April 2018 to all players who had featured for the Lions up to that point. The caps were sent out to all 419 living players, and to the next-of-kin for the remaining 416 players that had represented the Lions up to this point.\n\nThe numbers are assigned in order of each player's first appearance. Where two or more players make their first appearance simultaneously (for example at the start of a match, or where multiple replacements take to the field at the same time), numbers are assigned in alphabetical order by surname.\n\nList\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n \nBritish and Irish Lions"
] |
[
"Blue Öyster Cult",
"Black and white years (1971-75)",
"why is it called the black and white period",
"Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik.",
"did they have any hits from this album?",
"The album featured the well-known BOC songs \"Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll\", \"Stairway to the Stars\" and \"Then Came the Last Days of May\".",
"did they have any tours?",
"During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct."
] |
C_446f633f7a7549debfadba797ef202c7_0
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was this all rock music?
| 4 |
was Blue Öyster Cult all rock music?
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Blue Öyster Cult
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Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the well-known BOC songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars" and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct. Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from the debut album), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums. The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of headlining arenas. The album continued the trend of growing sales, and would eventually go gold. As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics. CANNOTANSWER
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songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots.
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Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.
Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar"), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals). The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band's lyrics.
History
Early years as Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971)
Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, which the band agreed to. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.
In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.
Braunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. His departure led Elektra to shelve the album recorded with him on vocals.
Eric Bloom was hired by the band as their acoustic engineer and eventually became lead singer, replacing Braunstein, through a series of three unlikely coincidences. One of which was Lanier decided to join Bloom on a drive to an upstate gig, where he spent the night with Bloom's old college bandmates and got to hear old tapes of Bloom's talent as lead vocalist. Because of this, Bloom was offered the job of lead singer for Soft White Underbelly. However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded yet another album's worth of material for Elektra, but only one single ("What Is Quicksand?" b/w "Arthur Comics") was released (and only in a promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records (this album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, by Rhino Handmade Records as St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings in 2001). The album featured Bloom as their main lead singer, but Roeser also sang lead on a few songs, a pattern of sharing lead vocals that have continued throughout the band's career. Under Bloom, Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group became Stony Brook University house bands which were popular on campus.
After a few more temporary band names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971 (see below for its origin).
New York City producer/composer and jingle writer David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight-track at Lucas' studio. Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard's brother, Joe Bouchard.
Black-and-white years (1971–1975)
Their debut album Blue Öyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black-and-white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.
Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their debut album, and also a reference to the novel of the same name by Stendhal), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums.
The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of being headliners. The album continued their upward sales trend, and would eventually go gold.
As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics.
Commercial success (1975–1981)
The band's first live album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975) achieved greater success and went gold. Its success gave the band more time to work on a follow-up. The band members were able to purchase home recording equipment to record demos for their next album.
Their next studio album, Agents of Fortune (1976), was their first to go platinum and was again produced by David Lucas. It contained the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the hard rock genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love", "E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". Having recorded demos of the songs at home before recording the album, the band's songwriting process had become more individual, with none of the songs featuring the collaborative writing between the band members that had been common on their earlier albums. Although the album still featured their trademark hard rock with sinister lyrics, the songs had become more conventional in structure, and the production was more polished. For the first and only time, the album featured lead vocals from all five band members, with Allen Lanier singing lead on the song True Confessions. With Albert Bouchard singing lead on three songs and Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser singing lead on one each, Eric Bloom ended up taking the lead on only four of the album's ten songs.
For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for which they became known. They were among the first acts to use lasers in performance.
Their next album, Spectres (1977), had the FM radio hit "Godzilla", and would become one of the band's better-selling albums, with other well-known songs like "I Love the Night" and "Goin' Through the Motions". However, its sales were not as strong as those for the previous album, going gold but not platinum, becoming their first album to sell less than its predecessor. It featured even more polished production, and continued the trend of the lead vocals extensively shared between members, although Allen Lanier did not sing lead. As with the previous album, Eric Bloom sang lead on fewer than half the songs.
The band then released another live album, Some Enchanted Evening (1978). Though it was intended as another double-live album in the vein of On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Columbia insisted that it be edited down to single-album length. It was a resounding commercial success, becoming Blue Öyster Cult's most popular album and eventually selling over two million copies. It also revealed that while the band's studio work was becoming increasingly well-produced, they were still very much a hard rock band on stage.
It was followed by the studio album Mirrors (1979). For Mirrors, instead of working with previous producers Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. It featured the band's glossiest production to date. It also gave Roeser, the lead vocalist on the band's biggest hits, bigger prominence as a vocalist, singing lead on four of the nine songs. However, the resulting album sales were disappointing.
Pearlman's association with Black Sabbath led to Sabbath's Heaven and Hell producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The album found the band returning to their hard rock roots, and although both of the Bouchard brothers and guitarist Roeser all got lead vocal turns, Bloom would sing the majority of the tracks. The result was positive, with Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) receiving good reviews. The album went to number 12 in the United Kingdom, but did not do as well in the United States. The song "Black Blade", which was written by Bloom with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock, is a kind of retelling of Moorcock's epic Elric of Melniboné saga. The band also did a co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath in support of the album, calling the tour "Black and Blue".
Birch produced the band's next album as well, Fire of Unknown Origin (1981), which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album. The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You", a song Roeser had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his solo album, Flat Out (1982), but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The revival of the band's heavier sound continued, albeit with fairly heavy use of synthesizers and some noticeable New Wave influence on a few tracks. It contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy Metal, but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which had not been written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. The album marked a strong commercial resurgence for the band and achieved gold status, their first studio album since Spectres to do so.
During the tour for Fire of Unknown Origin, Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. This marked the end of the band's original and best-known lineup.
Decline and fall (1982–1987)
After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman's poem "Imaginos". Blue Öyster Cult also released a third live album Extraterrestrial Live.
The band then went to the studio for the next album, The Revölution by Night (1983), with Bruce Fairbairn as producer. After two albums of a return to a harder rocking sound, the band adopted a more radio-friendly, AOR-oriented sound with Fairbairn providing a 1980s-style production. This approach met with some success, especially on its highest-charting single, Roeser's "Shooting Shark", co-written by Patti Smith and featuring Randy Jackson on bass, which reached number 83 on the charts. Bloom's "Take Me Away" achieved some FM radio play. However, the album didn't match sales of its predecessor, failed to achieve gold status, and marked the beginning of the band's second commercial decline. After touring for Revölution, Rick Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drummer.
Blue Öyster Cult re-united with Albert Bouchard for a California tour in February 1985, infamously known as the 'Albert Returns' Tour. This arrangement was only temporary and caused more tensions between the band and Bouchard, since he had thought he would be staying on permanently, which wasn't the case. The band had only intended to use him as a last-minute fill-in until another drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard's leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit the band shortly thereafter, leaving them without a keyboardist and with only three remaining original members. This incarnation of the band would sometimes be referred to as '3ÖC' by fans , which is a pun on the number of original members left.
Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and keyboardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the album Club Ninja, which was poorly received, with only "Dancin' in the Ruins"—one of several songs on the record written entirely by outside songwriters—enjoying minimal success on radio and MTV. The best-known original on the album is "Perfect Water" written by Dharma and Jim Carroll (noted author of The Basketball Diaries). While the band members have generally been disparaging about the album in retrospect, Joe Bouchard has stated that "Perfect Water" is "perfect genius".
The band toured in Germany, after which bassist Bouchard left, leaving only two members of the classic lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser. Some people referred to the band as "Two Öyster Cult" during this period. Jon Rogers was hired to replace Joe and this version of the band finished out the 1986 tour. After it wound up that year, the band took a temporary break from recording and touring. When Blue Öyster Cult received an offer to tour in Greece in the early summer of 1987, the band reformed. Wilcox quit while Zvoncheck was fired for making excessive financial demands. Allen Lanier then was offered to rejoin and agreed, so the new line-up now featured three founding members, along with Jon Rogers returning on bass and Ron Riddle as their newest drummer.
Columbia Records was not interested in releasing the Imaginos project as an Albert Bouchard solo album so it was arranged for the record to be released in 1988 by Columbia as a Blue Öyster Cult album, with some new lead vocal overdubs from Bloom and Roeser and lead guitar overdubs from Roeser. These replaced most of Albert Bouchard's lead vocals, as well as many lead guitar parts that had been recorded by session musicians. Joe Bouchard and Allen Lanier had earlier contributed some minor keyboard and backing vocal parts to the album, allowing all five original members to be credited. The album didn't sell well (despite a positive review in Rolling Stone magazine) and though the then-current Blue Öyster Cult lineup (minus both Bouchard brothers) toured to promote Imaginos, promotion by the label was virtually non-existent. When Columbia Records' parent company CBS Records was purchased by Sony and became Sony Music Entertainment, Blue Öyster Cult were dropped from the label.
1990s and early 2000s
The band spent the next 11 years touring without releasing an album of new material, though they did contribute two new songs to the Bad Channels movie soundtrack, released in 1992, and also released an album of re-recorded songs from the band's original lineup called Cult Classic in 1994. During these years, while the three original members remained constant, there were several changes in the band's rhythm section. Ron Riddle quit in 1991 and was followed by a series of other drummers including
Chuck Burgi (1991–1992, 1992–1995, 1996–1997), John Miceli (1992, 1995), John O'Reilly (1995–1996) and Bobby Rondinelli (1997–2004). As for the bass position, Rogers left in 1995, and was replaced by Danny Miranda.
In the late 1990s, Blue Öyster Cult secured a recording contract with CMC Records (later purchased by Sanctuary Records), and continued to tour frequently. Two studio albums were released, Heaven Forbid (1998) and Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001). Both albums featured songs co-written by cyberpunk/horror novelist John Shirley. The first mostly featured Miranda on bass and Burgi on drums, though a few tracks feature earliest bassist Jon Rogers and one track features Rondinelli on drums, who had joined the band near the end of the recording. Curse of the Hidden Mirror features Miranda and Rondinelli as the rhythm section, and the pair contributed to the songwriting as well. Neither album sold well.
Another live record and DVD A Long Day's Night followed in 2002, both drawn from one concert in Chicago. This album also featured the Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Miranda, Rondinelli lineup.
Although the band's lineup had remained stable from 1997 to 2004, they began to experience personnel changes again in 2004. Rondinelli left in 2004, and was replaced by Jules Radino. Miranda left during the same year to become the bassist for Queen + Paul Rodgers in place of the retired John Deacon. He was replaced by Richie Castellano, who would also take occasional turns as a lead vocalist onstage.
In 2001, Sony/Columbia's reissue arm, Legacy Records issued expanded versions of the first four Blue Öyster Cult studio albums, including some previously unreleased demos and outtakes from album sessions, live recordings (from the Live 72 EP), and post-St. Cecilia tunes from the Stalk-Forrest Group era.
Late 2000s and 2010s
Allen Lanier retired from live performances in 2007 after not appearing with the band since late 2006. Castellano switched to rhythm guitar and keyboards (Castellano also filled in on lead guitar and vocals for an ailing Buck Dharma in two shows in 2005), and the position of bassist was taken up by Rudy Sarzo (previously a member of Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), with the band employing Danny Miranda and Jon Rogers as guest bassists to fill in when Sarzo was unavailable. Sarzo then joined as an official member of the band, although Rogers continued to occasionally fill in when Sarzo was busy.
In February 2007, the Sony Legacy remaster series continued, releasing expanded versions of studio album Spectres and live album Some Enchanted Evening.
In June 2012, the band announced that bassist Rudy Sarzo was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton.
In August of the same year, it was announced that Sony Legacy would be releasing a 17-disc boxed set entitled The Complete Columbia Albums Collection on October 30, 2012. The set includes the first round of the remastered series plus the long-awaited remastered versions of On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin, Extraterrestrial Live, The Revölution by Night, Club Ninja and Imaginos. Also exclusive to this set are two discs of rare and unreleased B-sides, demos and radio broadcasts.
Also in 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blue Öyster Cult, the then-current incarnation of the band reunited for the first time in 25 years with other original members Joe and Albert Bouchard and Allen Lanier as guests for a special event in New York.
Founding keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on August 14, 2013.
In 2016, Albert Bouchard played again as guest with the current line-up of the band, playing at shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, where Blue Öyster Cult played the album Agents of Fortune in its entirety. The shows featured songs from Agents of Fortune that had either not been played live before ("True Confessions", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", "Sinful Love", "Tenderloin", "Debbie Denise"), songs that had not been played since the album's debut tour ("Morning Final"), and songs that were either no longer or never were played frequently ("This Ain't the Summer of Love", "Tattoo Vampire"), as well as the fan favorite "Five Guitars", which had not been played since Albert initially left the band in 1981. Albert played in the following songs at the show: "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (vocals, guitar), "Sinful Love" (vocals, guitar), "Tattoo Vampire" (guitar), "Morning Final" (guitar), "Tenderloin" (cymbals), "Debbie Denise" (vocals, acoustic guitar), "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (vocals, drums), and "Five Guitars" (guitar).
In a May 2017 appearance on Castellano's "Band Geek" podcast, Bloom confirmed that there were tentative plans to release a new album in 2018 and that the band was currently considering offers from multiple record labels. He also stated that former bassist Danny Miranda would be playing with the band for the remainder of the year due to Sulton's prior touring commitments with Todd Rundgren. During the same year, the band's official website started to list Miranda as an official member, stating that Miranda had "returned to BÖC" in early 2017.
Buck Dharma stated in February 2019 that the band would be recording a new album to be released by fall. On July 10, 2019, it was announced that the band had signed to Frontiers Music, and would in fact be releasing the new album in 2020. "It's been a long time since BÖC's last studio album. Recording with Danny, Richie and Jules should be a great experience as we've been touring together for years, and Buck and I look forward to including them in the creative and recording process," said Bloom. "The current band is GREAT and has never been recorded other than live, so we feel now's the time for new songs to be written and recorded. About half of the songs for the new record exist and the rest will be finished during the process," added Buck Dharma. In February 2020, Richie Castellano posted a short video to Facebook featuring himself and Eric Bloom, stating that the band are working on the new Blue Oyster Cult record remotely by using ConnectionOpen online audio collaboration tool.
The Symbol Remains (2020–present)
In August 2020, the band announced on their website that their fifteenth studio album The Symbol Remains would be released on October 9, 2020. The span of nineteen years between Curse of the Hidden Mirror and The Symbol Remains marks the longest gap between studio albums in Blue Öyster Cult's career. The album was released to great critical reception, with tracks such as "Box in my Head" and "Nightmare Epiphany" often praised as a return to form after the band had seemingly turned away from rock and towards pop.
Musical style
Blue Öyster Cult is a hard rock band, whose music has been described as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, occult rock, biker boogie, acid rock, and progressive rock. They have also been recognized for helping pioneer genres such as stoner metal and speed metal. The band has also experimented with additional genres on specific albums. An example of this is Mirrors (1979).
The band is influenced by artists such as Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.
While Blue Öyster Cult has been noted for heavy rock, they would often add their own tongue-in-cheek style. Keeping with their image, the band would often include out-of-context fragments of Pearlman's The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos into their lyrics, giving their songs cryptic meanings. Additionally, the band would keep a folder of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations to insert into their music.
Band name and logo
The name "Blue Öyster Cult" came from a 1960s poem written by manager Sandy Pearlman. It was part of his "Imaginos" poetry, later used more extensively on their album Imaginos (1988). Pearlman had also come up with the band's earlier name, "Soft White Underbelly", from a phrase used by Winston Churchill in describing Italy during World War II. In Pearlman's poetry, the "Blue Oyster Cult" was a group of aliens who had assembled secretly to guide Earth's history. "Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release..."
In a 1976 interview published in the U.K. music magazine ZigZag, Pearlman told the story explaining the origin of the band's name was an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer".
The addition of an umlaut was suggested by Allen Lanier, but rock critic Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it just after Pearlman came up with the name, reportedly "because of the Wagnerian aspect of Metal". Other bands later copied the practice of using umlauts or diacritic marks in their own band names, such as Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and parodied by Spın̈al Tap.
The hook-and-cross logo was designed by Bill Gawlik in January 1972, and appears on all of the band's albums. In Greek mythology, "... the hook-and-cross symbol is that of Kronos (Cronus), the king of the Titans and father of Zeus ... and is the alchemical symbol for lead (a heavy metal), one of the heaviest of metals." Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description "heavy metal" would be apt for the band's sound. The hook-and-cross symbol also resembled the astrological symbol for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, and the sickle, which is associated with both Kronos (Cronus) and Saturn (both the planet and the Roman god). The logo's "... metaphysical, alchemical and mythological connotations, combined with its similarity to some religious symbols gave it a flair of decadence and mystery ..."
The band was billed, for the only time, as "The Blue Öyster Cult" on the cover and label of their second album, Tyranny and Mutation.
Legacy and influence
Blue Öyster Cult have been influential to the realm of hard rock and heavy metal, leading them to being referred to as "the thinking man's heavy metal band" due to their often cryptic lyrics, literate songwriting, and links to famous authors. They have influenced many acts including Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fates Warning, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Steel Panther, Green River (and later Mudhoney), Body Count, Possessed, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Opeth, White Zombie, Kvelertak, HIM, Turbonegro, Radio Birdman, The Cult, The Minutemen, Firehose, Hoodoo Gurus, Widespread Panic, Queens of the Stone Age, Umphrey's McGee, Stabbing Westward, Royal Trux, and Moe.
The band's influence has extended beyond the musical sphere. The lyrics of "Astronomy" have been named by author Shawn St. Jean as inspirational to the later chapters of his fantasy novel Clotho's Loom, wherein Sandy Pearlman's "Four Winds Bar" provides the setting for a portion of the action. Titles and lines from the band's songs provided structure and narrative for the third Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling) novel – Career of Evil (a Cormoran Strike novel).
Their hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was featured in the famous Saturday Night Live sketch "More Cowbell". The original recording was produced at The Record Plant in New York by David Lucas, who sang background vocals with Roeser, and introduced the now-famous cowbell part, which may have been played by himself, Albert Bouchard, or Eric Bloom.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in writer/director John Carpenter's horror film classic, Halloween (1978), the opening sequence of the miniseries adaptation of The Stand (1994) by Stephen King, and covered by The Mutton Birds for Peter Jackson's horror-comedy film The Frighteners (1996). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used throughout the comedy film The Stoned Age (1994) and plays a role in its storyline. In the film Gone Girl (2014), the song plays on the radio during a car driving scene with actor Ben Affleck. The song was also used as the opening theme and main story element in the 1996 FMV computer game "Ripper", by Take Two Interactive, and was also featured in the 2021 video game Returnal.
Members
Current members
Buck Dharma – lead guitar, lead vocals and backing vocals (1967–present)
Eric Bloom – lead vocals and backing vocals, "stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizers (1969–present)
Danny Miranda – bass, backing vocals (1995–2004, 2017–present)
Richie Castellano – keyboards, rhythm guitar, additional lead guitar, backing vocals, additional lead vocals (2007–present), bass (2004–2007)
Jules Radino – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Lyrics
During their career, Blue Öyster Cult have frequently collaborated with outside lyricists, though in the late '70s, the band members also wrote lyrics for some of their songs. Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult have included all the original members (Bloom, Roeser, Albert & Joe Bouchard, and Lanier), producer Sandy Pearlman, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley.
Discography
Studio albums
Blue Öyster Cult (1972)
Tyranny and Mutation (1973)
Secret Treaties (1974)
Agents of Fortune (1976)
Spectres (1977)
Mirrors (1979)
Cultösaurus Erectus (1980)
Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)
The Revölution by Night (1983)
Club Ninja (1985)
Imaginos (1988)
Cult Classic (1994)
Heaven Forbid (1998)
Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001)
The Symbol Remains (2020)
Bibliography
Blue Öyster Cult: Secrets Revealed!, by Martin Popoff, 303 pages (Canada, 2016)
Blue Öyster Cult: La Carrière du mal, by Mathieu Bollon and Aurélien Lemant, Camion Blanc publishing, 722 pages (France, 2013)
on track... Blue Öyster Cult (every album, every song), by Jacob Holm-Lupo, Sonic Bond Publishing, 158 pages (UK, 2019)
References
External links
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Columbia Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups from Long Island
Musical quintets
Occult rock musical groups
Psychedelic rock music groups from New York (state)
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[
"Rock music of West Bengal originated in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The first Bengali rock band in West Bengal and India was Moheener Ghoraguli. In modern times, in this type of music distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums are used, sometimes accompanied with pianos and keyboards. In early times the instruments used in modern times were also accompanied by saxophone, flute, violin and bass violin.\n\nHistory\n\nOrigin (1960s–1970s) \n\nBengali rock in Kolkata originated when the first band Moheener Ghoraguli was formed in 1975 and played in many concerts. The band was inspired by Bob Dylan and many other western artists. Their music was a mixture of a wide variety of influences, including the Baul and folk traditions of Bengali and rock. \n\nAlong with them, the Kolkata based English Rock Band called High (formed 1974) consisting of Late Dilip Balakrishnan (who was also part of the Great Bear rock band), Nondon Bagchi, Lew Hilt, Subhendu Chatterjee and Adi Irani started composing and performing Original Songs.A collection of the band's recordings were released on the Saregama label in 2009.\n\nEmergence (1990s) \n\nMost of the Bengali rock bands in Kolkata were formed after the 1990s. The bands in this era started using many types of effects like distortion, wah wah, flanger, phaser, and delay in their music.\n\nKrosswindz, a Bengali rock band based in Kolkata, India, was formed in 1990, and have played all over India and abroad, helping to urbanize and popularize the rock music of Bengal. Krosswindz have recorded ten albums, the highest number ever recorded by a Kolkatan rock band. The legendary Bengali rock band Abhilasha was also formed during this period. Their first album, a mixture of delightful rock and melody, was released by the original band members in 1997. Many bands like Bhoomi, Cactus, Parash Pathar, Chandrabindoo, Hip Pocket, Kalpurush, Fossils, and Lakkhichhara were formed later in this era. Fossils and Cactus have also brought Bengali metal into this era. Both Fossils and Cactus are regarded as the best Bengali hard rock bands, and they have toured all over India and abroad. All their albums and singles have been successful. This era also saw emergence of new bands like Udaan, Agantuk and others.\n\nIn 1994, the opening of Someplace Else (a pub which also hosts live music) changed the rock scene in Kolkata. Now it hosts live music for approximately nine hours every night.\n\nNew millennium (2000s) \nMany bands formed in the 2000s were influenced by guitar-heavy music. As metal became popular in the 2000s, many bands like Insomnia and Underground Authority started playing heavy metal and alternative music.\n\nChronic Xorn was the first band from Kolkata to record a heavy metal album. Death Destruction Sermon is their latest album, released in 2010, it consists of six tracks, and the full-length version of the album is 25 minutes 45 seconds.\n\nAs computer technology became more accessible and music software advanced in the 2000s, it became possible to create high quality music using little more than a single laptop computer. This resulted in a massive increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music available to the general public via the expanding internet. Many underground metal bands like Nitric Dreams and Crystal and the Witches from Kolkata also started recording and releasing singles on their blogs.\n\nTo encourage the Bengali rock scene, the Bangla Rock Magazine was started on 3 July 2013, covering exclusively Bengali rock.\n\nSee also\n\n Bangladeshi rock\n Indian rock\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n20th-century music genres\n21st-century music genres\nBengali music\nIndian music\nRock music genres\nMusic of Bengal",
"Wiesław Weiss (born 1956) is a Polish journalist and writer interested in rock music and film.\n\nWeiss first rock music article was for Jazz magazine (the magazine subsequently changed its name to Magazyn Muzyczny) and he has written for many other magazines over the years, including Film magazine and Playboy. He has also worked in radio, concentrating on rock music. In 1991 he and his friends created a monthly magazine called Tylko Rock (Just Rock), which changed its name to Teraz Rock (Now Rock) in 2003; Weiss has been editor-in-chief throughout this time.\n\nIn 1991 Weiss completed his first Rock Encyclopaedia, which was published by Iskry and sold more than 100,000 copies. He has published a book about Pink Floyd: About Cows, Pigs, Bugs and all the Music by Pink Floyd. He has also published a book about Roger Waters: War Games–About all the Music of Roger Waters.\n\nHe has conducted innumerable interviews with rock stars, and the material from some of these was collected in the book The Art of Rebellion: Conversations with the Saints and Sinners of Rock Music.\n\nThe Great Rock Encyclopaedia, the first two parts of which have been published (part 2 in 2007), is a unique work, the single largest and most comprehensive encyclopaedia of rock music ever published anywhere in the world.\n\nIn 2009, his book Kult. Biała księga was released.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nGreat Rock Encyclopaedia, vol. 1\nGreat Rock Encyclopaedia, vol. 2\n\n1956 births\nLiving people\nPolish journalists\nPolish male writers"
] |
[
"Blue Öyster Cult",
"Black and white years (1971-75)",
"why is it called the black and white period",
"Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik.",
"did they have any hits from this album?",
"The album featured the well-known BOC songs \"Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll\", \"Stairway to the Stars\" and \"Then Came the Last Days of May\".",
"did they have any tours?",
"During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.",
"was this all rock music?",
"songs like \"She's As Beautiful As a Foot\" and \"Redeemed\" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots."
] |
C_446f633f7a7549debfadba797ef202c7_0
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did they tour with rock bands?
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did Blue Öyster Cult tour with rock bands?
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Blue Öyster Cult
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Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the well-known BOC songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars" and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct. Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from the debut album), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums. The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of headlining arenas. The album continued the trend of growing sales, and would eventually go gold. As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics. CANNOTANSWER
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Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper.
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Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.
Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar"), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals). The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band's lyrics.
History
Early years as Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971)
Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, which the band agreed to. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.
In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.
Braunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. His departure led Elektra to shelve the album recorded with him on vocals.
Eric Bloom was hired by the band as their acoustic engineer and eventually became lead singer, replacing Braunstein, through a series of three unlikely coincidences. One of which was Lanier decided to join Bloom on a drive to an upstate gig, where he spent the night with Bloom's old college bandmates and got to hear old tapes of Bloom's talent as lead vocalist. Because of this, Bloom was offered the job of lead singer for Soft White Underbelly. However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded yet another album's worth of material for Elektra, but only one single ("What Is Quicksand?" b/w "Arthur Comics") was released (and only in a promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records (this album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, by Rhino Handmade Records as St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings in 2001). The album featured Bloom as their main lead singer, but Roeser also sang lead on a few songs, a pattern of sharing lead vocals that have continued throughout the band's career. Under Bloom, Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group became Stony Brook University house bands which were popular on campus.
After a few more temporary band names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971 (see below for its origin).
New York City producer/composer and jingle writer David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight-track at Lucas' studio. Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard's brother, Joe Bouchard.
Black-and-white years (1971–1975)
Their debut album Blue Öyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black-and-white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.
Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their debut album, and also a reference to the novel of the same name by Stendhal), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums.
The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of being headliners. The album continued their upward sales trend, and would eventually go gold.
As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics.
Commercial success (1975–1981)
The band's first live album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975) achieved greater success and went gold. Its success gave the band more time to work on a follow-up. The band members were able to purchase home recording equipment to record demos for their next album.
Their next studio album, Agents of Fortune (1976), was their first to go platinum and was again produced by David Lucas. It contained the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the hard rock genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love", "E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". Having recorded demos of the songs at home before recording the album, the band's songwriting process had become more individual, with none of the songs featuring the collaborative writing between the band members that had been common on their earlier albums. Although the album still featured their trademark hard rock with sinister lyrics, the songs had become more conventional in structure, and the production was more polished. For the first and only time, the album featured lead vocals from all five band members, with Allen Lanier singing lead on the song True Confessions. With Albert Bouchard singing lead on three songs and Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser singing lead on one each, Eric Bloom ended up taking the lead on only four of the album's ten songs.
For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for which they became known. They were among the first acts to use lasers in performance.
Their next album, Spectres (1977), had the FM radio hit "Godzilla", and would become one of the band's better-selling albums, with other well-known songs like "I Love the Night" and "Goin' Through the Motions". However, its sales were not as strong as those for the previous album, going gold but not platinum, becoming their first album to sell less than its predecessor. It featured even more polished production, and continued the trend of the lead vocals extensively shared between members, although Allen Lanier did not sing lead. As with the previous album, Eric Bloom sang lead on fewer than half the songs.
The band then released another live album, Some Enchanted Evening (1978). Though it was intended as another double-live album in the vein of On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Columbia insisted that it be edited down to single-album length. It was a resounding commercial success, becoming Blue Öyster Cult's most popular album and eventually selling over two million copies. It also revealed that while the band's studio work was becoming increasingly well-produced, they were still very much a hard rock band on stage.
It was followed by the studio album Mirrors (1979). For Mirrors, instead of working with previous producers Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. It featured the band's glossiest production to date. It also gave Roeser, the lead vocalist on the band's biggest hits, bigger prominence as a vocalist, singing lead on four of the nine songs. However, the resulting album sales were disappointing.
Pearlman's association with Black Sabbath led to Sabbath's Heaven and Hell producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The album found the band returning to their hard rock roots, and although both of the Bouchard brothers and guitarist Roeser all got lead vocal turns, Bloom would sing the majority of the tracks. The result was positive, with Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) receiving good reviews. The album went to number 12 in the United Kingdom, but did not do as well in the United States. The song "Black Blade", which was written by Bloom with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock, is a kind of retelling of Moorcock's epic Elric of Melniboné saga. The band also did a co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath in support of the album, calling the tour "Black and Blue".
Birch produced the band's next album as well, Fire of Unknown Origin (1981), which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album. The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You", a song Roeser had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his solo album, Flat Out (1982), but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The revival of the band's heavier sound continued, albeit with fairly heavy use of synthesizers and some noticeable New Wave influence on a few tracks. It contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy Metal, but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which had not been written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. The album marked a strong commercial resurgence for the band and achieved gold status, their first studio album since Spectres to do so.
During the tour for Fire of Unknown Origin, Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. This marked the end of the band's original and best-known lineup.
Decline and fall (1982–1987)
After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman's poem "Imaginos". Blue Öyster Cult also released a third live album Extraterrestrial Live.
The band then went to the studio for the next album, The Revölution by Night (1983), with Bruce Fairbairn as producer. After two albums of a return to a harder rocking sound, the band adopted a more radio-friendly, AOR-oriented sound with Fairbairn providing a 1980s-style production. This approach met with some success, especially on its highest-charting single, Roeser's "Shooting Shark", co-written by Patti Smith and featuring Randy Jackson on bass, which reached number 83 on the charts. Bloom's "Take Me Away" achieved some FM radio play. However, the album didn't match sales of its predecessor, failed to achieve gold status, and marked the beginning of the band's second commercial decline. After touring for Revölution, Rick Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drummer.
Blue Öyster Cult re-united with Albert Bouchard for a California tour in February 1985, infamously known as the 'Albert Returns' Tour. This arrangement was only temporary and caused more tensions between the band and Bouchard, since he had thought he would be staying on permanently, which wasn't the case. The band had only intended to use him as a last-minute fill-in until another drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard's leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit the band shortly thereafter, leaving them without a keyboardist and with only three remaining original members. This incarnation of the band would sometimes be referred to as '3ÖC' by fans , which is a pun on the number of original members left.
Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and keyboardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the album Club Ninja, which was poorly received, with only "Dancin' in the Ruins"—one of several songs on the record written entirely by outside songwriters—enjoying minimal success on radio and MTV. The best-known original on the album is "Perfect Water" written by Dharma and Jim Carroll (noted author of The Basketball Diaries). While the band members have generally been disparaging about the album in retrospect, Joe Bouchard has stated that "Perfect Water" is "perfect genius".
The band toured in Germany, after which bassist Bouchard left, leaving only two members of the classic lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser. Some people referred to the band as "Two Öyster Cult" during this period. Jon Rogers was hired to replace Joe and this version of the band finished out the 1986 tour. After it wound up that year, the band took a temporary break from recording and touring. When Blue Öyster Cult received an offer to tour in Greece in the early summer of 1987, the band reformed. Wilcox quit while Zvoncheck was fired for making excessive financial demands. Allen Lanier then was offered to rejoin and agreed, so the new line-up now featured three founding members, along with Jon Rogers returning on bass and Ron Riddle as their newest drummer.
Columbia Records was not interested in releasing the Imaginos project as an Albert Bouchard solo album so it was arranged for the record to be released in 1988 by Columbia as a Blue Öyster Cult album, with some new lead vocal overdubs from Bloom and Roeser and lead guitar overdubs from Roeser. These replaced most of Albert Bouchard's lead vocals, as well as many lead guitar parts that had been recorded by session musicians. Joe Bouchard and Allen Lanier had earlier contributed some minor keyboard and backing vocal parts to the album, allowing all five original members to be credited. The album didn't sell well (despite a positive review in Rolling Stone magazine) and though the then-current Blue Öyster Cult lineup (minus both Bouchard brothers) toured to promote Imaginos, promotion by the label was virtually non-existent. When Columbia Records' parent company CBS Records was purchased by Sony and became Sony Music Entertainment, Blue Öyster Cult were dropped from the label.
1990s and early 2000s
The band spent the next 11 years touring without releasing an album of new material, though they did contribute two new songs to the Bad Channels movie soundtrack, released in 1992, and also released an album of re-recorded songs from the band's original lineup called Cult Classic in 1994. During these years, while the three original members remained constant, there were several changes in the band's rhythm section. Ron Riddle quit in 1991 and was followed by a series of other drummers including
Chuck Burgi (1991–1992, 1992–1995, 1996–1997), John Miceli (1992, 1995), John O'Reilly (1995–1996) and Bobby Rondinelli (1997–2004). As for the bass position, Rogers left in 1995, and was replaced by Danny Miranda.
In the late 1990s, Blue Öyster Cult secured a recording contract with CMC Records (later purchased by Sanctuary Records), and continued to tour frequently. Two studio albums were released, Heaven Forbid (1998) and Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001). Both albums featured songs co-written by cyberpunk/horror novelist John Shirley. The first mostly featured Miranda on bass and Burgi on drums, though a few tracks feature earliest bassist Jon Rogers and one track features Rondinelli on drums, who had joined the band near the end of the recording. Curse of the Hidden Mirror features Miranda and Rondinelli as the rhythm section, and the pair contributed to the songwriting as well. Neither album sold well.
Another live record and DVD A Long Day's Night followed in 2002, both drawn from one concert in Chicago. This album also featured the Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Miranda, Rondinelli lineup.
Although the band's lineup had remained stable from 1997 to 2004, they began to experience personnel changes again in 2004. Rondinelli left in 2004, and was replaced by Jules Radino. Miranda left during the same year to become the bassist for Queen + Paul Rodgers in place of the retired John Deacon. He was replaced by Richie Castellano, who would also take occasional turns as a lead vocalist onstage.
In 2001, Sony/Columbia's reissue arm, Legacy Records issued expanded versions of the first four Blue Öyster Cult studio albums, including some previously unreleased demos and outtakes from album sessions, live recordings (from the Live 72 EP), and post-St. Cecilia tunes from the Stalk-Forrest Group era.
Late 2000s and 2010s
Allen Lanier retired from live performances in 2007 after not appearing with the band since late 2006. Castellano switched to rhythm guitar and keyboards (Castellano also filled in on lead guitar and vocals for an ailing Buck Dharma in two shows in 2005), and the position of bassist was taken up by Rudy Sarzo (previously a member of Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), with the band employing Danny Miranda and Jon Rogers as guest bassists to fill in when Sarzo was unavailable. Sarzo then joined as an official member of the band, although Rogers continued to occasionally fill in when Sarzo was busy.
In February 2007, the Sony Legacy remaster series continued, releasing expanded versions of studio album Spectres and live album Some Enchanted Evening.
In June 2012, the band announced that bassist Rudy Sarzo was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton.
In August of the same year, it was announced that Sony Legacy would be releasing a 17-disc boxed set entitled The Complete Columbia Albums Collection on October 30, 2012. The set includes the first round of the remastered series plus the long-awaited remastered versions of On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin, Extraterrestrial Live, The Revölution by Night, Club Ninja and Imaginos. Also exclusive to this set are two discs of rare and unreleased B-sides, demos and radio broadcasts.
Also in 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blue Öyster Cult, the then-current incarnation of the band reunited for the first time in 25 years with other original members Joe and Albert Bouchard and Allen Lanier as guests for a special event in New York.
Founding keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on August 14, 2013.
In 2016, Albert Bouchard played again as guest with the current line-up of the band, playing at shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, where Blue Öyster Cult played the album Agents of Fortune in its entirety. The shows featured songs from Agents of Fortune that had either not been played live before ("True Confessions", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", "Sinful Love", "Tenderloin", "Debbie Denise"), songs that had not been played since the album's debut tour ("Morning Final"), and songs that were either no longer or never were played frequently ("This Ain't the Summer of Love", "Tattoo Vampire"), as well as the fan favorite "Five Guitars", which had not been played since Albert initially left the band in 1981. Albert played in the following songs at the show: "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (vocals, guitar), "Sinful Love" (vocals, guitar), "Tattoo Vampire" (guitar), "Morning Final" (guitar), "Tenderloin" (cymbals), "Debbie Denise" (vocals, acoustic guitar), "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (vocals, drums), and "Five Guitars" (guitar).
In a May 2017 appearance on Castellano's "Band Geek" podcast, Bloom confirmed that there were tentative plans to release a new album in 2018 and that the band was currently considering offers from multiple record labels. He also stated that former bassist Danny Miranda would be playing with the band for the remainder of the year due to Sulton's prior touring commitments with Todd Rundgren. During the same year, the band's official website started to list Miranda as an official member, stating that Miranda had "returned to BÖC" in early 2017.
Buck Dharma stated in February 2019 that the band would be recording a new album to be released by fall. On July 10, 2019, it was announced that the band had signed to Frontiers Music, and would in fact be releasing the new album in 2020. "It's been a long time since BÖC's last studio album. Recording with Danny, Richie and Jules should be a great experience as we've been touring together for years, and Buck and I look forward to including them in the creative and recording process," said Bloom. "The current band is GREAT and has never been recorded other than live, so we feel now's the time for new songs to be written and recorded. About half of the songs for the new record exist and the rest will be finished during the process," added Buck Dharma. In February 2020, Richie Castellano posted a short video to Facebook featuring himself and Eric Bloom, stating that the band are working on the new Blue Oyster Cult record remotely by using ConnectionOpen online audio collaboration tool.
The Symbol Remains (2020–present)
In August 2020, the band announced on their website that their fifteenth studio album The Symbol Remains would be released on October 9, 2020. The span of nineteen years between Curse of the Hidden Mirror and The Symbol Remains marks the longest gap between studio albums in Blue Öyster Cult's career. The album was released to great critical reception, with tracks such as "Box in my Head" and "Nightmare Epiphany" often praised as a return to form after the band had seemingly turned away from rock and towards pop.
Musical style
Blue Öyster Cult is a hard rock band, whose music has been described as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, occult rock, biker boogie, acid rock, and progressive rock. They have also been recognized for helping pioneer genres such as stoner metal and speed metal. The band has also experimented with additional genres on specific albums. An example of this is Mirrors (1979).
The band is influenced by artists such as Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.
While Blue Öyster Cult has been noted for heavy rock, they would often add their own tongue-in-cheek style. Keeping with their image, the band would often include out-of-context fragments of Pearlman's The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos into their lyrics, giving their songs cryptic meanings. Additionally, the band would keep a folder of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations to insert into their music.
Band name and logo
The name "Blue Öyster Cult" came from a 1960s poem written by manager Sandy Pearlman. It was part of his "Imaginos" poetry, later used more extensively on their album Imaginos (1988). Pearlman had also come up with the band's earlier name, "Soft White Underbelly", from a phrase used by Winston Churchill in describing Italy during World War II. In Pearlman's poetry, the "Blue Oyster Cult" was a group of aliens who had assembled secretly to guide Earth's history. "Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release..."
In a 1976 interview published in the U.K. music magazine ZigZag, Pearlman told the story explaining the origin of the band's name was an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer".
The addition of an umlaut was suggested by Allen Lanier, but rock critic Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it just after Pearlman came up with the name, reportedly "because of the Wagnerian aspect of Metal". Other bands later copied the practice of using umlauts or diacritic marks in their own band names, such as Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and parodied by Spın̈al Tap.
The hook-and-cross logo was designed by Bill Gawlik in January 1972, and appears on all of the band's albums. In Greek mythology, "... the hook-and-cross symbol is that of Kronos (Cronus), the king of the Titans and father of Zeus ... and is the alchemical symbol for lead (a heavy metal), one of the heaviest of metals." Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description "heavy metal" would be apt for the band's sound. The hook-and-cross symbol also resembled the astrological symbol for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, and the sickle, which is associated with both Kronos (Cronus) and Saturn (both the planet and the Roman god). The logo's "... metaphysical, alchemical and mythological connotations, combined with its similarity to some religious symbols gave it a flair of decadence and mystery ..."
The band was billed, for the only time, as "The Blue Öyster Cult" on the cover and label of their second album, Tyranny and Mutation.
Legacy and influence
Blue Öyster Cult have been influential to the realm of hard rock and heavy metal, leading them to being referred to as "the thinking man's heavy metal band" due to their often cryptic lyrics, literate songwriting, and links to famous authors. They have influenced many acts including Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fates Warning, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Steel Panther, Green River (and later Mudhoney), Body Count, Possessed, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Opeth, White Zombie, Kvelertak, HIM, Turbonegro, Radio Birdman, The Cult, The Minutemen, Firehose, Hoodoo Gurus, Widespread Panic, Queens of the Stone Age, Umphrey's McGee, Stabbing Westward, Royal Trux, and Moe.
The band's influence has extended beyond the musical sphere. The lyrics of "Astronomy" have been named by author Shawn St. Jean as inspirational to the later chapters of his fantasy novel Clotho's Loom, wherein Sandy Pearlman's "Four Winds Bar" provides the setting for a portion of the action. Titles and lines from the band's songs provided structure and narrative for the third Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling) novel – Career of Evil (a Cormoran Strike novel).
Their hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was featured in the famous Saturday Night Live sketch "More Cowbell". The original recording was produced at The Record Plant in New York by David Lucas, who sang background vocals with Roeser, and introduced the now-famous cowbell part, which may have been played by himself, Albert Bouchard, or Eric Bloom.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in writer/director John Carpenter's horror film classic, Halloween (1978), the opening sequence of the miniseries adaptation of The Stand (1994) by Stephen King, and covered by The Mutton Birds for Peter Jackson's horror-comedy film The Frighteners (1996). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used throughout the comedy film The Stoned Age (1994) and plays a role in its storyline. In the film Gone Girl (2014), the song plays on the radio during a car driving scene with actor Ben Affleck. The song was also used as the opening theme and main story element in the 1996 FMV computer game "Ripper", by Take Two Interactive, and was also featured in the 2021 video game Returnal.
Members
Current members
Buck Dharma – lead guitar, lead vocals and backing vocals (1967–present)
Eric Bloom – lead vocals and backing vocals, "stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizers (1969–present)
Danny Miranda – bass, backing vocals (1995–2004, 2017–present)
Richie Castellano – keyboards, rhythm guitar, additional lead guitar, backing vocals, additional lead vocals (2007–present), bass (2004–2007)
Jules Radino – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Lyrics
During their career, Blue Öyster Cult have frequently collaborated with outside lyricists, though in the late '70s, the band members also wrote lyrics for some of their songs. Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult have included all the original members (Bloom, Roeser, Albert & Joe Bouchard, and Lanier), producer Sandy Pearlman, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley.
Discography
Studio albums
Blue Öyster Cult (1972)
Tyranny and Mutation (1973)
Secret Treaties (1974)
Agents of Fortune (1976)
Spectres (1977)
Mirrors (1979)
Cultösaurus Erectus (1980)
Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)
The Revölution by Night (1983)
Club Ninja (1985)
Imaginos (1988)
Cult Classic (1994)
Heaven Forbid (1998)
Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001)
The Symbol Remains (2020)
Bibliography
Blue Öyster Cult: Secrets Revealed!, by Martin Popoff, 303 pages (Canada, 2016)
Blue Öyster Cult: La Carrière du mal, by Mathieu Bollon and Aurélien Lemant, Camion Blanc publishing, 722 pages (France, 2013)
on track... Blue Öyster Cult (every album, every song), by Jacob Holm-Lupo, Sonic Bond Publishing, 158 pages (UK, 2019)
References
External links
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Columbia Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups from Long Island
Musical quintets
Occult rock musical groups
Psychedelic rock music groups from New York (state)
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[
"DollaBill Tour was a mini-concert tour by rock band Blink-182. Launched in support of the group's 2003 album Blink-182, the tour visited clubs in November 2003. As the name implies, tickets for the tour cost only $1. The series was supported by rapper Bubba Sparxxx and rock band the Kinison.\n\nBackground\nThe band initially wanted the tour to be free, but venues asked the group to charge a dollar in consideration with safety concerns.\n\nRapper Bubba Sparxxx and relatively obscure rock band the Kinison supported the group on tour dates. Barker called Sparxxx \"one of my favorite rappers of all time.\" In describing the decision to feature eclectic supporting acts, Barker remarked, \"We tour with punk rock bands every time we tour, so we’re just going to tour with bands we like now.\" DeLonge was similar:\n\nTour dates\n\nReception\nAndrew Bealuon of Spin remained largely neutral in a review of the band's set at the 9:30 Club, commenting, \"Whether in their set lists or their patter, Blink always give the kids what they expect […] [Hoppus and DeLonge]'s Martin and Lewis act remains proudly moronic.\" Bealuon noted that the band \"clearly favored\" their new material and rushed through many past hits.\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links\n \n\nBlink-182 concert tours\n2003 concert tours",
"The Appetite for Construction Tour was a three-month 2007 concert tour that was co-headlined by rock bands Switchfoot and Relient K, with special guests Ruth.\n\nThe tour was unique in that none of the bands involved were touring to push a new album or single. They embarked on the tour to benefit Habitat For Humanity, and donated one dollar per ticket sold to the organization. At end of the tour, the bands had raised over $100,000 for Habitat.\n\nSwitchfoot frontman Jon Foreman also co-wrote a song with Relient K singer Matt Thiessen called \"Rebuild\" for the tour. It was released as a \"donation single\" on Switchfoot's website, with options to donate time or money to Habitat For Humanity, in exchange for the song.\n\nThe tour was Tour Managed by Jennifer Manning and Production Managed by Scott Cannon. It played mostly in indoor arenas or stadiums, as opposed to small rock clubs, Switchfoot's favored stomping grounds. The tour's name is a reference to \"Appetite for Destruction\", the debut album of American hard rock band Guns N' Roses.\n\nShow and Set list\n\nRuth\nRuth was the first band to perform at the shows, playing 4-5 songs in a half-hour-long set.\n\nRelient K\nRelient K was the first of the headlining acts to perform, with their set usually lasting about an hour and a half. The set list featured hits like \"Be My Escape\" and \"Who I Am Hates Who I've Been\" from their 2004 breakthrough record, \"Mmhmm\", as well as some of their older classics and newer songs. The band did not perform an encore, playing all their songs in one set.\n\nThe band also routinely covered the theme from the hit TV show, The Office.\nFor the dance-floor favorite \"Sadie Hawkins Dance\", the band usually brought up people from the audience to play guitar and percussion instruments for the end of the song.\n\nSwitchfoot\nSwitchfoot was the second of the two headliners to play, and their set usually lasted about an hour and a half as well. Because they were co-headlining with Relient K, many of the songs on this tour were old favorites from the band's multi-platinum \"The Beautiful Letdown\", along with their singles.\n\nThe setlist generally consisted of the following, with minor variations in song order:\n\n \"Meant to Live intro''\n \"Oh! Gravity.\"\n \"Stars\"\n \"This Is Your Life\"\n \"Gone/Crazy In Love mash-up\"\n \"American Dream\"\n \"Dirty Second Hands\"\n \"We Are One Tonight\"\n \"Rebuild\"\n \"On Fire\"\n \"Awakening\"\n \"Meant to Live\"\n \"Rebuild\"\nEncore\n \"Only Hope\"\n \"Dare You to Move\"\n\nSongs like \"Ammunition\" and \"Head over Heels (In This Life)\" were also played in light rotation.\nRebuild was played with every band member from the other two bands on-stage.\n\nTour dates\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Tour Press Release\n Tour End\n Habitat For Humanity Press video\n A Special Habitat For Humanity Report by Drew Shirley\n\n2007 concert tours\nSwitchfoot concert tours\nHabitat for Humanity\nChristian concert tours"
] |
[
"Blue Öyster Cult",
"Black and white years (1971-75)",
"why is it called the black and white period",
"Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik.",
"did they have any hits from this album?",
"The album featured the well-known BOC songs \"Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll\", \"Stairway to the Stars\" and \"Then Came the Last Days of May\".",
"did they have any tours?",
"During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.",
"was this all rock music?",
"songs like \"She's As Beautiful As a Foot\" and \"Redeemed\" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots.",
"did they tour with rock bands?",
"Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper."
] |
C_446f633f7a7549debfadba797ef202c7_0
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did they tour with the legand ozzy osborne or his band black sabith
| 6 |
did Blue Öyster Cult tour with the legand ozzy osborne or black Sabbath?
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Blue Öyster Cult
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Their debut album Blue Oyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the well-known BOC songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars" and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Oyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct. Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from the debut album), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums. The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of headlining arenas. The album continued the trend of growing sales, and would eventually go gold. As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.
Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar"), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals). The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band's lyrics.
History
Early years as Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971)
Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, which the band agreed to. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.
In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.
Braunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. His departure led Elektra to shelve the album recorded with him on vocals.
Eric Bloom was hired by the band as their acoustic engineer and eventually became lead singer, replacing Braunstein, through a series of three unlikely coincidences. One of which was Lanier decided to join Bloom on a drive to an upstate gig, where he spent the night with Bloom's old college bandmates and got to hear old tapes of Bloom's talent as lead vocalist. Because of this, Bloom was offered the job of lead singer for Soft White Underbelly. However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded yet another album's worth of material for Elektra, but only one single ("What Is Quicksand?" b/w "Arthur Comics") was released (and only in a promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records (this album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, by Rhino Handmade Records as St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings in 2001). The album featured Bloom as their main lead singer, but Roeser also sang lead on a few songs, a pattern of sharing lead vocals that have continued throughout the band's career. Under Bloom, Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group became Stony Brook University house bands which were popular on campus.
After a few more temporary band names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on Blue Öyster Cult in 1971 (see below for its origin).
New York City producer/composer and jingle writer David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight-track at Lucas' studio. Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard's brother, Joe Bouchard.
Black-and-white years (1971–1975)
Their debut album Blue Öyster Cult was released in January 1972, with a black-and-white cover designed by artist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May". By this time, the band's sound had become more oriented toward hard rock, but songs like "She's As Beautiful As a Foot" and "Redeemed" also showed a strong element of the band's psychedelic roots. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. All of the band members except for Allen Lanier sang lead, a pattern that would continue on many subsequent albums, although lead singer Eric Bloom sang the majority of the songs. The album sold well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Alice Cooper. During the touring process, the band's sound became heavier and more direct.
Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their first LP. It contained songs such as "The Red and the Black" (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a rewrite of "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their debut album, and also a reference to the novel of the same name by Stendhal), "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Baby Ice Dog", the first of the band's many collaborations with Patti Smith. It featured a harder-rocking approach than before, though the band's songs were also growing more complex. The album outsold its predecessor, a trend that would continue with their next few albums.
The band's third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received positive reviews, featuring songs such as "Career of Evil" (co-written by Patti Smith), "Dominance and Submission" and "Astronomy". As a result of constant touring, the band was now capable of being headliners. The album continued their upward sales trend, and would eventually go gold.
As the three albums during this formative period all had black-and-white covers, the period of their career has been dubbed the 'black and white years' by fans and critics.
Commercial success (1975–1981)
The band's first live album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975) achieved greater success and went gold. Its success gave the band more time to work on a follow-up. The band members were able to purchase home recording equipment to record demos for their next album.
Their next studio album, Agents of Fortune (1976), was their first to go platinum and was again produced by David Lucas. It contained the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the hard rock genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love", "E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". Having recorded demos of the songs at home before recording the album, the band's songwriting process had become more individual, with none of the songs featuring the collaborative writing between the band members that had been common on their earlier albums. Although the album still featured their trademark hard rock with sinister lyrics, the songs had become more conventional in structure, and the production was more polished. For the first and only time, the album featured lead vocals from all five band members, with Allen Lanier singing lead on the song True Confessions. With Albert Bouchard singing lead on three songs and Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser singing lead on one each, Eric Bloom ended up taking the lead on only four of the album's ten songs.
For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for which they became known. They were among the first acts to use lasers in performance.
Their next album, Spectres (1977), had the FM radio hit "Godzilla", and would become one of the band's better-selling albums, with other well-known songs like "I Love the Night" and "Goin' Through the Motions". However, its sales were not as strong as those for the previous album, going gold but not platinum, becoming their first album to sell less than its predecessor. It featured even more polished production, and continued the trend of the lead vocals extensively shared between members, although Allen Lanier did not sing lead. As with the previous album, Eric Bloom sang lead on fewer than half the songs.
The band then released another live album, Some Enchanted Evening (1978). Though it was intended as another double-live album in the vein of On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Columbia insisted that it be edited down to single-album length. It was a resounding commercial success, becoming Blue Öyster Cult's most popular album and eventually selling over two million copies. It also revealed that while the band's studio work was becoming increasingly well-produced, they were still very much a hard rock band on stage.
It was followed by the studio album Mirrors (1979). For Mirrors, instead of working with previous producers Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. It featured the band's glossiest production to date. It also gave Roeser, the lead vocalist on the band's biggest hits, bigger prominence as a vocalist, singing lead on four of the nine songs. However, the resulting album sales were disappointing.
Pearlman's association with Black Sabbath led to Sabbath's Heaven and Hell producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The album found the band returning to their hard rock roots, and although both of the Bouchard brothers and guitarist Roeser all got lead vocal turns, Bloom would sing the majority of the tracks. The result was positive, with Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) receiving good reviews. The album went to number 12 in the United Kingdom, but did not do as well in the United States. The song "Black Blade", which was written by Bloom with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock, is a kind of retelling of Moorcock's epic Elric of Melniboné saga. The band also did a co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath in support of the album, calling the tour "Black and Blue".
Birch produced the band's next album as well, Fire of Unknown Origin (1981), which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album. The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You", a song Roeser had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his solo album, Flat Out (1982), but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The revival of the band's heavier sound continued, albeit with fairly heavy use of synthesizers and some noticeable New Wave influence on a few tracks. It contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy Metal, but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which had not been written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. The album marked a strong commercial resurgence for the band and achieved gold status, their first studio album since Spectres to do so.
During the tour for Fire of Unknown Origin, Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. This marked the end of the band's original and best-known lineup.
Decline and fall (1982–1987)
After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman's poem "Imaginos". Blue Öyster Cult also released a third live album Extraterrestrial Live.
The band then went to the studio for the next album, The Revölution by Night (1983), with Bruce Fairbairn as producer. After two albums of a return to a harder rocking sound, the band adopted a more radio-friendly, AOR-oriented sound with Fairbairn providing a 1980s-style production. This approach met with some success, especially on its highest-charting single, Roeser's "Shooting Shark", co-written by Patti Smith and featuring Randy Jackson on bass, which reached number 83 on the charts. Bloom's "Take Me Away" achieved some FM radio play. However, the album didn't match sales of its predecessor, failed to achieve gold status, and marked the beginning of the band's second commercial decline. After touring for Revölution, Rick Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drummer.
Blue Öyster Cult re-united with Albert Bouchard for a California tour in February 1985, infamously known as the 'Albert Returns' Tour. This arrangement was only temporary and caused more tensions between the band and Bouchard, since he had thought he would be staying on permanently, which wasn't the case. The band had only intended to use him as a last-minute fill-in until another drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard's leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit the band shortly thereafter, leaving them without a keyboardist and with only three remaining original members. This incarnation of the band would sometimes be referred to as '3ÖC' by fans , which is a pun on the number of original members left.
Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and keyboardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the album Club Ninja, which was poorly received, with only "Dancin' in the Ruins"—one of several songs on the record written entirely by outside songwriters—enjoying minimal success on radio and MTV. The best-known original on the album is "Perfect Water" written by Dharma and Jim Carroll (noted author of The Basketball Diaries). While the band members have generally been disparaging about the album in retrospect, Joe Bouchard has stated that "Perfect Water" is "perfect genius".
The band toured in Germany, after which bassist Bouchard left, leaving only two members of the classic lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser. Some people referred to the band as "Two Öyster Cult" during this period. Jon Rogers was hired to replace Joe and this version of the band finished out the 1986 tour. After it wound up that year, the band took a temporary break from recording and touring. When Blue Öyster Cult received an offer to tour in Greece in the early summer of 1987, the band reformed. Wilcox quit while Zvoncheck was fired for making excessive financial demands. Allen Lanier then was offered to rejoin and agreed, so the new line-up now featured three founding members, along with Jon Rogers returning on bass and Ron Riddle as their newest drummer.
Columbia Records was not interested in releasing the Imaginos project as an Albert Bouchard solo album so it was arranged for the record to be released in 1988 by Columbia as a Blue Öyster Cult album, with some new lead vocal overdubs from Bloom and Roeser and lead guitar overdubs from Roeser. These replaced most of Albert Bouchard's lead vocals, as well as many lead guitar parts that had been recorded by session musicians. Joe Bouchard and Allen Lanier had earlier contributed some minor keyboard and backing vocal parts to the album, allowing all five original members to be credited. The album didn't sell well (despite a positive review in Rolling Stone magazine) and though the then-current Blue Öyster Cult lineup (minus both Bouchard brothers) toured to promote Imaginos, promotion by the label was virtually non-existent. When Columbia Records' parent company CBS Records was purchased by Sony and became Sony Music Entertainment, Blue Öyster Cult were dropped from the label.
1990s and early 2000s
The band spent the next 11 years touring without releasing an album of new material, though they did contribute two new songs to the Bad Channels movie soundtrack, released in 1992, and also released an album of re-recorded songs from the band's original lineup called Cult Classic in 1994. During these years, while the three original members remained constant, there were several changes in the band's rhythm section. Ron Riddle quit in 1991 and was followed by a series of other drummers including
Chuck Burgi (1991–1992, 1992–1995, 1996–1997), John Miceli (1992, 1995), John O'Reilly (1995–1996) and Bobby Rondinelli (1997–2004). As for the bass position, Rogers left in 1995, and was replaced by Danny Miranda.
In the late 1990s, Blue Öyster Cult secured a recording contract with CMC Records (later purchased by Sanctuary Records), and continued to tour frequently. Two studio albums were released, Heaven Forbid (1998) and Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001). Both albums featured songs co-written by cyberpunk/horror novelist John Shirley. The first mostly featured Miranda on bass and Burgi on drums, though a few tracks feature earliest bassist Jon Rogers and one track features Rondinelli on drums, who had joined the band near the end of the recording. Curse of the Hidden Mirror features Miranda and Rondinelli as the rhythm section, and the pair contributed to the songwriting as well. Neither album sold well.
Another live record and DVD A Long Day's Night followed in 2002, both drawn from one concert in Chicago. This album also featured the Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Miranda, Rondinelli lineup.
Although the band's lineup had remained stable from 1997 to 2004, they began to experience personnel changes again in 2004. Rondinelli left in 2004, and was replaced by Jules Radino. Miranda left during the same year to become the bassist for Queen + Paul Rodgers in place of the retired John Deacon. He was replaced by Richie Castellano, who would also take occasional turns as a lead vocalist onstage.
In 2001, Sony/Columbia's reissue arm, Legacy Records issued expanded versions of the first four Blue Öyster Cult studio albums, including some previously unreleased demos and outtakes from album sessions, live recordings (from the Live 72 EP), and post-St. Cecilia tunes from the Stalk-Forrest Group era.
Late 2000s and 2010s
Allen Lanier retired from live performances in 2007 after not appearing with the band since late 2006. Castellano switched to rhythm guitar and keyboards (Castellano also filled in on lead guitar and vocals for an ailing Buck Dharma in two shows in 2005), and the position of bassist was taken up by Rudy Sarzo (previously a member of Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), with the band employing Danny Miranda and Jon Rogers as guest bassists to fill in when Sarzo was unavailable. Sarzo then joined as an official member of the band, although Rogers continued to occasionally fill in when Sarzo was busy.
In February 2007, the Sony Legacy remaster series continued, releasing expanded versions of studio album Spectres and live album Some Enchanted Evening.
In June 2012, the band announced that bassist Rudy Sarzo was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton.
In August of the same year, it was announced that Sony Legacy would be releasing a 17-disc boxed set entitled The Complete Columbia Albums Collection on October 30, 2012. The set includes the first round of the remastered series plus the long-awaited remastered versions of On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin, Extraterrestrial Live, The Revölution by Night, Club Ninja and Imaginos. Also exclusive to this set are two discs of rare and unreleased B-sides, demos and radio broadcasts.
Also in 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blue Öyster Cult, the then-current incarnation of the band reunited for the first time in 25 years with other original members Joe and Albert Bouchard and Allen Lanier as guests for a special event in New York.
Founding keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on August 14, 2013.
In 2016, Albert Bouchard played again as guest with the current line-up of the band, playing at shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, where Blue Öyster Cult played the album Agents of Fortune in its entirety. The shows featured songs from Agents of Fortune that had either not been played live before ("True Confessions", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", "Sinful Love", "Tenderloin", "Debbie Denise"), songs that had not been played since the album's debut tour ("Morning Final"), and songs that were either no longer or never were played frequently ("This Ain't the Summer of Love", "Tattoo Vampire"), as well as the fan favorite "Five Guitars", which had not been played since Albert initially left the band in 1981. Albert played in the following songs at the show: "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (vocals, guitar), "Sinful Love" (vocals, guitar), "Tattoo Vampire" (guitar), "Morning Final" (guitar), "Tenderloin" (cymbals), "Debbie Denise" (vocals, acoustic guitar), "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (vocals, drums), and "Five Guitars" (guitar).
In a May 2017 appearance on Castellano's "Band Geek" podcast, Bloom confirmed that there were tentative plans to release a new album in 2018 and that the band was currently considering offers from multiple record labels. He also stated that former bassist Danny Miranda would be playing with the band for the remainder of the year due to Sulton's prior touring commitments with Todd Rundgren. During the same year, the band's official website started to list Miranda as an official member, stating that Miranda had "returned to BÖC" in early 2017.
Buck Dharma stated in February 2019 that the band would be recording a new album to be released by fall. On July 10, 2019, it was announced that the band had signed to Frontiers Music, and would in fact be releasing the new album in 2020. "It's been a long time since BÖC's last studio album. Recording with Danny, Richie and Jules should be a great experience as we've been touring together for years, and Buck and I look forward to including them in the creative and recording process," said Bloom. "The current band is GREAT and has never been recorded other than live, so we feel now's the time for new songs to be written and recorded. About half of the songs for the new record exist and the rest will be finished during the process," added Buck Dharma. In February 2020, Richie Castellano posted a short video to Facebook featuring himself and Eric Bloom, stating that the band are working on the new Blue Oyster Cult record remotely by using ConnectionOpen online audio collaboration tool.
The Symbol Remains (2020–present)
In August 2020, the band announced on their website that their fifteenth studio album The Symbol Remains would be released on October 9, 2020. The span of nineteen years between Curse of the Hidden Mirror and The Symbol Remains marks the longest gap between studio albums in Blue Öyster Cult's career. The album was released to great critical reception, with tracks such as "Box in my Head" and "Nightmare Epiphany" often praised as a return to form after the band had seemingly turned away from rock and towards pop.
Musical style
Blue Öyster Cult is a hard rock band, whose music has been described as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, occult rock, biker boogie, acid rock, and progressive rock. They have also been recognized for helping pioneer genres such as stoner metal and speed metal. The band has also experimented with additional genres on specific albums. An example of this is Mirrors (1979).
The band is influenced by artists such as Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.
While Blue Öyster Cult has been noted for heavy rock, they would often add their own tongue-in-cheek style. Keeping with their image, the band would often include out-of-context fragments of Pearlman's The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos into their lyrics, giving their songs cryptic meanings. Additionally, the band would keep a folder of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations to insert into their music.
Band name and logo
The name "Blue Öyster Cult" came from a 1960s poem written by manager Sandy Pearlman. It was part of his "Imaginos" poetry, later used more extensively on their album Imaginos (1988). Pearlman had also come up with the band's earlier name, "Soft White Underbelly", from a phrase used by Winston Churchill in describing Italy during World War II. In Pearlman's poetry, the "Blue Oyster Cult" was a group of aliens who had assembled secretly to guide Earth's history. "Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release..."
In a 1976 interview published in the U.K. music magazine ZigZag, Pearlman told the story explaining the origin of the band's name was an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer".
The addition of an umlaut was suggested by Allen Lanier, but rock critic Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it just after Pearlman came up with the name, reportedly "because of the Wagnerian aspect of Metal". Other bands later copied the practice of using umlauts or diacritic marks in their own band names, such as Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and parodied by Spın̈al Tap.
The hook-and-cross logo was designed by Bill Gawlik in January 1972, and appears on all of the band's albums. In Greek mythology, "... the hook-and-cross symbol is that of Kronos (Cronus), the king of the Titans and father of Zeus ... and is the alchemical symbol for lead (a heavy metal), one of the heaviest of metals." Sandy Pearlman considered this, combined with the heavy and distorted guitar sound of the band and decided the description "heavy metal" would be apt for the band's sound. The hook-and-cross symbol also resembled the astrological symbol for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, and the sickle, which is associated with both Kronos (Cronus) and Saturn (both the planet and the Roman god). The logo's "... metaphysical, alchemical and mythological connotations, combined with its similarity to some religious symbols gave it a flair of decadence and mystery ..."
The band was billed, for the only time, as "The Blue Öyster Cult" on the cover and label of their second album, Tyranny and Mutation.
Legacy and influence
Blue Öyster Cult have been influential to the realm of hard rock and heavy metal, leading them to being referred to as "the thinking man's heavy metal band" due to their often cryptic lyrics, literate songwriting, and links to famous authors. They have influenced many acts including Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fates Warning, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Steel Panther, Green River (and later Mudhoney), Body Count, Possessed, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Opeth, White Zombie, Kvelertak, HIM, Turbonegro, Radio Birdman, The Cult, The Minutemen, Firehose, Hoodoo Gurus, Widespread Panic, Queens of the Stone Age, Umphrey's McGee, Stabbing Westward, Royal Trux, and Moe.
The band's influence has extended beyond the musical sphere. The lyrics of "Astronomy" have been named by author Shawn St. Jean as inspirational to the later chapters of his fantasy novel Clotho's Loom, wherein Sandy Pearlman's "Four Winds Bar" provides the setting for a portion of the action. Titles and lines from the band's songs provided structure and narrative for the third Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling) novel – Career of Evil (a Cormoran Strike novel).
Their hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was featured in the famous Saturday Night Live sketch "More Cowbell". The original recording was produced at The Record Plant in New York by David Lucas, who sang background vocals with Roeser, and introduced the now-famous cowbell part, which may have been played by himself, Albert Bouchard, or Eric Bloom.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in writer/director John Carpenter's horror film classic, Halloween (1978), the opening sequence of the miniseries adaptation of The Stand (1994) by Stephen King, and covered by The Mutton Birds for Peter Jackson's horror-comedy film The Frighteners (1996). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used throughout the comedy film The Stoned Age (1994) and plays a role in its storyline. In the film Gone Girl (2014), the song plays on the radio during a car driving scene with actor Ben Affleck. The song was also used as the opening theme and main story element in the 1996 FMV computer game "Ripper", by Take Two Interactive, and was also featured in the 2021 video game Returnal.
Members
Current members
Buck Dharma – lead guitar, lead vocals and backing vocals (1967–present)
Eric Bloom – lead vocals and backing vocals, "stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizers (1969–present)
Danny Miranda – bass, backing vocals (1995–2004, 2017–present)
Richie Castellano – keyboards, rhythm guitar, additional lead guitar, backing vocals, additional lead vocals (2007–present), bass (2004–2007)
Jules Radino – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Lyrics
During their career, Blue Öyster Cult have frequently collaborated with outside lyricists, though in the late '70s, the band members also wrote lyrics for some of their songs. Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult have included all the original members (Bloom, Roeser, Albert & Joe Bouchard, and Lanier), producer Sandy Pearlman, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley.
Discography
Studio albums
Blue Öyster Cult (1972)
Tyranny and Mutation (1973)
Secret Treaties (1974)
Agents of Fortune (1976)
Spectres (1977)
Mirrors (1979)
Cultösaurus Erectus (1980)
Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)
The Revölution by Night (1983)
Club Ninja (1985)
Imaginos (1988)
Cult Classic (1994)
Heaven Forbid (1998)
Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001)
The Symbol Remains (2020)
Bibliography
Blue Öyster Cult: Secrets Revealed!, by Martin Popoff, 303 pages (Canada, 2016)
Blue Öyster Cult: La Carrière du mal, by Mathieu Bollon and Aurélien Lemant, Camion Blanc publishing, 722 pages (France, 2013)
on track... Blue Öyster Cult (every album, every song), by Jacob Holm-Lupo, Sonic Bond Publishing, 158 pages (UK, 2019)
References
External links
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Columbia Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups from Long Island
Musical quintets
Occult rock musical groups
Psychedelic rock music groups from New York (state)
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"The End Tour was the final concert tour for the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, featuring founding members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. They performed on the tour with session drummer Tommy Clufetos filling in for the band's original drummer, Bill Ward, along with keyboardist and guitarist Adam Wakeman. The tour concluded Sabbath's over-four-decade career, and was accompanied by the release of an exclusive EP, The End, which contains leftover tracks from the sessions for the band's final studio album, 13, as well as live tracks from their 2012–2014 reunion tour.\n\nThe End Tour consisted of 81 shows across North America, Europe, Oceania, and South America, and grossed a total of $84.8 million. The final concert took place on 4 February 2017, in the band's home city of Birmingham, England. The final show was documented as a concert film, Black Sabbath: The End of the End, and the songs from the final show were released as a live album, The End: Live in Birmingham.\n\nOverview\n\nBackground\n\nInitial dates were announced in a video posted on the band's YouTube channel on 3 September 2015 with more dates announced in October 2015. As with the previous tour, Tommy Clufetos filled in for original drummer Bill Ward, due to the latter's departure and animosity towards singer Ozzy Osbourne. An eight-track EP, entitled The End, was released to coincide with this tour and was only available at shows. Rival Sons were the sole support act for all of Black Sabbath's headlining shows. Five Finger Death Punch originally planned to join the Oceanic leg of the tour, but backed out following the hospitalization of their frontman Ivan Moody. Osbourne said of the farewell tour: \"This is it, it's definitely run its course\".\"\n\nThe tour concluded on 4 February 2017 with the final two gigs being played in the band's native Birmingham. The last show was streamed live on the band's Facebook page. Prior to the gig, Ozzy discussed his emotions he was feeling, suggesting he would cry after the farewell. Osbourne was adamant this is the end, but intends to carry on with solo work, having already returned following a 1992 'final' solo tour. Iommi confirmed no more world tours, but remains open to a new album or one-off show. Iommi had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, and the toll of touring on his health was the main reason to end touring. Osbourne had intended to say something to the crowd but did not prepare a speech. He closed the show with a simple statement to the crowd \"Thank you, goodnight, thank you so much.\"\n\nSetlist\nThe following setlist was performed at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, and is not intended to represent all the shows on the tour.\n\"Black Sabbath\"\n\"Fairies Wear Boots\"\n\"After Forever\"\n\"Into the Void\"\n\"Snowblind\"\n\"War Pigs\"\n\"Behind the Wall of Sleep\"\n\"Bassically\" (Geezer Butler bass solo)\n\"N.I.B.\"\n\"Hand of Doom\"\n\"Rat Salad\"\nTommy Clufetos drum solo\n\"Iron Man\"\n\"Dirty Women\"\n\"Embryo\"/\"Children of the Grave\"\nEncore\n\"Paranoid\"\n\nTour dates\n\nGross\nThe tour grossed $84.8 million, with 1,074,495 tickets sold from 74 shows.\n\nPersonnel\nOzzy Osbourne – lead vocals\nTony Iommi – lead guitar\nGeezer Butler – bass guitar\nAdditional musicians\nTommy Clufetos – drums and percussion\nAdam Wakeman – keyboards and rhythm guitar\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Black Sabbath site\n Black Sabbath on Facebook\n Black Sabbath on Twitter\n\n2016 concert tours\n2017 concert tours\nBlack Sabbath concert tours\nFarewell concert tours",
"Frank Hall (born 29 October 1949) is an English musician and drummer. He was a founder member of the pioneering 1960s-1970s rock band Necromandus, widely hailed as the second Black Sabbath, and by Melody Maker as \"Black Sabbath play Yes\". After Necromandus, Hall collaborated with Ozzy Osbourne's first solo project after leaving Black Sabbath.\n\nBiography \nHall was born in Whitehaven in Cumbria. His first project was with local band, Heaven. But in 1968 he formed Necromandus with fellow musicians from Whitehaven and Egremont. Hall had meant to call the band Nostradamus, but they liked Necromandus, and the name stuck. The band was quickly taken up by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, who produced its first album Orexis of Death in 1973, and invited the band to support Black Sabbath on their UK tour. When Vertigo failed to release the album, Necromandus fell onto hard times and split up. Hall, the bassist, and the guitarist began collaborating with Ozzy Osbourne, with whom they had become very friendly while touring with Black Sabbath, on what would become Ozzy's first solo album Blizzard of Ozz. However, the collaboration ended before an album was recorded, and Ozzy Osbourne eventually restarted his solo career with different musicians.\n\nHall is the cousin of U.S. Army officer David N. McKenna.\n\nHall has performed with the Gerry Gillard band since 2004.\n\nJohn Bonham's Green Sparkle Heartbreaker kit \nHall met Led Zeppelin's John Bonham through Ozzy, and the two drummers became close friends. When Hall fell in love with the Green Sparkle Ludwig kit that Bonham had used for his audition with Led Zeppelin, Bonham gave it to Hall, who played it for five years, before selling it. It was later used by Ash drummer Rick McMurray, and is now owned by Peter Salisbury, drummer of The Verve.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums \nNecromandus\n 1973 - Orexis of Death \n 1973 - Live at the Casino, Blackpool (30 March 1973)\n\n2009 Funbus Tickets Please\n\nReferences \n\n1949 births\nLiving people\nEnglish rock drummers\nEnglish heavy metal drummers"
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"Nicole Kidman",
"Relationships and children"
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C_365c6134db2c45cb96f35f5b84dddb71_1
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what relationships did nicole have?
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What relationships did Nicole Kidman have?
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Nicole Kidman
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Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise, and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met Cruise in November 1989, while filming Days of Thunder, they were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane (born 1992), and a son, Connor Anthony (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and the marriage was dissolved in August of that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of the ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage, by everyone who picked up the story." "So it's huge news, and it didn't happen." In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, she said she still loved Cruise: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] breakup with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider (1986) co-star Tom Burlinson. She was also said to be involved with Adrien Brody. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 and dated him into 2004. Robbie Williams confirmed he had a short romance with Kidman on her yacht in summer 2004. In a 2007 Vanity Fair interview, Kidman revealed that she had been secretly engaged to someone prior to her present relationship to New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in January 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. In an interview in 2015, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other - we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Sydney, Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), Los Angeles, and Nashville (Tennessee, USA). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban had their second daughter via surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital. In an on-stage interview by Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World (WITW) conference, Kidman stated that she turned her attention to her career after her divorce from Tom Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded so that was an interesting thing for me", and led to her Academy Award in 2002. CANNOTANSWER
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Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise,
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Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has been continuously identified as one of the world's highest-paid actresses. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.
Kidman began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller film Dead Calm and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she achieved international success with the action film Days of Thunder. She received greater recognition with lead roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In 2003, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002). She received additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the dramas Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016) and Being the Ricardos (2021).
Kidman's television roles include Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Big Little Lies (2017–2019), Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), The Undoing (2020) and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021). For Big Little Lies, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actress and the other for Outstanding Limited Series as an executive producer.
Kidman has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. She was married to actor Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 and has been married to country music singer Keith Urban since 2006. In 2010, she founded the production company Blossom Films. In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Early life
Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author. Having been born in the American state of Hawaii to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She also has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" (), meaning "heavenly star". The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.
When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydney's North Shore. She has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist and TV presenter.
Kidman grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years. She has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself."
She initially studied at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts who had attended the same high school. She also attended the Australian Theatre for Young People. Here, during her teenage years, she took up drama and mime, finding acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the Australian sun forced the young Kidman to rehearse in the halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she received praise and encouragement to pursue acting full-time, which she did after dropping out of high school.
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas. By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy in order to help her mother with physical therapy. She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
In 1988, Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City, based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a former lover, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition. Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor". The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success. In 1993, she starred in the thriller Malice opposite Alec Baldwin and the drama My Life opposite Michael Keaton.
Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim (1995–2003)
In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. The same year, she starred in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For, in which she played the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. Regarding Kidman's Golden Globe Award-winning performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." Kidman next appeared alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel of the same name, and starred in The Peacemaker (1997) as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. In 1998, Kidman starred in the comedy Practical Magic alongside Sandra Bullock as two witch sisters who face a threatening curse that prevents them from ever finding lasting love. While the film opened atop the charts on its North American opening weekend, it flopped at the box office. She returned to her work on the stage that same year in the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes. After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise, Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl. In 2001, Kidman played the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film [...] Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." Subsequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, among several other awards and nominations, including her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Kidman also starred in Alejandro Amenábar's horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210 million worldwide, the film also earned several Goya Award nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Kidman. She received her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations. Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."
In 2002, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman famously wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, in order to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain". Kidman won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award. During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld." Also in 2002, Kidman was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three very different films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman still earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character and become separated by the Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight". The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Established actress (2004–2009)
In 2004, Kidman starred in the film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, Kidman addressed the controversy saying, "It wasn't that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love". She received her seventh Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. That same year, she appeared as a successful producer in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. In 2005, Kidman appeared opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and with Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, Kidman and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12 million for the three-minute advert. During this time, Kidman was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004–2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17 million per-film price tag.
In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US$384 million worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science-fiction film The Invasion directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. She also starred in the fantasy-adventure, The Golden Compass (2007), playing the villainous Marisa Coulter.
In 2008, she reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia, set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II, starring opposite Hugh Jackman as an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. The acting was praised and the film was a box office success worldwide. In 2009, Kidman appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the Federico Fellini-like character's muse, Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.
Biographical and independent films (2010–2015)
In 2010, Kidman produced and starred in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart, for which she vacated her role in the Woody Allen picture You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Her portrayal as a grieving mother in the film earned her critical acclaim, and received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. She also subsequently lent her voice to a promotional video that Australia used to support its bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In 2011, she starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage, and appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan's romantic comedy Just Go with It, as a trophy wife.
In 2012, Kidman and Clive Owen starred in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. In Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy (2012), she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless. The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and Kidman's performance garnered nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. In 2012, Kidman's audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released through Audible. Kidman starred as an unstable mother in Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013), to a positive response and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews. Kidman also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which Kidman played an officer's wife. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific". Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage. Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.
In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman's production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played a district attorney, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the little-seen film Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. After more than 15 years, Kidman returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from 5 September to 21 November 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
Lion, Big Little Lies and continued acclaim (2016–present)
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade." Budgeted at US$12 million, Lion earned over US$140 million globally. She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance", while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Critics' Choice Television Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d'Or. Both films were adaptations of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, and Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service found Kidman "particularly, unsurprisingly excellent in her performance as the steely Miss Martha. She is controlled and in control, unflappable. Her genteel manners and femininity co-exist easily with her toughness." Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d'Or. Also in 2017, Kidman played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French comedy The Intouchables, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramasDestroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide", whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs". That same year, Kidman played Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman. Also in 2018, Nicole was interviewed for BAFTA A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34 million. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection". She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are". For her performance, Kidman received another nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 2020, Kidman played Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Kidman served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. For her performance, Kidman received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Kidman's only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy film The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key.
In 2021, Kidman starred in and executive produced the Hulu miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. She also starred as actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama film Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth overall.
Upcoming projects
Kidman will next star alongside Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk in the thriller film The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. She will also reprise her role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She will be starring and serving as executive producer on four upcoming television series: the drama miniseries Expats, which is currently in production, the thriller miniseries Pretty Things, based on the upcoming novel of the same name by Janelle Brown, the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 book of short stories, and the family-drama series Things I Know To Be True, based on the Australian play of the same name. Unlike her other television projects, Things I Know To Be True is envisioned as an ongoing series with multiple seasons rather than a miniseries.
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking erratic roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her versatile performances and expansive range of material, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular." According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century up to that point.
Kidman is known to use method acting for many of her roles. It has been noted that she often times transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally in order to resemble her characters, to the point where it has affected her health. Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character." W Magazine described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles [...] and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."
Critics have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic". Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs." Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character." Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever. Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it." Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices." In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said in a statement, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman has been married twice: first to actor Tom Cruise, and later to country singer Keith Urban. Kidman met Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990. While married, the former couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane Cruise (born 1992), and a son, Connor Antony Cruise (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of an ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen."
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time turned to her career after the divorce from Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 before becoming engaged to him, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement. She was also romantically involved with rapper Q-Tip.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Lenny Kravitz, prior to her present relationship with New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, U.S.), Beverly Hills (California, U.S.), two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia) and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, U.S.) purchased for US$10 million. The couple's first daughter, Sunday Rose, was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter, Faith Margaret, via gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.
Religious and political views
Kidman was brought up in an Irish Catholic family and remains practising. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic, Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the Catholic Church is part of her "essence", and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic. Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.
A supporter of women's rights, Kidman testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence Against Women Act in 2009. In January 2017, she stated her support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. Kidman has also donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates.
Wealth, philanthropy and honours
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the top spot for a woman in 2006. In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. In 2015, her wealth was estimated to have risen up to A$331 million.
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. Kidman was also appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2016, she donated $50,000 to UN Women.
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally". However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.
Other work
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies. In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005. In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market. In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes. In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena. In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.
Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League and once served as a club ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns film scores based on critic reviews and audience reception, some of Kidman's highest-scoring films include Paddington (2014), Flirting (1990), To Die For (1995), Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016), The Others (2001), The Family Fang (2015), Dead Calm (1989), Boy Erased (2018) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). Her most financially successful films include Aquaman (2018), Happy Feet (2006), The Golden Compass (2008), Batman Forever (1995) and Paddington (2014), as listed by the box office tracking website The Numbers as her highest-grossing films. Her other screen credits include:
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry. In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.
Discography
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles, among others. Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in. Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year, being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association, while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning. Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand, Portugal, and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold or Silver in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia and the ninety-third in France, respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away". The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film. In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song
"Unusual Way". In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".
See also
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
20th-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian singers
21st-century Australian women singers
Actresses from Honolulu
Actresses from Sydney
Audiobook narrators
Australian company founders
Australian film actresses
Australian expatriate actresses in the United States
Australian film producers
Australian models
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Scottish descent
Australian Roman Catholics
Australian television actresses
Australian women ambassadors
Australian women chief executives
Australian women company founders
Australian women film producers
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA Award winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA International Award winners
Businesspeople from Hawaii
Catholics from Hawaii
Companions of the Order of Australia
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Logie Award winners
Models from Sydney
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People educated at North Sydney Girls High School
People named in the Paradise Papers
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners
Theatre World Award winners
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
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"Nicole Franklin is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera Home and Away, played by Tessa James. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 18 April 2008. Nicole was introduced by executive producer Cameron Welsh. Nicole was mentioned various times before appearing on-screen, James was cast in the role and described by Welsh as an \"exciting talent\". He predicted that the viewers would respond \"really well\" to her. Nicole was initially portrayed as a shallow \"party girl\" with \"wild ways\". Also described as a \"high maintenance\" female, she has been shown to dress constantly in a stylish manner. Nicole is also become notable for her many relationships. Her first prominent romance was with Geoff Campbell. Described as \"complete opposites\", Geoff is credited as a catalyst in Nicole mellowing her brash attitude. Their storyline allowed the actors to take part in one of the serial's \"biggest ever location shoots\", when the couple became stranded on a remote desert island. In one storyline Nicole was involved in a same sex kiss with fellow character Freya Duric, which was branded controversial by various media sources. The plot saw Nicole question her persona, believing Geoff had transformed her into a boring person.\n\nAnother relationship Nicole pursued was with Aden Jefferies, her longtime closest friend. Aden had a strong fanbase from his previous relationship with Belle Taylor. This resulted in the audience being divided over their relationship. Nicole has also been featured in various other romantic storylines, such as a brief fling with Liam Murphy, James said that he was compatible with Nicole because he had \"the edge she was after\". She also dated Trey Palmer and they became involved in sex tape storyline, many newspapers reported on the plot because it \"echoed\" co-star Lewis' real life sex tape scandal. Producer Welsh once stated he believed Nicole was destined to become \"full circle\" and Nicole began behaving erratic and wild once more, due to her failed romances and the death of her friend Belle. She also had an affair with an older male character, Sid Walker. James liked the fact Nicole had so many romances because she got to kiss many of her co-stars.\n\nJames announced her departure from Home and Away in March 2011. One of her final storylines was a pregnancy plot. Nicole felt she was too young and unable to offer a child stability, so she agreed to let Marilyn Chambers adopt the baby upon its birth. James and the writing team took the storyline \"very seriously\" and conducted research to portray the issue sensitively. Nicole has received critical analysis from various sources, with perception being mixed to positive. TV Week were neutral to aspects of her pregnancy plot but opined James was one of the serial's best actresses. The Daily Record said that being single was good for the character. She has also been likened to celebrities because of her glamorous image.\n\nCreation and casting\nNicole is Roman Harris' (Conrad Coleby) daughter and she was often mentioned on-screen before producers decided to introduce her into the serial. In January 2008 it was announced that ex-Neighbours star Tessa James had been cast as Nicole. Executive producer Cameron Welsh said \"She is an exciting talent and I think audiences are going to love her character and respond really well to her.\" James then moved to Sydney especially for the role. Speaking of working on the serial James stated: \"Working on a series like this [Home and Away] is the best training you can get, I look at it like an apprenticeship and never forget how lucky I am.\" Fellow cast member Celeste Dodwell who plays Melody Jones originally auditioned for the part of Nicole. After Coleby who plays Roman quit the serial, James' time with the show was in doubt.\n\nIn March 2011, James confirmed that she had left Home and Away. She has already filmed her final scenes and Nicole will leave on-screen later in the year. Of her departure, James said \"I was at Home and Away for three-and-a-half-years, so it's good to be finished and get to be who I am, and do what I've wanted to do for so long.\"\n\nCharacter development\n\nCharacterisation\nNicole has been portrayed as a party girl, feisty and has had many boyfriends in a short space of time. James has described Nicole stating: \"I love playing Nicole because she's feisty and fun, and doesn't mind pushing the boundaries. And she dresses stylishly – she's very high maintenance, which is fun to play.\" The serial's official website describes her as: \"Nicole might come off as a bitchy princess to some people, she's not malicious. She's simply as shallow as a puddle, and while she might cause others emotional pain, it's totally unintentional.\" They also state: \"Nicole is a girl who lives to have fun, and she is fun if you accept her for who she is. And, of course, she thinks you're worth her attention. Nicole is a girl who knows exactly who she is and where she stands: at the centre of the universe.\" Soap opera reporting website Holy Soap described Nicole as \"a label-loving pampered princess, armed with a sharp wardrobe and an even sharper tongue\". They also added she was a \"sultry\" type character.\n\nWhilst interviewed by The Daily Telegraph, James stated: \"I think she's the best character, I get to have so much fun being a princess and a prima donna. She doesn't mind pushing the boundaries. She's very high maintenance, which is fun to play.\" She also stated she enjoys Nicole's \"promiscuous side\" because she seems to have another boyfriend every week. James also enjoys the role because of this and the fact she gets so many \"pash\" scenes with other cast members.\n\nSeries producer Cameron Welsh branded Nicole as an \"interesting character\", adding his opinion on her development stating: \"She came in with really strong opinions and a kind of morality that was different to the rest of the group\". Welsh also believes that Nicole is destined to come \"full circle\". Of her 2010 storylines he comments that Nicole's poor judgements make her realise and re-evaluate her life.\n\nRelationship with Geoff Campbell\n\nNicole embarks on a relationship with Geoff Campbell, not before they are embroiled in a \"sordid love triangle\" along with Melody. In one storyline Nicole and Geoff became stranded on a \"deserted island\" and nearly die. The episodes were filmed on Box Beach located at Shoal Bay, New South Wales as part of a two-day location shoot. Nicole nearly drowns in scenes which aired for the serial's \"cliff-hanger\" in 2008. James and Lewis took scuba diving lessons in preparation for the storyline. Filming the storyline was compromised by logistical challenges. The crew had to move camera equipment between boats and the crew walked around the perimeters of the beach in order to avoid leaving footprints. This was to keep the authenticity of a deserted location. The storyline was also given a \"big budget\", featured helicopters and a number of promotional adverts were aired on Seven.\n\nThe storyline began on-screen when Nicole started dating Elliot Gillen (Paul Pantano). He had a vendetta against Roman and kidnapped Nicole and Geoff and left them stranded out at sea. They washed up on a deserted island and were forced to survive without food and clothing. Describing the effect it had on Nicole and Geoff, James stated: \"They have no food, shelter or clothing. [...] They find moments to make each other laugh, though, and realise how much they mean to one another.\" Geoff had strong religious views and did not believe in premarital sex. However, the environment they were in caused him to let his guard down and they slept together. Lewis told TV Week that all the pair could think of whilst trapped was being rescued and their feelings for one another. He added that \"the fact they were both pretty much naked didn't help\". He concluded the fact they were both kids, trying to keep warm - that then \"stuff happens\". Geoff was left \"guilt-ridden\" because he gave into temptation. He did not regret it, but acknowledged that he wanted to save his virginity until marriage. Therefore, Geoff saw no other option but to propose to Nicole. Lewis stated, \"He's not 100% sure about that either, but he feels that if they're going to have sex, a wedding is the only solution.\" Describing Nicole's reaction he said that she was \"dumbfounded\" by his offer, as she had believed he was acting strange because he wanted to dump her. Nicole refused when she realised his reasons for proposing. According to James, the moment managed to ruin their passion. She also commented that: \"Nicole has liked Geoff for ages and was so happy to have got together with him - but now he's spoiled it.\" James also admitted she was thrilled to learn Nicole would turn down his proposal. James later opined that Nicole was \"the one\" for Geoff, but did not believe that Geoff was \"the one\" for Nicole.\n\nNicole and Geoff's relationship became strained. Nicole decided to plan a return trip to the island, believing it would solve their problems and bring them closer together. James said that Geoff loved the surprise, but found Nicole \"very sexy and tempting\". She added that everything about Nicole forced Geoff to question his religious beliefs and he felt he \"needed to back away\". Their trip soon turned disastrous when a man named Derrick Quaid (John Atkinson) stole their food and intimidated the couple. He admitted he was a murderer and tried to attack Geoff with a knife. James said he \"put himself in harm's way\" to save Nicole.\n\nIn 2009, James told Inside Soap that Nicole and Geoff had a strong friendship underneath their romance. She also described their compatibility stating: \"They're complete opposites, which works well for them. It's a bit of a fiery relationship, and they've been through a lot together.\" Whilst Lewis added: \"They're also very similar in some of their strongest traits. Geoff and Nicole are both stubborn and opinionated, and in some ways they're naive. In a weird way they show a side to each other nobody else gets to see.\" James opined Nicole's wild behaviour was often too much for Geoff to cope with. In public, Lewis initially had negative feedback from older viewers because they felt Geoff was better suited to Melody. He revealed they felt like she was a bad influence for Geoff because she often played games. However towards the end of their relationship he felt perception had changed due to viewers having a better understanding of Nicole's persona.\n\nOther relationships\nIn 2009, the serial embarked on two lesbian storylines, one of which involved Nicole. It featured Freya Duric (Sophie Hensser) kissing Nicole, which sparked complaints. However, for Nicole it wasn't about sexuality, rather finding herself the center of attention. James described their dynamic, stating: \"Freya's exactly what Nicole was like when she first arrived in the bay, that is why they click. Nicole relates to the wild side of Freya, but has no idea how far Freya is going to take it.\" Through her relationship with Geoff she had mellowed, however her vanity was still present. James said Nicole was \"angry\" because she was on Freya's \"not hot list\". Freya kissed her to prove she thinks she is hot, James opined that Nicole did not enjoy the kiss, but was just \"happy to be center of attention\" and happy that people were talking about her again. The incident eventually brought her to the realisation that she had become boring. Nicole denied it was to do with her involvement with Geoff, however James said Geoff was the reason she became bored.\n\nLater that year the serial included a storyline which was branded \"bizarre\" after it mirrored a real life scandal that had occurred weeks earlier. Lewis who plays love interest Geoff had been caught up in a sex tape scandal which leaked onto the internet; the serial decided to include Nicole making a sex tape with Trey Palmer (Luke Bracey) and having it leaked. Trey filmed without Nicole's consent, when she found out the truth she ended their relationship. Trey thought she and Geoff were getting back together so aired the tape at a local film festival to gain revenge. James described Nicole's state of mind adding, \"She's quite vulnerable at the moment, with her dad, Roman, in prison. She's relying on Trey, so this is the last thing she needs.\"\n\nNicole's best friend during her initial storylines was Aden Jefferies (Todd Lasance). After Brendan Austin (Kain O'Keeffe) caused Roman to go blind, he took his anger out on Nicole and Aden. Subsequently, they became \"each other's support network\" and Lasance said it was not long afterward that they \"slipped between the sheets\". One of the conditions of Aden's tenancy was to never sleep with Nicole, so this made the pair feel guilty that they had deceived Roman. Lasance felt the storyline was controversial as he had a strong fan base for his relationship with Belle Taylor (Jessica Tovey) - which meant he knew it would \"cause a stir\" and divide the audience. In January 2010, Nicole and Aden \"get up close and personal\" and they decided to spend Aden's remaining time in the Bay together. They shared a kiss and James told TV Week that there are \"a lot of complications\" for them. She said that no one knew what was going to happen with Liam Murphy (Axle Whitehead) and that Nicole felt guilty for betraying Belle because she was her friend. James explained that Nicole's pairing with Aden was \"a bit more serious and in-depth than her usual relationships.\" James opined that Aden was the \"nicer guy\" for Nicole, but Liam may have had \"the edge she's after.\" Nicole and Aden then embarked on a relationship. James thought that Nicole and Aden's relationship was great and said \"They started out having a kind of brother-sister relationship, and that developed into something more.\" Nicole declared her love for Aden, however he did not reciprocate. Lasance described the moment whilst interviewed by TV Week stating: \"They've always had an awesome connection and Nicole gets into a bit of a comfortable state and blurts out that she loves Aden.\" Aden appreciated her love for him, however cannot say it back until he felt the same way. It is this that made their relationship \"awkward\"; Nicole tried to withdraw her declaration and hide her hurt feelings.\n\nDownward spiral\n\nIn mid-2009, producers decided to take Nicole's storyline into a \"u-turn\", when she reverted to her \"wild ways\". At the time Nicole had endured repetitive personal trauma including failed relationships, Roman being sent to prison and her best friend Belle was dying of cancer. James explained: \"It's all too much for her and she can't handle it, so she reverts to her wild ways.\" Geoff notices Nicole's erratic behaviour and attempts to help her. She tried to \"lure him into bed\" after he comforted her, however he turned her down. James said she no longer had romantic feelings for Geoff, but was actually in a \"vulnerable state\". She then started relying on alcohol more, and partied with fellow \"wild child\" Indigo Walker (Samara Weaving) at a \"rowdy\" venue. James explained that Nicole saw alcohol as an answer to her problems. The fact that \"she's trying to deal with too many things\" saw Nicole transform into a messed up and depressed person.\n\nNicole became more irresponsible the more she drank and was in the company of many men. Geoff arrived and saved her from danger, Lewis said there was a part of Geoff that still loved Nicole. However they did not start anything again, James said she understood why because of their complicated backstory. However Geoff continued to support Nicole as he realised that \"a lot of people she was closest to have deserted her\". Nicole's unpredictable behaviour continued thereafter. All that Geoff could offer was to be there for her because ultimately \"Nicole is the only one that can save her from herself.\"\n\nPregnancy\n\nNicole had a brief relationship with Penn Graham (Christian Clark) and after he was murdered, she discovered that she was pregnant with his child. James told Sunrise that viewers could expect a \"realistic portrayal of teen pregnancy\" and she explained that it was important to respect the issue. She added \"We took it very seriously with the writers, and you do a lot of research and things like that. You can only do your best, I guess!\" Nicole later told Marilyn Chambers (Emily Symons) about the baby and she offered to adopt it. James later revealed that when she joined Home and Away she told the writers that they can do anything with her character, except make her pregnant. Of the moment she was told that Nicole was going to have a baby, James said \"I went in to see our producer later and he said, 'Okay, I'm going to apologise in advance - we're making Nicole pregnant!'\" She initially did not want to portray a \"typical soap teenage pregnancy\" as she thought Nicole should be different. However the situation was explained to her and she became excited at the challenging storyline ahead.\n\nNicole later decided to let Marilyn and Sid Walker (Robert Mammone) adopt the baby upon its birth. Marilyn was desperate to mother a child and her obsession with that and her controlling behaviour became too much for Nicole. Of the situation, Symons said \"Marilyn is in Nicole's face every minute. She's doing it out of love, but she doesn't realise she's becoming obsessed with the baby.\" Nicole was still questioning whether she is making the right decision about her unborn baby's future and she argued with Marilyn. Nicole began dating a student from university, Angus McCathie (Tim Pocock), they got along well on their first dates. Marilyn was left worried about their agreement and she felt \"distanced.\" Symons explained, \"Marilyn is scared of being replaced. She's scared of losing the baby, which could happen because there isn't a legal agreement.\" Roo Stewart (Georgie Parker) helped Nicole by convincing Marilyn to re-evaluate the situation. Symons added that there is \"still a long way to go\" with the arrangement, but thereafter she was supportive and offered constructive help to Nicole.\n\nDuring the final few weeks of her pregnancy Nicole began to receive increasing support from Angelo Rosetta (Luke Jacobz). James said it was clear to see that \"the lines of friendship could be blurring into something more\" for the pair. Whilst Jacobz opined \"They've been spending time together and have realised how comfortable they are together.\"\n\nAngelo was forced to help Nicole give birth to a baby boy, George, and she handed him over to Marilyn immediately as agreed. She then tried to stay away, however it became obvious he needed her when he struggled without her. Marilyn then became obsessed with Nicole having the power to take her new son back. It was then revealed that Nicole would struggle to switch off her mothering instinct after giving George away. Nicole came to visit the baby and Marilyn caught her breastfeeding George, while she was alone with him. Symons called the scenes \"volatile.\" Nicole was unaware that Marilyn has reservations about her spending time with the baby. Of the breastfeeding scene, Symons stated: \"Marilyn is shocked and offended, and this cuts to the very core of her worries - that she doesn't have the same natural mothering instincts as George's birth mother. Without a doubt, Marilyn thinks Nicole is overstepping the mark. She feels that a boundary has been overstepped and it could put a big strain on their relationship.\" After the incident, Marilyn asked Nicole to stay away from the baby. James defended Nicole stating: \"I think it's hard to not bond, but this is Marilyn's baby, and Nicole is so young and wants very much to give Marilyn and Sid this gift.\"\n\nStorylines\nNicole's biological parents were the teenage Roman Harris (Conrad Coleby) and Natalie Franklin (Adrienne Pickering), but she was raised by her maternal grandparents and considered her mother, Natalie, as an older sister. She did not meet her father until her early teenage years. Nicole arrives in Summer Bay in a flashy car. She initially makes herself unpopular with her bitchy care-free nature. She tries to sleep with Aden but he rebuffs her. She makes a bet with Aden that she can sleep with Geoff Campbell (Lincoln Lewis) within two weeks, but Geoff and Belle publicly humiliate her when they find out. Nicole starts dating Roman's old SAS friend Mark's brother Elliot Gillen, despite Roman's disapproval. After breaking up with Elliot, he takes her diving where he tries to kill her, Geoff and later Roman. Geoff tries to save Nicole, but Elliot leaves the pair stranded at sea. They wash up on a remote island and Geoff and Nicole grow close to each other. Geoff, who has strong religious views, sleeps with Nicole as they cannot fight temptation. When rescued Geoff proposes to Nicole out of guilt, she turns him down. She later has a pregnancy scare but is happy to discover it was a false alarm. Nicole later decides she and Geoff should return to the island to repair their relationship. They are chased through woodland by a murderer, Derrick who tries to kill them both. However they manage to escape. Nicole decides to try her best to make their relationship work. However, after Freya kisses her they enter a few rocky periods and later break up.\n\nShe starts a relationship with troublesome Trey. He films them having sex, which is later leaked at the town's movie festival. She has a brief relationship with Liam. After the death of good friend Belle, Nicole goes on a downward spiral. She starts partying and binge drinking along with Indigo. Geoff notices her behaviour and attempts to help her. After pushing him away she sleeps with drug addict Liam. She then pursues older man Sid. She kisses him and Indigo sees them, which ruins their friendship. She later moves in with Miles Copeland (Josh Quong Tart) who agrees to look after her.\n\nNicole starts dating Penn who manipulates her. He makes her believe she has accidentally stepped on a needle and she has tests for HIV. She later finds out she has the all clear. Nicole reveals to Marilyn that she is pregnant with Penn's child. She initially chooses to have an abortion, but changes her mind and decides to give the baby to Marilyn. Nicole goes on a date with Angelo and she takes him to her antenatal class. When he learns that Nicole is giving her baby away, Angelo ends their relationship. Nicole becomes friends with Roo and asks her to be at the birth, but Roo turns her down. Marilyn apologises to Nicole when she starts to take over and begins leaving her out of her plans for the baby. Nicole becomes fed up when the baby is late and Angelo tries to help her start labour. They go for a walk on the beach and Nicole's water breaks. Angelo is then forced to deliver the baby. Nicole later decides that she wants her baby back and tells Marilyn, who is devastated. Marilyn takes the baby, but later returns him. Nicole then leaves Summer Bay with Angelo and George. She later contacts Marilyn and they meet in the city. Nicole and Marilyn talk things through and Angelo shows up with George.\n\nWhen Angelo returns to the Bay in 2020, it was revealed that he and Nicole are no longer together.\n\nReception\nHoly Soap said that Nicole's most memorable moment was when she \"returned to the desert island with Geoff to rekindle their love\" and she was held hostage by Derek the murderer, before her father came to the rescue. Inside Soap opined that Nicole was a \"flighty minx from the city who prays at the altar of Paris Hilton\". The Sunday Mail said it seemed like no one could stop her downward spiral. The Daily Record said that Nicole and Geoff's relationship ending was good for her character. They later branded her a \"fiery favourite\" and when she started dating Penn, they said \"Impressionable Nicole looks set to fall for the wrong man all over again\". When Nicole had her HIV scare Holy Soap said \"As if defending her man against the Bay's critics wasn't enough for one girl to take, poor Nic\". Inside Soap said \"Nicole Franklin isn't exactly backward in coming forward\". TV Week chose James as one of the serial's most promising actresses opining she was ready for roles in Hollywood.\n\nTV Week often commented on her pregnancy storyline. After the plot was halfway through Erin Miller of TV Week said that Nicole had changed her mind about adopting her baby \"more times that Julia Gillard has uttered the phrase 'moving forward'\". Upon watching Nicole's beach birth scenes, the magazine website editor quipped \"Who knew sand had birthing properties?! Well, maybe not... but you could forgive pregnant teen Nicole for thinking that after a casual stroll along the Bay's beach ends with Angelo delivering her newborn son!\" Commenting on the realism of the storyline they added: \"Only in the Bay would a baby be born on the beach!\" Miller thought it was odd she had then \"miraculously lost any signs that she even had a baby.\" She quipped \"already the teen is back to wearing skin-tight dresses!\". They later described Nicole and Marilyn's argument over George as \"the mother of all rifts\" and said \"It's exhausting just thinking about it!\" Miller later criticised Nicole's career in fashion, after John told her he hated her designs for the Surf Club. She said \"I had to agree with him - putting lifesavers in pink polo-neck swimmers is a terrible idea.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Character profile at the Official Home and Away website\n Character profile at the 'Raidió Teilifís Éireann' website\n Character profile at Holy Soap\n Character profile at TV3\n\nHome and Away characters\nTelevision characters introduced in 2008\nFemale characters in television",
"Candidly Nicole is an American scripted comedic faux-reality television series starring Nicole Richie. The series premiered on July 17, 2014, on VH1. Richie talks about her humorous daily adventures and her views on everything from style to relationships.\n\nThe series received its UK premiere on Sunday 28 February 2016 on ITVBe.\n\nCast\n\nMain cast members \n\n Nicole Richie\n\nGuest stars \n\n Kelly Oxford\n Sofia Richie\n Jensen Karp\n Lionel Richie\n Benji Madden\n Erin Foster\n Ryan Seacrest\n Rashida Jones\n\nSeries overview\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeason 1 (2014)\n\nSeason 2 (2015)\n\nReferences\n\n2010s American reality television series\n2014 American television series debuts\nEnglish-language television shows\nVH1 original programming\n2015 American television series endings\nTelevision series by Telepictures\nTelevision series by Warner Bros. Television Studios"
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[
"Nicole Kidman",
"Relationships and children",
"what relationships did nicole have?",
"Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise,"
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C_365c6134db2c45cb96f35f5b84dddb71_1
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and to who after tom cruise?
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Who was Nicole Kidman with afterTom Cruise?
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Nicole Kidman
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Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise, and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met Cruise in November 1989, while filming Days of Thunder, they were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane (born 1992), and a son, Connor Anthony (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and the marriage was dissolved in August of that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of the ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage, by everyone who picked up the story." "So it's huge news, and it didn't happen." In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, she said she still loved Cruise: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] breakup with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider (1986) co-star Tom Burlinson. She was also said to be involved with Adrien Brody. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 and dated him into 2004. Robbie Williams confirmed he had a short romance with Kidman on her yacht in summer 2004. In a 2007 Vanity Fair interview, Kidman revealed that she had been secretly engaged to someone prior to her present relationship to New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in January 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. In an interview in 2015, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other - we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Sydney, Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), Los Angeles, and Nashville (Tennessee, USA). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban had their second daughter via surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital. In an on-stage interview by Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World (WITW) conference, Kidman stated that she turned her attention to her career after her divorce from Tom Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded so that was an interesting thing for me", and led to her Academy Award in 2002. CANNOTANSWER
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and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted
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Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has been continuously identified as one of the world's highest-paid actresses. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.
Kidman began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller film Dead Calm and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she achieved international success with the action film Days of Thunder. She received greater recognition with lead roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In 2003, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002). She received additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the dramas Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016) and Being the Ricardos (2021).
Kidman's television roles include Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Big Little Lies (2017–2019), Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), The Undoing (2020) and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021). For Big Little Lies, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actress and the other for Outstanding Limited Series as an executive producer.
Kidman has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. She was married to actor Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 and has been married to country music singer Keith Urban since 2006. In 2010, she founded the production company Blossom Films. In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Early life
Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author. Having been born in the American state of Hawaii to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She also has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" (), meaning "heavenly star". The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.
When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydney's North Shore. She has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist and TV presenter.
Kidman grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years. She has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself."
She initially studied at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts who had attended the same high school. She also attended the Australian Theatre for Young People. Here, during her teenage years, she took up drama and mime, finding acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the Australian sun forced the young Kidman to rehearse in the halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she received praise and encouragement to pursue acting full-time, which she did after dropping out of high school.
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas. By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy in order to help her mother with physical therapy. She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
In 1988, Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City, based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a former lover, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition. Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor". The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success. In 1993, she starred in the thriller Malice opposite Alec Baldwin and the drama My Life opposite Michael Keaton.
Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim (1995–2003)
In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. The same year, she starred in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For, in which she played the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. Regarding Kidman's Golden Globe Award-winning performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." Kidman next appeared alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel of the same name, and starred in The Peacemaker (1997) as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. In 1998, Kidman starred in the comedy Practical Magic alongside Sandra Bullock as two witch sisters who face a threatening curse that prevents them from ever finding lasting love. While the film opened atop the charts on its North American opening weekend, it flopped at the box office. She returned to her work on the stage that same year in the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes. After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise, Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl. In 2001, Kidman played the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film [...] Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." Subsequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, among several other awards and nominations, including her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Kidman also starred in Alejandro Amenábar's horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210 million worldwide, the film also earned several Goya Award nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Kidman. She received her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations. Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."
In 2002, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman famously wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, in order to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain". Kidman won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award. During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld." Also in 2002, Kidman was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three very different films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman still earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character and become separated by the Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight". The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Established actress (2004–2009)
In 2004, Kidman starred in the film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, Kidman addressed the controversy saying, "It wasn't that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love". She received her seventh Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. That same year, she appeared as a successful producer in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. In 2005, Kidman appeared opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and with Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, Kidman and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12 million for the three-minute advert. During this time, Kidman was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004–2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17 million per-film price tag.
In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US$384 million worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science-fiction film The Invasion directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. She also starred in the fantasy-adventure, The Golden Compass (2007), playing the villainous Marisa Coulter.
In 2008, she reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia, set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II, starring opposite Hugh Jackman as an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. The acting was praised and the film was a box office success worldwide. In 2009, Kidman appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the Federico Fellini-like character's muse, Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.
Biographical and independent films (2010–2015)
In 2010, Kidman produced and starred in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart, for which she vacated her role in the Woody Allen picture You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Her portrayal as a grieving mother in the film earned her critical acclaim, and received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. She also subsequently lent her voice to a promotional video that Australia used to support its bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In 2011, she starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage, and appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan's romantic comedy Just Go with It, as a trophy wife.
In 2012, Kidman and Clive Owen starred in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. In Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy (2012), she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless. The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and Kidman's performance garnered nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. In 2012, Kidman's audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released through Audible. Kidman starred as an unstable mother in Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013), to a positive response and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews. Kidman also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which Kidman played an officer's wife. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific". Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage. Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.
In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman's production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played a district attorney, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the little-seen film Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. After more than 15 years, Kidman returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from 5 September to 21 November 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
Lion, Big Little Lies and continued acclaim (2016–present)
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade." Budgeted at US$12 million, Lion earned over US$140 million globally. She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance", while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Critics' Choice Television Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d'Or. Both films were adaptations of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, and Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service found Kidman "particularly, unsurprisingly excellent in her performance as the steely Miss Martha. She is controlled and in control, unflappable. Her genteel manners and femininity co-exist easily with her toughness." Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d'Or. Also in 2017, Kidman played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French comedy The Intouchables, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramasDestroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide", whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs". That same year, Kidman played Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman. Also in 2018, Nicole was interviewed for BAFTA A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34 million. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection". She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are". For her performance, Kidman received another nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 2020, Kidman played Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Kidman served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. For her performance, Kidman received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Kidman's only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy film The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key.
In 2021, Kidman starred in and executive produced the Hulu miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. She also starred as actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama film Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth overall.
Upcoming projects
Kidman will next star alongside Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk in the thriller film The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. She will also reprise her role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She will be starring and serving as executive producer on four upcoming television series: the drama miniseries Expats, which is currently in production, the thriller miniseries Pretty Things, based on the upcoming novel of the same name by Janelle Brown, the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 book of short stories, and the family-drama series Things I Know To Be True, based on the Australian play of the same name. Unlike her other television projects, Things I Know To Be True is envisioned as an ongoing series with multiple seasons rather than a miniseries.
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking erratic roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her versatile performances and expansive range of material, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular." According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century up to that point.
Kidman is known to use method acting for many of her roles. It has been noted that she often times transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally in order to resemble her characters, to the point where it has affected her health. Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character." W Magazine described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles [...] and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."
Critics have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic". Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs." Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character." Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever. Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it." Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices." In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said in a statement, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman has been married twice: first to actor Tom Cruise, and later to country singer Keith Urban. Kidman met Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990. While married, the former couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane Cruise (born 1992), and a son, Connor Antony Cruise (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of an ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen."
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time turned to her career after the divorce from Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 before becoming engaged to him, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement. She was also romantically involved with rapper Q-Tip.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Lenny Kravitz, prior to her present relationship with New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, U.S.), Beverly Hills (California, U.S.), two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia) and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, U.S.) purchased for US$10 million. The couple's first daughter, Sunday Rose, was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter, Faith Margaret, via gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.
Religious and political views
Kidman was brought up in an Irish Catholic family and remains practising. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic, Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the Catholic Church is part of her "essence", and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic. Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.
A supporter of women's rights, Kidman testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence Against Women Act in 2009. In January 2017, she stated her support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. Kidman has also donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates.
Wealth, philanthropy and honours
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the top spot for a woman in 2006. In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. In 2015, her wealth was estimated to have risen up to A$331 million.
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. Kidman was also appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2016, she donated $50,000 to UN Women.
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally". However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.
Other work
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies. In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005. In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market. In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes. In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena. In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.
Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League and once served as a club ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns film scores based on critic reviews and audience reception, some of Kidman's highest-scoring films include Paddington (2014), Flirting (1990), To Die For (1995), Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016), The Others (2001), The Family Fang (2015), Dead Calm (1989), Boy Erased (2018) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). Her most financially successful films include Aquaman (2018), Happy Feet (2006), The Golden Compass (2008), Batman Forever (1995) and Paddington (2014), as listed by the box office tracking website The Numbers as her highest-grossing films. Her other screen credits include:
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry. In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.
Discography
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles, among others. Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in. Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year, being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association, while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning. Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand, Portugal, and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold or Silver in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia and the ninety-third in France, respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away". The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film. In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song
"Unusual Way". In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".
See also
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
20th-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian singers
21st-century Australian women singers
Actresses from Honolulu
Actresses from Sydney
Audiobook narrators
Australian company founders
Australian film actresses
Australian expatriate actresses in the United States
Australian film producers
Australian models
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Scottish descent
Australian Roman Catholics
Australian television actresses
Australian women ambassadors
Australian women chief executives
Australian women company founders
Australian women film producers
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA Award winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA International Award winners
Businesspeople from Hawaii
Catholics from Hawaii
Companions of the Order of Australia
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Logie Award winners
Models from Sydney
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People educated at North Sydney Girls High School
People named in the Paradise Papers
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners
Theatre World Award winners
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
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"Tom Cruise: Unauthorized is an unauthorized non-fiction biographical book about Tom Cruise, written by Wensley Clarkson. The book was published by Hastings House in 1998. The book discusses Tom Cruise's early life, his rise as an actor, involvement with Scientology, and past relationships with Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman. The book ended during the filming of Eyes Wide Shut.\n\nIn 2003, Wensley Clarkson wrote another biography of Cruise, entitled: Cruise Control. Tom Cruise was interviewed on Larry King Live about that book, and stated: \"Well, you can tell this guy doesn't know me.\"\n\nPublisher receives legal letter\nAfter Tom Cruise's publicists discovered that the author was contacting individuals involved with the Church of Scientology in the course of his research on Cruise, an attorney for Cruise contacted the publisher of Tom Cruise: Unauthorized.\n\nAttorney Bertram Fields' letter stated: \"I represent Tom Cruise. I have been advised that you intend to publish a biography of Mr. Cruise. I believe that your book may contain numerous false and defamatory statements about Mr. Cruise. I urge you to check your facts very carefully before publication, since it is certainly Mr. Cruise's intention to institute an appropriate action should your book contain such statements.\" Though Clarkson's representatives at Hastings House urged Fields to have his client meet with the author so as to ensure the veracity of the statement in the book, Fields and Cruise did not reply to the publisher's offer.\n\nSee also\n\nBeing Tom Cruise\nRelationship of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes\n Trapped in the Closet (South Park)\nTom Cruise: All the World's A Stage (2006)\nTom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography (2008)\n\nReferences\n\n1998 non-fiction books\nTom Cruise\nAmerican biographies\nBiographies about actors\nUnauthorized biographies",
"\"The Church of Scientology Presents: Being Tom Cruise, Why Scientology Isn't In Any Way Mental\" is a satirical spoof documentary from the series Star Stories, parodying the life of Tom Cruise and his relationship with the Church of Scientology. It is episode 2 of the second series of Star Stories, and first aired on Channel 4 on 2 August 2007. The show recounts Cruise's time with a group of some of his early acting friends. After filming Top Gun, Cruise (Kevin Bishop) is introduced to Scientology by John Travolta (Steve Edge), who convinces him to join the organization by smashing Cruise over the head with a shovel. He meets Nicole Kidman (Dolly Wells) and they start a relationship. After dating Penélope Cruz, Cruise is introduced to Katie Holmes (Laura Patch) by Travolta. Holmes agrees to marry Cruise, and the program ends with a voiceover asking the viewer to visit a Scientology website and purchase expensive products.\n\nThe program received positive reception, and The Guardian and the Evening Times highlighted it as the \"pick of the day\". The Daily Mirror described it as a \"brilliant spoof\", and The Sunday Times characterized the show as \"Comedy so broad it barely fits on the screen, it is hard not to be amused\". The Herald Sun called it a \"ruthless but spot-on parody\".\n\nPlot\nThe parody of Tom Cruise (Kevin Bishop) is framed through the viewpoint of the actor's association with the Church of Scientology. The show recounts the actor's days with a group of actors known as the Brat Pack, and how he maintains a friendship with Patrick Swayze, an actor from this crowd. (Brat Pack is a nickname given to a group of young actors and actresses who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s; Cruise has been referred to as a member due to his role in the film The Outsiders.) While filming Top Gun, Cruise is afraid he looks \"a bit gay\" next to his co-stars. His co-stars subsequently turn into the Village People. Cruise has alien spirit guides who appear as \"a pair of giant blobs who speak with Welsh accents\". They comment on Top Gun, \"It's no ET but it's got something.\" Cruise is introduced to Scientology by John Travolta (Steve Edge), who presents it as a \"legitimate alien-race-based religion\". After Travolta bashes him over the head with a shovel, Cruise remarks: \"Ouch. . . wait a minute. Scientology. It all makes perfect sense now.\" Ewan McGregor tries to convince Cruise to convert to the Jedi methodology.\n\nWhen Cruise first meets Nicole Kidman (Dolly Wells), he asks her to sit down so that he will appear taller. Cruise performs his \"dangling-from-the ceiling routine\" from Mission: Impossible – while in bed with Kidman. Cruise asks Kidman how he can prove he is not gay, and she recommends that they make the film Eyes Wide Shut. Stanley Kubrick is portrayed as a sleazy film director, and the program shows a newspaper headline giving a critical review of Eyes Wide Shut. The show portrays Cruise's relationship with Penélope Cruz, who is seen wearing a mantilla. Travolta introduces Cruise to his third wife Katie Holmes (Laura Patch) who is depicted as a robotic Stepford Wife. \"Greetings, Earth Man, I am here to serve you,\" says Holmes to Cruise upon their first meeting. After Cruise asks Holmes to marry him, she states, \"Affirmative\". The show makes fun of Cruise's couch jumping incident on The Oprah Winfrey Show. (This spoof is in reference to a 2005 appearance by Cruise on the Oprah program, where he \"jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend.\") At the wedding of Cruise and Holmes, an alien bride and groom are displayed on the top of the couple's wedding cake, and the show spoofs the couple's wedding vows. A voiceover at the end of the program tells the viewer to visit scientologyisgreat.com and purchase £4,000 worth of books.\n\nProduction\n\nProduction on the second series of Star Stories was announced by Channel 4 in January 2007, and in addition to Tom Cruise, others set for parodying included Simon Cowell, Britney Spears and \"the 1990s chart battle between Oasis and Blur\". The show was episode two of the second series of Star Stories. The episode was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 2 August 2007. On its website, Channel 4 promoted the episode with the description, \"Hollywood's smallest actor (after Danny DeVito) expounds on Aliens from Outer Space and the best career choices ever.\" In August 2007, the series was set to be remade into a new version in the U.S.\n\nLegal issues\nMultiple publications commented on the potential legal implications of parodying both Tom Cruise and Scientology. \"Given the Church of Scientology's full-throttle reaction to any criticism or mickey-taking, the Star Stories boys are sure to find themselves in the firing line,\" wrote a reviewer for the Evening Times. A review in The Sunday Times commented, \"Taking their careers in their hands, the Star Stories team tackle the notoriously litigious Tom Cruise ... The lawyers must still be having a nice lie down after watching.\"\n\nIn an interview with The Northern Echo, Star Stories actor Kevin Bishop discussed the legal issues involved with making the series: \"We're not allowed to say anything about anyone that isn't true. It can be quite tricky. Sometimes we've had to change lines even when the filming is all finished. We go back to the recording studio and put one line over another line. ... The only reason I reckon we've not been sued is because actually we've not said anything that technically we can't.\" He said the series was \"well looked after\" by attorneys. In a 2009 interview with The Independent, Bishop recounted an experience when he gave a copy of the program to television producers in the United States: \"I gave some American producers the Star Stories DVD and those that could be bothered to watch it saw the Tom Cruise one. One guy went 'you can't do that it's Tom Cruise man? [we’ve done it] 'yeah but you can't do that on TV' [it's already gone out] 'what you’re talking about Scientology, are you fucking nuts?? [er, look we’ve done it it's been on telly and everyone loved and we've had no complaints] has Tom Cruise seen this?!\"\n\nReception\nThe Guardian and the Evening Times highlighted the Star Stories parody as the \"pick of the day\". Martin Skeggs of The Guardian commented, \"There's everything you ever wanted to know about the world's number one film star, including how he was introduced to Scientology (John Travolta whacked him over the head with a shovel), the time he met Nicole Kidman and asked her if she would mind sitting down to make him look taller\". He characterized the parody as, \"A toned down version of real life, then.\" Barry McDonald of the Evening Times described the episode as \"equally cruel and sidesplittingly hilarious\". He commented, \"This is as close to must-watch television as you're likely to get and a testament to the quality of comedy writing on display.\" In a later review of the program for the Evening Times when it was shown again on re-runs, McDonald wrote, \"I don't care if it's been shown several times before, this is one of the shows which you just have to see again.\" Aidan Smith of Scotland on Sunday wrote favorably of the show, and noted, \"Fearlessly, in view of how paranoid Scientologists are, the latest target was Tom Cruise. I especially liked the scene where the tiny screen giant winched himself, Mission Impossible-style, on to Nicole Kidman while she slugged from a tinnie like a good Sheila.\"\n\nThe Daily Mirror described the program as \"far too funny\". A review in The Daily Mirror was positive, commenting, \"If you want to see a brilliant spoof about Tom Cruise's faith in Scientology and his relationship with Katie Holmes, look no further than C4's Star Stories.\" She commented, \"It's so absurd, even Tom will laugh.\" The Advertiser described Star Stories as \"a surprisingly funny sendup of movie stars and pop groups\", and noted of the episode's title, \"This week's episode is titled Being Tom Cruise - How Scientology isn't in Any Way Mental, which should give you some idea of the vein of humour mined.\" The Sunday Times observed, \"Just when you thought you might go a week without seeing a mention of brand Beckham, here is a documentary on their best friends, brand Tom Cruise, as recorded by the least reverential writers and least convincing lookalikes on the planet. Scientologists might prefer something on the Sci-fi channel.\" Victoria Segal, Sally Kinnes and Sarah Dempster of The Sunday Times highlighted the episode in their \"Critics' Choice\" column. They commented that the show's producers \"[give] their own account of his career, his love life and his religion: It's all about aliens. Comedy so broad it barely fits on the screen, it is hard not to be amused\". Cameron Adams of the Herald Sun highlighted the program as his \"Top Choice\". Adams commented, \"This ruthless but spot-on parody re-enacts Cruise's life and career through Hollywood gossip, rumour and exaggeration (his father is a midget, Katie Holmes a robot, Nicole Kidman a beer-swilling bogan), but is an antidote to every interview he's ever done.\" Writing for The Newcastle Herald, Anita Beaumont commented, \"This is really silly stuff, but it is amusing enough to enliven a fairly dull night of TV.\" The Sunday Mirror wrote that the program \"was as subtle as a sledge hammer\". Simon Hoggart of The Spectator called the program \"a magnificently over-the-top anti-celebrity festival\".\n\nSee also\n\nRelationship of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes\n Scientology in popular culture\n Tom Cruise: Unauthorized (1998)\n Tom Cruise: All the World's a Stage (2006)\n Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography (2008)\n Trapped in the Closet (South Park)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nStar Stories - Series 2, Episode 2, at Channel 4\n\nScientology in popular culture\nTom Cruise\nChannel 4 comedy"
] |
[
"Nicole Kidman",
"Relationships and children",
"what relationships did nicole have?",
"Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise,",
"and to who after tom cruise?",
"and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted"
] |
C_365c6134db2c45cb96f35f5b84dddb71_1
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she has an adopted what?
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Nicole Kidman has an adopted what?
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Nicole Kidman
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Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise, and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met Cruise in November 1989, while filming Days of Thunder, they were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane (born 1992), and a son, Connor Anthony (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and the marriage was dissolved in August of that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of the ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage, by everyone who picked up the story." "So it's huge news, and it didn't happen." In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, she said she still loved Cruise: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] breakup with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider (1986) co-star Tom Burlinson. She was also said to be involved with Adrien Brody. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 and dated him into 2004. Robbie Williams confirmed he had a short romance with Kidman on her yacht in summer 2004. In a 2007 Vanity Fair interview, Kidman revealed that she had been secretly engaged to someone prior to her present relationship to New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in January 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. In an interview in 2015, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other - we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Sydney, Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), Los Angeles, and Nashville (Tennessee, USA). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban had their second daughter via surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital. In an on-stage interview by Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World (WITW) conference, Kidman stated that she turned her attention to her career after her divorce from Tom Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded so that was an interesting thing for me", and led to her Academy Award in 2002. CANNOTANSWER
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She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two
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Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has been continuously identified as one of the world's highest-paid actresses. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.
Kidman began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller film Dead Calm and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she achieved international success with the action film Days of Thunder. She received greater recognition with lead roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In 2003, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002). She received additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the dramas Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016) and Being the Ricardos (2021).
Kidman's television roles include Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Big Little Lies (2017–2019), Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), The Undoing (2020) and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021). For Big Little Lies, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actress and the other for Outstanding Limited Series as an executive producer.
Kidman has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. She was married to actor Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 and has been married to country music singer Keith Urban since 2006. In 2010, she founded the production company Blossom Films. In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Early life
Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author. Having been born in the American state of Hawaii to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She also has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" (), meaning "heavenly star". The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.
When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydney's North Shore. She has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist and TV presenter.
Kidman grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years. She has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself."
She initially studied at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts who had attended the same high school. She also attended the Australian Theatre for Young People. Here, during her teenage years, she took up drama and mime, finding acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the Australian sun forced the young Kidman to rehearse in the halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she received praise and encouragement to pursue acting full-time, which she did after dropping out of high school.
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas. By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy in order to help her mother with physical therapy. She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
In 1988, Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City, based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a former lover, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition. Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor". The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success. In 1993, she starred in the thriller Malice opposite Alec Baldwin and the drama My Life opposite Michael Keaton.
Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim (1995–2003)
In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. The same year, she starred in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For, in which she played the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. Regarding Kidman's Golden Globe Award-winning performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." Kidman next appeared alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel of the same name, and starred in The Peacemaker (1997) as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. In 1998, Kidman starred in the comedy Practical Magic alongside Sandra Bullock as two witch sisters who face a threatening curse that prevents them from ever finding lasting love. While the film opened atop the charts on its North American opening weekend, it flopped at the box office. She returned to her work on the stage that same year in the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes. After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise, Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl. In 2001, Kidman played the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film [...] Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." Subsequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, among several other awards and nominations, including her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Kidman also starred in Alejandro Amenábar's horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210 million worldwide, the film also earned several Goya Award nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Kidman. She received her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations. Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."
In 2002, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman famously wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, in order to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain". Kidman won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award. During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld." Also in 2002, Kidman was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three very different films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman still earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character and become separated by the Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight". The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Established actress (2004–2009)
In 2004, Kidman starred in the film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, Kidman addressed the controversy saying, "It wasn't that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love". She received her seventh Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. That same year, she appeared as a successful producer in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. In 2005, Kidman appeared opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and with Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, Kidman and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12 million for the three-minute advert. During this time, Kidman was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004–2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17 million per-film price tag.
In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US$384 million worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science-fiction film The Invasion directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. She also starred in the fantasy-adventure, The Golden Compass (2007), playing the villainous Marisa Coulter.
In 2008, she reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia, set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II, starring opposite Hugh Jackman as an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. The acting was praised and the film was a box office success worldwide. In 2009, Kidman appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the Federico Fellini-like character's muse, Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.
Biographical and independent films (2010–2015)
In 2010, Kidman produced and starred in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart, for which she vacated her role in the Woody Allen picture You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Her portrayal as a grieving mother in the film earned her critical acclaim, and received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. She also subsequently lent her voice to a promotional video that Australia used to support its bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In 2011, she starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage, and appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan's romantic comedy Just Go with It, as a trophy wife.
In 2012, Kidman and Clive Owen starred in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. In Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy (2012), she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless. The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and Kidman's performance garnered nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. In 2012, Kidman's audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released through Audible. Kidman starred as an unstable mother in Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013), to a positive response and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews. Kidman also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which Kidman played an officer's wife. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific". Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage. Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.
In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman's production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played a district attorney, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the little-seen film Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. After more than 15 years, Kidman returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from 5 September to 21 November 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
Lion, Big Little Lies and continued acclaim (2016–present)
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade." Budgeted at US$12 million, Lion earned over US$140 million globally. She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance", while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Critics' Choice Television Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d'Or. Both films were adaptations of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, and Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service found Kidman "particularly, unsurprisingly excellent in her performance as the steely Miss Martha. She is controlled and in control, unflappable. Her genteel manners and femininity co-exist easily with her toughness." Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d'Or. Also in 2017, Kidman played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French comedy The Intouchables, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramasDestroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide", whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs". That same year, Kidman played Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman. Also in 2018, Nicole was interviewed for BAFTA A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34 million. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection". She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are". For her performance, Kidman received another nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 2020, Kidman played Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Kidman served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. For her performance, Kidman received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Kidman's only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy film The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key.
In 2021, Kidman starred in and executive produced the Hulu miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. She also starred as actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama film Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth overall.
Upcoming projects
Kidman will next star alongside Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk in the thriller film The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. She will also reprise her role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She will be starring and serving as executive producer on four upcoming television series: the drama miniseries Expats, which is currently in production, the thriller miniseries Pretty Things, based on the upcoming novel of the same name by Janelle Brown, the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 book of short stories, and the family-drama series Things I Know To Be True, based on the Australian play of the same name. Unlike her other television projects, Things I Know To Be True is envisioned as an ongoing series with multiple seasons rather than a miniseries.
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking erratic roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her versatile performances and expansive range of material, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular." According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century up to that point.
Kidman is known to use method acting for many of her roles. It has been noted that she often times transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally in order to resemble her characters, to the point where it has affected her health. Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character." W Magazine described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles [...] and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."
Critics have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic". Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs." Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character." Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever. Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it." Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices." In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said in a statement, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman has been married twice: first to actor Tom Cruise, and later to country singer Keith Urban. Kidman met Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990. While married, the former couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane Cruise (born 1992), and a son, Connor Antony Cruise (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of an ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen."
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time turned to her career after the divorce from Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 before becoming engaged to him, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement. She was also romantically involved with rapper Q-Tip.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Lenny Kravitz, prior to her present relationship with New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, U.S.), Beverly Hills (California, U.S.), two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia) and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, U.S.) purchased for US$10 million. The couple's first daughter, Sunday Rose, was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter, Faith Margaret, via gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.
Religious and political views
Kidman was brought up in an Irish Catholic family and remains practising. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic, Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the Catholic Church is part of her "essence", and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic. Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.
A supporter of women's rights, Kidman testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence Against Women Act in 2009. In January 2017, she stated her support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. Kidman has also donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates.
Wealth, philanthropy and honours
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the top spot for a woman in 2006. In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. In 2015, her wealth was estimated to have risen up to A$331 million.
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. Kidman was also appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2016, she donated $50,000 to UN Women.
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally". However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.
Other work
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies. In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005. In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market. In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes. In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena. In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.
Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League and once served as a club ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns film scores based on critic reviews and audience reception, some of Kidman's highest-scoring films include Paddington (2014), Flirting (1990), To Die For (1995), Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016), The Others (2001), The Family Fang (2015), Dead Calm (1989), Boy Erased (2018) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). Her most financially successful films include Aquaman (2018), Happy Feet (2006), The Golden Compass (2008), Batman Forever (1995) and Paddington (2014), as listed by the box office tracking website The Numbers as her highest-grossing films. Her other screen credits include:
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry. In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.
Discography
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles, among others. Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in. Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year, being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association, while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning. Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand, Portugal, and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold or Silver in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia and the ninety-third in France, respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away". The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film. In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song
"Unusual Way". In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".
See also
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
20th-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian singers
21st-century Australian women singers
Actresses from Honolulu
Actresses from Sydney
Audiobook narrators
Australian company founders
Australian film actresses
Australian expatriate actresses in the United States
Australian film producers
Australian models
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Scottish descent
Australian Roman Catholics
Australian television actresses
Australian women ambassadors
Australian women chief executives
Australian women company founders
Australian women film producers
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA Award winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA International Award winners
Businesspeople from Hawaii
Catholics from Hawaii
Companions of the Order of Australia
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Logie Award winners
Models from Sydney
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People educated at North Sydney Girls High School
People named in the Paradise Papers
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners
Theatre World Award winners
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
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[
"Gauri Sawant is a transgender activist from Mumbai, India. She is the director of Sakhi Char Chowghi that helps transgender people and people with HIV/AIDS. She was featured in an ad by Vicks. She was made the goodwill ambassador of Election Commission in Maharashtra.\n\nEarly life \nSawant was born as Ganesh and raised in Pune. Her mother died when she was seven years old and she was raised by her grandmother. Her father is a police officer. She left her house at the age of 18 as she didn't want to be a disappointment for her dad.\n\nActivism \nGauri founded the Sakhi Char Chowghi Trust in 2000. The NGO promotes safe sex and provides counselling to transgender people. In 2014, she became the first transgender person to file a petition in the Supreme Court of India for adoption rights of transgender people. She was a petitioner in the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) case in which the Supreme Court recognised transgender as the third gender. Gauri adopted a girl named Gayatri in 2008 after Gayatri's mother died of AIDS.\n\nPersonal life and family\nGauri has an adopted daughter, whom she adopted at the age of 4. Gauri said in an interview that she had adopted her after her biological mother, a sex worker who had died from AIDS, leaving her alone, to be sold in the sex-trafficking industry.\n\nIn popular culture \nIn 2017, Gauri was featured in an ad by Vicks. The ad was part of Vicks' ‘Touch of Care’ campaign and showed the story of Gauri and her adopted daughter.\n\nReferences \n\nLGBT people from India\nTransgender rights activists\nLGBT rights activists from India\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people",
"What Hetty Did is the seventh novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1988 when he was 76 years old. The novel describes the experiences of an 18-year-old girl. Hetty Birtwisle has been brought up by adoptive parents in the Fens; after a beating by her father, discovering that she was adopted, she flees to Birmingham where she has learnt she was born and alters her surname to Beauchamp.\n\nHetty Beauchamp comes across several characters from Carr's other novels in the boarding house in which she lives, including Emma Foxberrow, a teacher in The Harpole Report and Edward Peplow, from A Day in Summer.\n\nCarr was offered an advance of £5,000 for the novel, including paperback rights, but as this was the same amount that he had been offered three years earlier for The Battle of Pollocks Crossing, he decided to publish it himself. The book was published in an edition of 2,850 copies and is the first novel published by The Quince Tree Press. As Carr usually offered to send his books post free, he included the price of postage in the price of the book, which had to be printed on the back. However he based postage mistakenly on the cost of sending a Penguin paperback, and What Hetty Did was printed on superior paper with card covers, so it was heavier than expected and he lost money on postage. However the book sold well at £3.95 a copy and he soon had another 3,000 copies printed. The novel is still published by The Quince Tree Press.\n\nThe book is notable for the fact that he gave his name as James Carr on the spine and J. L. Carr on the front. Carr was christened Joseph Lloyd and adopted the name 'Jim' or even 'James' in his early 20s.\n\nThe story was adapted by Ellen Dryden for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Drama in 2004.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nQuince Tree Press\n\n1988 British novels\nEnglish novels\nNovels by J. L. Carr\nNovels set in Birmingham, West Midlands"
] |
[
"Nicole Kidman",
"Relationships and children",
"what relationships did nicole have?",
"Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise,",
"and to who after tom cruise?",
"and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted",
"she has an adopted what?",
"She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two"
] |
C_365c6134db2c45cb96f35f5b84dddb71_1
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as well as two what?
| 4 |
Nicole Kidman has an adopted son and daughter as well as two what?
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Nicole Kidman
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Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise, and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met Cruise in November 1989, while filming Days of Thunder, they were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane (born 1992), and a son, Connor Anthony (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and the marriage was dissolved in August of that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of the ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage, by everyone who picked up the story." "So it's huge news, and it didn't happen." In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, she said she still loved Cruise: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] breakup with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider (1986) co-star Tom Burlinson. She was also said to be involved with Adrien Brody. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 and dated him into 2004. Robbie Williams confirmed he had a short romance with Kidman on her yacht in summer 2004. In a 2007 Vanity Fair interview, Kidman revealed that she had been secretly engaged to someone prior to her present relationship to New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in January 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. In an interview in 2015, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other - we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Sydney, Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), Los Angeles, and Nashville (Tennessee, USA). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban had their second daughter via surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital. In an on-stage interview by Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World (WITW) conference, Kidman stated that she turned her attention to her career after her divorce from Tom Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded so that was an interesting thing for me", and led to her Academy Award in 2002. CANNOTANSWER
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as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met
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Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has been continuously identified as one of the world's highest-paid actresses. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.
Kidman began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller film Dead Calm and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she achieved international success with the action film Days of Thunder. She received greater recognition with lead roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In 2003, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002). She received additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the dramas Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016) and Being the Ricardos (2021).
Kidman's television roles include Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Big Little Lies (2017–2019), Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), The Undoing (2020) and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021). For Big Little Lies, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actress and the other for Outstanding Limited Series as an executive producer.
Kidman has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. She was married to actor Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 and has been married to country music singer Keith Urban since 2006. In 2010, she founded the production company Blossom Films. In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Early life
Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author. Having been born in the American state of Hawaii to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She also has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" (), meaning "heavenly star". The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.
When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydney's North Shore. She has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist and TV presenter.
Kidman grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years. She has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself."
She initially studied at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts who had attended the same high school. She also attended the Australian Theatre for Young People. Here, during her teenage years, she took up drama and mime, finding acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the Australian sun forced the young Kidman to rehearse in the halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she received praise and encouragement to pursue acting full-time, which she did after dropping out of high school.
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas. By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy in order to help her mother with physical therapy. She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
In 1988, Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City, based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a former lover, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition. Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor". The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success. In 1993, she starred in the thriller Malice opposite Alec Baldwin and the drama My Life opposite Michael Keaton.
Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim (1995–2003)
In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. The same year, she starred in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For, in which she played the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. Regarding Kidman's Golden Globe Award-winning performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." Kidman next appeared alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel of the same name, and starred in The Peacemaker (1997) as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. In 1998, Kidman starred in the comedy Practical Magic alongside Sandra Bullock as two witch sisters who face a threatening curse that prevents them from ever finding lasting love. While the film opened atop the charts on its North American opening weekend, it flopped at the box office. She returned to her work on the stage that same year in the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes. After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise, Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl. In 2001, Kidman played the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film [...] Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." Subsequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, among several other awards and nominations, including her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Kidman also starred in Alejandro Amenábar's horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210 million worldwide, the film also earned several Goya Award nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Kidman. She received her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations. Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."
In 2002, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman famously wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, in order to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain". Kidman won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award. During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld." Also in 2002, Kidman was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three very different films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman still earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character and become separated by the Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight". The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Established actress (2004–2009)
In 2004, Kidman starred in the film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, Kidman addressed the controversy saying, "It wasn't that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love". She received her seventh Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. That same year, she appeared as a successful producer in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. In 2005, Kidman appeared opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and with Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, Kidman and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12 million for the three-minute advert. During this time, Kidman was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004–2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17 million per-film price tag.
In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US$384 million worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science-fiction film The Invasion directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. She also starred in the fantasy-adventure, The Golden Compass (2007), playing the villainous Marisa Coulter.
In 2008, she reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia, set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II, starring opposite Hugh Jackman as an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. The acting was praised and the film was a box office success worldwide. In 2009, Kidman appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the Federico Fellini-like character's muse, Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.
Biographical and independent films (2010–2015)
In 2010, Kidman produced and starred in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart, for which she vacated her role in the Woody Allen picture You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Her portrayal as a grieving mother in the film earned her critical acclaim, and received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. She also subsequently lent her voice to a promotional video that Australia used to support its bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In 2011, she starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage, and appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan's romantic comedy Just Go with It, as a trophy wife.
In 2012, Kidman and Clive Owen starred in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. In Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy (2012), she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless. The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and Kidman's performance garnered nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. In 2012, Kidman's audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released through Audible. Kidman starred as an unstable mother in Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013), to a positive response and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews. Kidman also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which Kidman played an officer's wife. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific". Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage. Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.
In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman's production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played a district attorney, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the little-seen film Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. After more than 15 years, Kidman returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from 5 September to 21 November 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
Lion, Big Little Lies and continued acclaim (2016–present)
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade." Budgeted at US$12 million, Lion earned over US$140 million globally. She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance", while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Critics' Choice Television Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d'Or. Both films were adaptations of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, and Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service found Kidman "particularly, unsurprisingly excellent in her performance as the steely Miss Martha. She is controlled and in control, unflappable. Her genteel manners and femininity co-exist easily with her toughness." Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d'Or. Also in 2017, Kidman played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French comedy The Intouchables, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramasDestroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide", whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs". That same year, Kidman played Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman. Also in 2018, Nicole was interviewed for BAFTA A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34 million. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection". She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are". For her performance, Kidman received another nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 2020, Kidman played Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Kidman served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. For her performance, Kidman received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Kidman's only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy film The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key.
In 2021, Kidman starred in and executive produced the Hulu miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. She also starred as actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama film Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth overall.
Upcoming projects
Kidman will next star alongside Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk in the thriller film The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. She will also reprise her role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She will be starring and serving as executive producer on four upcoming television series: the drama miniseries Expats, which is currently in production, the thriller miniseries Pretty Things, based on the upcoming novel of the same name by Janelle Brown, the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 book of short stories, and the family-drama series Things I Know To Be True, based on the Australian play of the same name. Unlike her other television projects, Things I Know To Be True is envisioned as an ongoing series with multiple seasons rather than a miniseries.
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking erratic roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her versatile performances and expansive range of material, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular." According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century up to that point.
Kidman is known to use method acting for many of her roles. It has been noted that she often times transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally in order to resemble her characters, to the point where it has affected her health. Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character." W Magazine described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles [...] and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."
Critics have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic". Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs." Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character." Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever. Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it." Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices." In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said in a statement, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman has been married twice: first to actor Tom Cruise, and later to country singer Keith Urban. Kidman met Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990. While married, the former couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane Cruise (born 1992), and a son, Connor Antony Cruise (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of an ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen."
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time turned to her career after the divorce from Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 before becoming engaged to him, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement. She was also romantically involved with rapper Q-Tip.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Lenny Kravitz, prior to her present relationship with New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, U.S.), Beverly Hills (California, U.S.), two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia) and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, U.S.) purchased for US$10 million. The couple's first daughter, Sunday Rose, was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter, Faith Margaret, via gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.
Religious and political views
Kidman was brought up in an Irish Catholic family and remains practising. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic, Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the Catholic Church is part of her "essence", and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic. Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.
A supporter of women's rights, Kidman testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence Against Women Act in 2009. In January 2017, she stated her support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. Kidman has also donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates.
Wealth, philanthropy and honours
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the top spot for a woman in 2006. In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. In 2015, her wealth was estimated to have risen up to A$331 million.
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. Kidman was also appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2016, she donated $50,000 to UN Women.
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally". However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.
Other work
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies. In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005. In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market. In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes. In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena. In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.
Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League and once served as a club ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns film scores based on critic reviews and audience reception, some of Kidman's highest-scoring films include Paddington (2014), Flirting (1990), To Die For (1995), Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016), The Others (2001), The Family Fang (2015), Dead Calm (1989), Boy Erased (2018) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). Her most financially successful films include Aquaman (2018), Happy Feet (2006), The Golden Compass (2008), Batman Forever (1995) and Paddington (2014), as listed by the box office tracking website The Numbers as her highest-grossing films. Her other screen credits include:
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry. In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.
Discography
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles, among others. Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in. Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year, being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association, while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning. Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand, Portugal, and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold or Silver in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia and the ninety-third in France, respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away". The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film. In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song
"Unusual Way". In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".
See also
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
20th-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian singers
21st-century Australian women singers
Actresses from Honolulu
Actresses from Sydney
Audiobook narrators
Australian company founders
Australian film actresses
Australian expatriate actresses in the United States
Australian film producers
Australian models
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Scottish descent
Australian Roman Catholics
Australian television actresses
Australian women ambassadors
Australian women chief executives
Australian women company founders
Australian women film producers
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA Award winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA International Award winners
Businesspeople from Hawaii
Catholics from Hawaii
Companions of the Order of Australia
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Logie Award winners
Models from Sydney
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People educated at North Sydney Girls High School
People named in the Paradise Papers
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners
Theatre World Award winners
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
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"The Horse Is Dead is a live album by English punk rock band Anti-Nowhere League, released in 1996.\n\nThe album was later re-released as disc one of the two disc double album So What?: Early Demos and Live Abuse, as well as the 1999 complete re-release Live: So What?\n\nTrack listing\n\"So What\"\n\"Pig Iron\"\n\"For You\"\n\"Crime\"\n\"Working for the Company\"\n\"Animal\"\n\"Nowhere Man\"\n\"I Hate People\"\n\"Let's Break the Law\"\n\"Noddy\"\n\"Snowman\"\n\"Ballad of J.J. Decay\"\n\"Wreck-a-Nowhere\"\n\"Runaway\"\n\"We're the League\"\n\nReferences\n\nAnti-Nowhere League albums\n1996 live albums",
"What's on TV is a weekly television listings magazine published by Future PLC.\n\nOverview\nWhat's on TV is a weekly UK television magazine. It publishes features, TV listings, news and gossip from soap operas, as well as puzzles and competitions. Its primary focus is on soaps and reality TV, but documentaries and dramas are also covered. \n\nIt was launched in March 1991, after the monopoly on broadcast programming listings magazines ended and the market was opened up. Before this, only two TV magazines were available: Radio Times for BBC listings and TV Times for ITV and, from 1982, Channel 4 listings. Two other magazines appeared on the market at the same time – TV Quick and the short-lived TV Plus. \n\nEarly covers of What's on TV usually featured TV stars and programmes, but now they almost exclusively promote soap stories. \n\nIn January 2007, Time UK (then still IPC) launched a soaps and TV website branded as What's On TV, which focuses on plot spoilers and catch-ups for EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Doctors, Neighbours and Home and Away, as well as reality TV and drama. Its weekly podcast Soap Secrets has discussions on soap storylines, and the podcast Bingewatch talks about the TV offerings on the streaming services such as Netflix.\n\nWhat's on TV belongs to Future PLC's group of weekly television listings magazines. Other TV titles in the group include the long-established TV Times, and TV & Satellite Week.\n\nTime Inc. UK merged TV Easy with What's On TV in September 2014.\n\nThe weekly issue is currently priced at 77p.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n What's on TV online\n What's on TV profile\n\nListings magazines\nTelevision magazines published in the United Kingdom\nWeekly magazines published in the United Kingdom\nMagazines established in 1991\n1991 establishments in the United Kingdom\nMagazines published in London"
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[
"Nicole Kidman",
"Relationships and children",
"what relationships did nicole have?",
"Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise,",
"and to who after tom cruise?",
"and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted",
"she has an adopted what?",
"She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two",
"as well as two what?",
"as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met"
] |
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who did kidman meet?
| 5 |
Who did Nicole Kidman meet?
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Nicole Kidman
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Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise, and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met Cruise in November 1989, while filming Days of Thunder, they were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane (born 1992), and a son, Connor Anthony (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and the marriage was dissolved in August of that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of the ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage, by everyone who picked up the story." "So it's huge news, and it didn't happen." In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, she said she still loved Cruise: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] breakup with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider (1986) co-star Tom Burlinson. She was also said to be involved with Adrien Brody. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 and dated him into 2004. Robbie Williams confirmed he had a short romance with Kidman on her yacht in summer 2004. In a 2007 Vanity Fair interview, Kidman revealed that she had been secretly engaged to someone prior to her present relationship to New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in January 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. In an interview in 2015, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other - we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Sydney, Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), Los Angeles, and Nashville (Tennessee, USA). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban had their second daughter via surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital. In an on-stage interview by Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World (WITW) conference, Kidman stated that she turned her attention to her career after her divorce from Tom Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded so that was an interesting thing for me", and led to her Academy Award in 2002. CANNOTANSWER
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Kidman met Cruise in November 1989, while filming Days of Thunder, they were
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Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has been continuously identified as one of the world's highest-paid actresses. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.
Kidman began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller film Dead Calm and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she achieved international success with the action film Days of Thunder. She received greater recognition with lead roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In 2003, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002). She received additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the dramas Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016) and Being the Ricardos (2021).
Kidman's television roles include Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Big Little Lies (2017–2019), Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), The Undoing (2020) and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021). For Big Little Lies, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actress and the other for Outstanding Limited Series as an executive producer.
Kidman has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. She was married to actor Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 and has been married to country music singer Keith Urban since 2006. In 2010, she founded the production company Blossom Films. In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Early life
Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author. Having been born in the American state of Hawaii to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She also has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" (), meaning "heavenly star". The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.
When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydney's North Shore. She has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist and TV presenter.
Kidman grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years. She has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself."
She initially studied at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts who had attended the same high school. She also attended the Australian Theatre for Young People. Here, during her teenage years, she took up drama and mime, finding acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the Australian sun forced the young Kidman to rehearse in the halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she received praise and encouragement to pursue acting full-time, which she did after dropping out of high school.
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas. By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy in order to help her mother with physical therapy. She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
In 1988, Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City, based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a former lover, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition. Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor". The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success. In 1993, she starred in the thriller Malice opposite Alec Baldwin and the drama My Life opposite Michael Keaton.
Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim (1995–2003)
In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. The same year, she starred in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For, in which she played the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. Regarding Kidman's Golden Globe Award-winning performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." Kidman next appeared alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel of the same name, and starred in The Peacemaker (1997) as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. In 1998, Kidman starred in the comedy Practical Magic alongside Sandra Bullock as two witch sisters who face a threatening curse that prevents them from ever finding lasting love. While the film opened atop the charts on its North American opening weekend, it flopped at the box office. She returned to her work on the stage that same year in the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes. After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise, Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl. In 2001, Kidman played the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film [...] Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." Subsequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, among several other awards and nominations, including her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Kidman also starred in Alejandro Amenábar's horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210 million worldwide, the film also earned several Goya Award nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Kidman. She received her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations. Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."
In 2002, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman famously wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, in order to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain". Kidman won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award. During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld." Also in 2002, Kidman was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three very different films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman still earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character and become separated by the Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight". The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Established actress (2004–2009)
In 2004, Kidman starred in the film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, Kidman addressed the controversy saying, "It wasn't that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love". She received her seventh Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. That same year, she appeared as a successful producer in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. In 2005, Kidman appeared opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and with Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, Kidman and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12 million for the three-minute advert. During this time, Kidman was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004–2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17 million per-film price tag.
In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US$384 million worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science-fiction film The Invasion directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. She also starred in the fantasy-adventure, The Golden Compass (2007), playing the villainous Marisa Coulter.
In 2008, she reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia, set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II, starring opposite Hugh Jackman as an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. The acting was praised and the film was a box office success worldwide. In 2009, Kidman appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the Federico Fellini-like character's muse, Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.
Biographical and independent films (2010–2015)
In 2010, Kidman produced and starred in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart, for which she vacated her role in the Woody Allen picture You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Her portrayal as a grieving mother in the film earned her critical acclaim, and received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. She also subsequently lent her voice to a promotional video that Australia used to support its bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In 2011, she starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage, and appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan's romantic comedy Just Go with It, as a trophy wife.
In 2012, Kidman and Clive Owen starred in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. In Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy (2012), she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless. The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and Kidman's performance garnered nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. In 2012, Kidman's audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released through Audible. Kidman starred as an unstable mother in Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013), to a positive response and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews. Kidman also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which Kidman played an officer's wife. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific". Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage. Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.
In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman's production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played a district attorney, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the little-seen film Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. After more than 15 years, Kidman returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from 5 September to 21 November 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
Lion, Big Little Lies and continued acclaim (2016–present)
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade." Budgeted at US$12 million, Lion earned over US$140 million globally. She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance", while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Critics' Choice Television Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d'Or. Both films were adaptations of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, and Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service found Kidman "particularly, unsurprisingly excellent in her performance as the steely Miss Martha. She is controlled and in control, unflappable. Her genteel manners and femininity co-exist easily with her toughness." Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d'Or. Also in 2017, Kidman played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French comedy The Intouchables, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramasDestroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide", whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs". That same year, Kidman played Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman. Also in 2018, Nicole was interviewed for BAFTA A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34 million. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection". She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are". For her performance, Kidman received another nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 2020, Kidman played Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Kidman served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. For her performance, Kidman received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Kidman's only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy film The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key.
In 2021, Kidman starred in and executive produced the Hulu miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. She also starred as actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama film Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth overall.
Upcoming projects
Kidman will next star alongside Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk in the thriller film The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. She will also reprise her role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She will be starring and serving as executive producer on four upcoming television series: the drama miniseries Expats, which is currently in production, the thriller miniseries Pretty Things, based on the upcoming novel of the same name by Janelle Brown, the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 book of short stories, and the family-drama series Things I Know To Be True, based on the Australian play of the same name. Unlike her other television projects, Things I Know To Be True is envisioned as an ongoing series with multiple seasons rather than a miniseries.
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking erratic roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her versatile performances and expansive range of material, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular." According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century up to that point.
Kidman is known to use method acting for many of her roles. It has been noted that she often times transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally in order to resemble her characters, to the point where it has affected her health. Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character." W Magazine described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles [...] and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."
Critics have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic". Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs." Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character." Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever. Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it." Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices." In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said in a statement, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman has been married twice: first to actor Tom Cruise, and later to country singer Keith Urban. Kidman met Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990. While married, the former couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane Cruise (born 1992), and a son, Connor Antony Cruise (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of an ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen."
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time turned to her career after the divorce from Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 before becoming engaged to him, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement. She was also romantically involved with rapper Q-Tip.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Lenny Kravitz, prior to her present relationship with New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, U.S.), Beverly Hills (California, U.S.), two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia) and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, U.S.) purchased for US$10 million. The couple's first daughter, Sunday Rose, was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter, Faith Margaret, via gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.
Religious and political views
Kidman was brought up in an Irish Catholic family and remains practising. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic, Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the Catholic Church is part of her "essence", and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic. Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.
A supporter of women's rights, Kidman testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence Against Women Act in 2009. In January 2017, she stated her support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. Kidman has also donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates.
Wealth, philanthropy and honours
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the top spot for a woman in 2006. In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. In 2015, her wealth was estimated to have risen up to A$331 million.
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. Kidman was also appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2016, she donated $50,000 to UN Women.
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally". However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.
Other work
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies. In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005. In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market. In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes. In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena. In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.
Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League and once served as a club ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns film scores based on critic reviews and audience reception, some of Kidman's highest-scoring films include Paddington (2014), Flirting (1990), To Die For (1995), Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016), The Others (2001), The Family Fang (2015), Dead Calm (1989), Boy Erased (2018) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). Her most financially successful films include Aquaman (2018), Happy Feet (2006), The Golden Compass (2008), Batman Forever (1995) and Paddington (2014), as listed by the box office tracking website The Numbers as her highest-grossing films. Her other screen credits include:
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry. In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.
Discography
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles, among others. Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in. Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year, being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association, while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning. Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand, Portugal, and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold or Silver in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia and the ninety-third in France, respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away". The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film. In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song
"Unusual Way". In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".
See also
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
20th-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian singers
21st-century Australian women singers
Actresses from Honolulu
Actresses from Sydney
Audiobook narrators
Australian company founders
Australian film actresses
Australian expatriate actresses in the United States
Australian film producers
Australian models
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Scottish descent
Australian Roman Catholics
Australian television actresses
Australian women ambassadors
Australian women chief executives
Australian women company founders
Australian women film producers
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA Award winners
Best Supporting Actress AACTA International Award winners
Businesspeople from Hawaii
Catholics from Hawaii
Companions of the Order of Australia
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Logie Award winners
Models from Sydney
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People educated at North Sydney Girls High School
People named in the Paradise Papers
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners
Theatre World Award winners
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
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[
"Kidman may refer to:\n\nPeople\n Antonia Kidman (born 1970), Australian journalist, daughter of Antony Kidman\n Antony Kidman (1938–2014), Australian biochemist and psychologist\n Fiona Kidman (born 1940), New Zealand novelist, poet, and scriptwriter\n Jens Kidman (born 1966), Swedish musician and vocalist\n Nicole Kidman (born 1967), Australian actress, daughter of Antony Kidman\n Sidney Kidman (1857–1935), Australian pastoralist who owned more than 3% of territory of Australia\n Billy Kidman (born 1974), or Kidman, ring names of American professional wrestler Peter Gruner\n\nOther uses\n Kidman Park, Adelaide, South Australia\n Kidman Way, State Highway 87 in New South Wales, Australia, named for Sidney Kidman",
"Kidman's Tree of Knowledge is a heritage-listed tree at Glengyle Station, Bedourie, Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Tree of Knowledge. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.\n\nHistory \n\nKidman's Tree of Knowledge is located on Glengyle Station in Queensland's Diamantina district and has become associated with Sir Sidney Kidman and the vast pastoral empire he established in the Australian interior in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.\n\nThe mature coolibah (Eucalyptus coolibah) is reputedly the tree under which Sidney Kidman camped when contemplating the development of his pastoral empire in Western Queensland. Glengyle Station on which the tree is situated subsequently proved to be the most important in Kidman's chain of properties that eventually stretched from the Barkly Tableland through to the Barrier Range in South Australia. However, while Kidman visited and purchased stock from Glengyle he did not acquire the leasehold until 1913.\n\nAlthough European explorers had passed through the Diamantina district in the 1840s and early 1860s, pastoralists did not occupy this semi-arid region until the mid-1870s. In 1876 Patrick Drinan took up Annandale Station and Duncan McGregor took up Glengyle. Also taken up at this period were Sandringham and Carcory in 1877 and Dubbo Downs in 1878. The towns of Birdsville and Bedourie developed in the late 1870s/early 1880s to service these newly established Channel Country runs. The Diamantina and Georgina rivers, Cooper and Eyre creeks are part of a network of western Queensland waterways known as the Channel Country. They draw water from an area of 566,000 square kilometres. These systems contain innumerable waterholes of various depth and length that generally last throughout the dry season, however, after rain, the network of rivers, creeks and channels links together, stretching out over a vast floodplain like fingers, hence the name Channel Country. While some of the properties such as Glengyle border the Simpson Desert and have many square kilometres of sand dunes, the natural irrigation following the tropical north wet season means the land is ideal for grazing cattle.\n\nSidney Kidman was born on 9 May 1857 at Athelstone near Adelaide, the son of English immigrants. At about 13 years of age he left home and made his way north to Poolamacca Station in the Barrier Range where he met up with his brother, George. He acquired work with George Raines, a landless bushman who travelled the countryside taking advantage of unfenced lands where there was good feeding for his stock. It was at this time that Kidman learnt numerous bush survival skills and came to appreciate the knowledge and skills of the Aboriginal people.\n\nIn the early 1870s Kidman obtained work on various stations, drove cattle and bullocks, carted goods, opened a butcher's shop at Cobar shortly after the rush started and soon after went into business with his brother droving, buying stock and dealing. They took on mail contracts, ran a butchery in Broken Hill and in the 1890s started buying pastoral leaseholds as Kidman Brothers.\n\nAs a young man Sidney Kidman had talked widely with cattlemen about the Australian interior and in his travels buying and selling stock, realised the value of Channel Country land. His aim was to acquire a chain of properties so that in times of drought cattle could be moved from properties badly affected to areas with good grass. Eventually Kidman acquired two strings of properties. The first or \"main chain\" stretched from the Barkly Tablelands near the Gulf of Carpentaria down through the Channel Country of western Queensland and along the Birdsville Track to the rail head at Maree in South Australia. The second chain of stations followed the Overland Telegraph line from the Fitzroy River and Victoria River Downs Station in the north to Wilpena Station in the Flinders Ranges near Adelaide. The development of the Kidman empire in Queensland stems from Kidman Brothers' acquisition of Annandale in the Channel Country in 1896.\n\nAs result of his acquisitions, his knowledge of the bush and his business acumen Kidman's empire was able to survive the depression of the 1890s and the drought of 1899-1902.\n\nThe Pastoralists' Review of 16 September 1903 featured an interview with Sidney Kidman, the \"Cattle King\". It included biographical information about his life and detailed the properties he then owned: In the Northern Territory: Victoria Downs, with its 45,000 head of cattle, Newcastle Waters, Austral Downs; South Australia: Lake Albert, Eringa, Peake, Macumba, Mount Nor'-West, Clayton, Coongy on the cooper, Pandie Pandyie on the Diamantina, Alton Downs; and Queensland: Annandale, Collegwairi, Dubbo, Cartrey, Rocklands, Monkira, Bulla Downs; in New South Wales: Wompah and Tickelara. Kidman continued to buy properties, buy and sell cattle and horses and manage his properties while almost continuously on the move. He kept abreast of market fluctuations, weather conditions and what was happening on his properties, via the telegraph.\n\nWhile Kidman abhorred wastefulness and was known to sack employees who exhibited such traits, he was also known to be generous to deserving causes. He gained a reputation for munificence to the war effort, his World War I donations including wool, meat, horses, ambulances and warplanes. In monetary terms this patriotic generosity amounted to hundreds of thousands of pounds. In 1921 he was knighted for his contribution to the war effort.\n\nThe leasehold to Glengyle Station was transferred several times after Duncan McGregor took up the run in 1876. The London Bank of Australia held the lease until William Frederick Buchanan had purchased the Glengyle holding by October 1907. Following the death of this Narrabri grazier in 1911 the lease was transferred to William Buchanan and Charles Henry Buchanan.\n\nThe 1008 square mile Glengyle leasehold became part of the Kidman empire in 1913 when he purchased the lease from the Buchanans for . Kidman had long wanted Glengyle Station for its size and its permanent deep waterholes on the Georgina River, its plains and flats of lignum and saltbush, and its strategic position adjoining his Queensland properties of Sandringham, Kaliduwarry, Dubbo Downs and Annandale. Moreover, Glengyle, between Eyre Creek and the sand hills of the Simpson Desert, did not always need to rely on local rainfall. In good seasons it is drained by channels fed by the northern monsoon. The property proved pivotal to the Kidman holdings in the Lake Eyre Basin and is still held by the family firm S Kidman and Company.\n\nKidman had married in 1885 and raised a family of 3 daughters and one son in Adelaide. Kidman retired in 1927 but his children continued to run the family business empire from Adelaide. On 2 September 1935, aged 78 years, Sir Sidney Kidman passed away in Adelaide and his only son, Walter Sidney Palethorpe (b.1900) took over as chairman of the Kidman empire.\n\nThe Kidman Tree of Knowledge has been described as \"one of the state's most famous living monuments to the king\". It is valued by both the local community and visitors as a tangible link with Sir Sidney Kidman, a pioneer who successfully created a pastoral empire in the vast remote interior of Australia, encompassing approximately 3.5% of the Australian continent.\n\nDescription \nKidman's Tree of Knowledge is situated on Glengyle Station on the western bank of Eyre Creek, about south of Bedourie.\n\nIt is located in the centre of a grassed square formed by Glengyle homestead and associated buildings and is healthy and mature.\n\nHeritage listing \nKidman's Tree of Knowledge was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.\n\nThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.\n\nFor the many people who worked for Sir Sidney Kidman and for those who continue to be associated with Kidman Holdings, Kidman's Tree of Knowledge on Glengyle Station is significant for its association with Sir Sidney Kidman.For local people and visitors alike Kidman's tree of Knowledge is a tangible link with Sir Sidney Kidman, a pioneer who is recognised as having created a successful pastoral empire in the vast remote interior of Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Tree of Knowledge is significant for its association with prominent Australian pastoralist Sir Sidney Kidman, who through business acumen, knowledge of the land he traversed and hard work, acquired a string of pastoral runs in the Australian interior (in Queensland, New South Wales, Northern Territory and Western Australia), where his stock could be moved from property to property to withstand the impact of drought. Whether Sir Sidney Kidman sat under this Coolibah tree near the Glengyle homestead is not known. It is, however, the perception or mythology of Kidman's association with this tree that is significant.\n\nThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.\n\nFor the many people who worked for Sir Sidney Kidman and for those who continue to be associated with Kidman Holdings, Kidman's Tree of Knowledge on Glengyle Station is significant for its association with Sir Sidney Kidman.For local people and visitors alike Kidman's tree of Knowledge is a tangible link with Sir Sidney Kidman, a pioneer who is recognised as having created a successful pastoral empire in the vast remote interior of Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.\n\nThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.\n\nThe Tree of Knowledge is significant for its association with prominent Australian pastoralist Sir Sidney Kidman, who through business acumen, knowledge of the land he traversed and hard work, acquired a string of pastoral runs in the Australian interior (in Queensland, New South Wales, Northern Territory and Western Australia), where his stock could be moved from property to property to withstand the impact of drought. Whether Sir Sidney Kidman sat under this Coolibah tree near the Glengyle homestead is not known. It is, however, the perception or mythology of Kidman's association with this tree that is significant.\n\nReferences\n\nAttribution\n\nExternal links \n\nQueensland Heritage Register\nBedourie, Queensland\nIndividual trees in Queensland\nArticles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register"
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what was daniel's musical style?
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What was Daniel Barenboim's musical style?
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Daniel Barenboim
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In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta). Notable recordings as a conductor include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert and Schumann, the Da Ponte operas of Mozart, numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle, and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist. By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played. Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle. To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective. CANNOTANSWER
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In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era,
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Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
List of peace activists
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
| true |
[
"Riverbeds is a Canadian post-rock/emo band from Montreal, Quebec formed in 2010. The band made its recording debut in 2012 with the EP Hiding Small Things In Obvious Places which was released on November 24 at Panda Bar. Riverbeds musical style has been described by Indecent Xposure as being influenced by \"Thrice, The Almost and Circa Survive amongst others\". The band shared the stage with both local and international bands, including Daylight (now Superheaven), Tyler Daniel Bean and Stuck On Planet Earth.\n\nIn March 2014, it was announced that Riverbeds will be playing Pouzza Fest on a bill including The Swellers, The Hotelier and Christie Front Drive. The show took place on May 17, 2014.\n\nThe work on their second EP began in 2014 while still playing shows in and around the Montreal area. The album title What You Keep Close was announced in December with a release date of February 5th 2015 for both physical and digital copies.\n\nFollowing two previous EP, the band decided to write enough material to go on what would be their first full length. CARE was released on June 20th, 2019\n\nBand members\nAlexandre Duhamel Gingras – bass, backing vocals\nCharles-André Chamard – drums, lead vocals\nFred Béland – guitar, backing vocals\nVincent Pigeon – lead vocals, guitar\n\nDiscography\n\nLP\n CARE (2019)\n\nEP\n Hiding Small Things In Obvious Places (2012)\n What You Keep Close (2015)\n\nSingle\n Removing The Head (Or Destroying The Brain)/End Of The World (2011)\n\nReferences \n\nMusical groups established in 2010\nExperimental musical groups\nCanadian indie rock groups\nMusical groups from Montreal\nEnglish-language musical groups from Quebec\nCanadian post-rock groups\n2010 establishments in Quebec",
"Antoine Daniel is a French video game streamer and former video creator, editor and actor born on 23 April 1989. He is known for his famous humoristic program What The Cut !?, published between 2012 and 2017 on YouTube. He has become extremely successful reaching more than 2.8 million subscribers in August 2018. He is on Twitch since 2018 and has more than 700 000 followers in December 2021.\n\nBiography \nHe studied for two years at the ESRA in Paris before beginning his training in sound engineering while devoting himself to musical composition. Once he acquired his BTS, he was temporarily employed in a musical publishing house as an operator input, an experience which he didn't enjoy. It was during that time, on 1 March 2012, that he created the show What The Cut !?.\n\nInspiration\nAntoine Daniel qualifies the British filmmaker TomSka as one of his favourite videomakers. He later played a role in his video Le Alien.\n\nYouTube\n\nWhat The Cut !?\nWhat The Cut !? was a humoristic show created by Antoine Daniel, the first episode of \"What The Cut !?\" was uploaded on 1 March 2012 on his YouTube channel. The concept of the show comes from Ray William Johnson's Equals Three. When it comes to his humour and staging inspirations, his most obvious references are videographer TomSka and British director Edgar Wright.\n\nIn each episode of What The Cut !?, Antoine Daniel analyses three funny, strange or freaky videos, and jokingly comments on them. However, What The Cut !? isn't a French \"Equals Three\" as Antoine Daniel completely changed the concept. In What The Cut !? he plays a character who speaks very quickly, wildly and sometimes screams. The video editing is very quick and the jokes are completely absurd which explains the show's name: \"What the ...\" for the absurd, wacky and crazy jokes and humour, and \"Cut\", for the video editing, which Antoine Daniel considers the most important part of his videos.\n\nAfter the first couple of videos, episodes were released monthly. However, that schedule couldn't be kept starting with episode #35 since later episode would featured a 5 to 15 minute sketch at the beginning of the video. The 37th and last episode was released on 30 December 2015.\n\nClyde Vanilla\n\nClyde Vanilla is a science fiction audio story. The first episode was released on 17 September 2017. The last and tenth episode was released on 19 November 2017.\n\nHowever, this series wasn't as well received as What The Cut !?.' later What The Cut !?'' episodes would get.\n\nTwitch \n\nSince 2018, Antoine is streaming on Twitch. As of December 2021, he has followers.\n\nHe participated to 2019, 2020 and 2021 editions of Z Event, a French charity reuniting several francophone streamers.\n\nReferences \n\nTwitch (service) streamers\nFrench YouTubers\n1989 births\nLiving people"
] |
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"Daniel Barenboim",
"Musical style",
"what was daniel's musical style?",
"In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era,"
] |
C_318c2c6de07f4fdb993d798ec0399974_0
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and did he change this style?
| 2 |
And did Daniel Barenboim change the classical era style?
|
Daniel Barenboim
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In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta). Notable recordings as a conductor include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert and Schumann, the Da Ponte operas of Mozart, numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle, and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist. By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played. Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle. To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
List of peace activists
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
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"Ghulam Murtaza Khan (1760–1840) is a Mughal era, 19th century painter from Delhi. He worked under penultimate Mughal emperor Akbar Shah II. He worked under British officers, Skinner and William Fraser. The painting style was known as company style.\n\nBiography\nGhulam Murtaza Khan did portraits of the imperial family and was also employed by the British after they took over Delhi in 1803. His nephew was the accomplished Mughal painter, Ghulam Ali Khan, who worked on the classic, Fraser Album.\n\nHe did not change his typical Mughal style, the refined style of the seventeenth-century. His style display a restrained naturalism like the formality of compositions during the reign of emperor Shah Jahan.\n\nReferences\n\nMughal painters\nIndian male painters\nIndian portrait painters\n1760 births\n1840 deaths\n18th-century Indian painters\n19th-century Indian painters\nPainters from Delhi"
] |
[
"Daniel Barenboim",
"Musical style",
"what was daniel's musical style?",
"In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era,",
"and did he change this style?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_318c2c6de07f4fdb993d798ec0399974_0
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what was significant about his musical style?
| 3 |
What was significant about Daniel Barenboim's musical style?
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Daniel Barenboim
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In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta). Notable recordings as a conductor include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert and Schumann, the Da Ponte operas of Mozart, numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle, and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist. By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played. Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle. To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective. CANNOTANSWER
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Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos
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Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
List of peace activists
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
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"Johann Adolph Scheibe (5 May 1708 – 22 April 1776) was a German-Danish composer and significant critic and theorist of music. Though much of his theoretical work survives, most of his compositions are lost, though the extant ones demonstrate a style between the Baroque and Classical periods.\n\nLife\n\nJohann Adolf Scheibe was born in Leipzig as the son of Johann Scheibe (c. 1675 – 1748), an organ builder, and started keyboard lessons at the age of six. In 1725, he began studying law and philosophy at Leipzig University, and in the course of his studies he encountered the professor of rhetoric and poetry Johann Christoph Gottsched, whose aesthetic theories deeply influenced Scheibe. Gottsched's writings, which were primarily targeted toward the reform of German poetry and drama, greatly informed Scheibe's formulation of his philosophy of music.\n\nDue to financial difficulties, Scheibe was unable to finish his university studies, and devoted himself instead to a largely self-taught career in music. In 1729 he applied unsuccessfully for the post of organist at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, where Johann Sebastian Bach was the cantor. Scheibe was active in the musical scene of Leipzig until 1735.\n\nIn 1736, he moved to Hamburg where he made influential friends including Johann Mattheson and Georg Philipp Telemann. Encouraged by both, Scheibe published the magazine \"Der Critische Musikus\" between 1737 and 1740. The magazine received widespread attention and remains significant today for its discussion of significant contemporary composers.\n\nIn 1739, Margrave Friedrich Ernst of Brandenburg-Culmbach named Scheibe his kapellmeister. The next year, upon the invitation of the Margrave's sister, the Danish queen Sophie Magdalene, he became kapellmeister at the court of King Christian VI of Denmark. Scheibe rapidly became the most significant musical figure in Copenhagen. He led the royal orchestra, composed vocal and instrumental music, and was a driving force in the foundation of the first musical society, \"Det Musikalske Societet\", which held public concerts between 1744 and 1749.\n\nAfter the king's death in 1746, his successor Frederick V affected a move away from the pietism of the previous monarchs. Theatre and opera were once again allowed, and the Royal Danish Theatre opened in 1749. Musical taste turned to Italian opera and French comic opera. Scheibe was strongly opposed to this new style, and his employment was terminated in 1748. His replacement was Paolo Scalabrini.\n\nScheibe moved to Sønderborg where he opened a music school for children while continuing to write, compose, and translate Danish texts into German. During this time, he maintained contact with musical life in Copenhagen, often visiting to lead performances of works composed for royal occasions and concerts. The funeral cantatas for King Friedrich V and Queen Luisa are among his finest works. He published a collection of \"New Freemasons' Songs with Easy Melodies\" in 1749, having been a member of the Lodge of Zorobabel since 1746.\n\nIn 1762, Scheibe returned to Copenhagen, where he remained until his death 14 years later. Though most of his music is now lost, he composed over 150 church pieces and oratorios, some 200 concertos, two operas, and numerous sinfonias, chamber pieces, and secular cantatas.\n\nLiterary work\n\nScheibe a biography of Baron Ludvig Holberg, whose works on natural and common law remained significant for 200 years.\n\nHe published a collected edition of the \"Critische Musikus\" in 1745. His other large works are the \"Treatise on the Age and Origin of Music\" (1754) and \"On Musical Composition\" (1773).\n\nCommentary on his contemporaries\n\nScheibe held Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Handel as the finest composers of keyboard music, citing structure and ornamentation as of primary importance. He considered Bach to be the finest contemporary player of the organ, harpsichord and clavichord, incomparable to all except Handel. Bach's Italian Concerto (BWV 971), published in 1735, was for Scheibe a perfect example of a well-constructed concerto.\n\nScheibe's often-quoted objections to the music of Bach derive from an anonymous letter from 1737 in the Critischer Musikus. Scheibe blamed Bach's music for being \"bombastic\". Johann Abraham Birnbaum, a professor in rhetoric at Leipzig, defended Bach on that occasion. The quarrel between Scheibe and Birnbaum was a very long and significant one. According to Scheibe Bach's music was artificial and confusing in style, and the notation of such elaborate ornaments (rather than leaving ornamentation to the performer, as was customary) obscured the melody and harmony. Rather than a clear division between melody and accompaniment, Bach made all voices equal in his brand of polyphony, which Scheibe felt made the music overloaded, unnatural and oppressed.\n\nIn Albert Schweitzer's famous book on Bach, Schweitzer describes Scheibe as the literary champion of a distinctively German style of music, one that would break away from the Italian models. The Italian influence was toward artifice and complexity. The German impulse was toward naturalness and simplicity, to Scheibe's way of thinking.\n\nThis theory made it \"impossible for him to do justice to Bach,\" Schweitzer wrote. Bach was much too complicated, and thus too Italian, for his taste. Although of course acknowledging Bach's talents, he did conclude that Bach, tragically, had fallen \"from the natural to the artificial, and from the lofty to the obscure ... one wonders at the painful labor of it all, that nevertheless comes to nothing, since it is at variance with reason.\"\n\nThis led to an exchange between Scheibe and Johann Abraham Birnbaum (1702–1748), an admirer of Bach and professor of rhetoric at the University of Leipzig. The exchange did Bach's reputation some good, because Scheibe's prickly tone \"everywhere stimulated sympathy for Bach.\"\n\nScheibe believed that musical talent was inborn, and that the musician could express emotions only by subjecting himself to their influence by the force of his imagination. In numerous published treatises and essays, Scheibe explored the nature of taste, melody, expression, and musical invention, and defended a nationalist conception of musical style. His theories, which were advanced for his time, were based on rational principles, purity of expression, the imitation of nature, and the application of the rhetorical arts to the processes of musical creation.\n\nMusical works\n\nScheibe composed concertos, sinfonias, sonatas, suites, partitas and incidental music. His vocal music includes operas, cantatas, oratorios, chorales, mass sections, songs and odes.\n\nSee also\nList of Danish composers\n\nReferences\n\nThis article was initially translated from the Danish Wikipedia.\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\n\nThematic catalogue of J.A. Scheibe's works by the Danish Centre for Music Editing, Royal Danish Library\n\nDanish Baroque composers\nDanish classical composers\nDanish male classical composers\nDanish music critics\nDanish music theorists\nDanish Freemasons\n1708 births\n1776 deaths\n18th-century classical composers\n18th-century male musicians",
"The Mountains and the Trees is a Canadian folk rock band whose sole constant member is Jon Janes of Pasadena, Newfoundland and Labrador. The band is now based in St. John's. Canadian singer-songwriter Hayden is a significant musical influence. In addition to Hayden, the musical style has also been likened to that of Iron & Wine and Julie Doiron. Critical reception has been generally positive. Rachel Sanders of Exclaim! wrote, \"[Janes'] thoroughly modern folk style combines traditional instrumentation with subtle but perfectly integrated effects.\"\n\nThe band released the EP Paper or Plastic in 2006. The album Document, released in 2007, was recorded at the First United Church in Corner Brook. The EP Hop, Skip, and a Jump was released in 2009.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n The Mountains and the Trees at CBC Radio 3\n\nMusical groups established in 2006\nCanadian folk rock groups\nMusical groups from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador\n2006 establishments in Newfoundland and Labrador\nCanadian indie folk groups"
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[
"Daniel Barenboim",
"Musical style",
"what was daniel's musical style?",
"In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era,",
"and did he change this style?",
"I don't know.",
"what was significant about his musical style?",
"Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos"
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C_318c2c6de07f4fdb993d798ec0399974_0
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how were they received?
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How were Daniel Barenboim's musical style received?
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Daniel Barenboim
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In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta). Notable recordings as a conductor include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert and Schumann, the Da Ponte operas of Mozart, numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle, and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist. By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played. Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle. To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
List of peace activists
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
| false |
[
"Justin S. Kruger is an American social psychologist and professor at New York University Stern School of Business.\n\nEducation \nKruger received his B.S. in Psychology from Santa Clara University in 1993 (spending his junior year at Durham University, UK), and received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Cornell University in 1999.\n\nResearch \nKruger is known for co-authoring a 1999 study with David Dunning. This study showed that people who performed in the lowest at certain tasks, such as judging humor, grammar, and logic, significantly overestimated how good they were at these tasks. This study has since given rise to what is known as the Dunning–Kruger effect, a form of cognitive bias where persons with low ability in a particular task experience a sense of illusory superiority. The study also found that people who performed slightly above average at identifying how funny a given joke was tended to be the most accurate at assessing how good they were at the assigned tasks, and that those who performed the best tended to think they performed only slightly above average.\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\nAmerican social psychologists\nAmerican people of German descent\nCornell University alumni\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nSanta Clara University alumni\nNew York University Stern School of Business faculty\n20th-century psychologists\n21st-century psychologists\nAlumni of Durham University",
"Hot Dog was a Saturday morning documentary series for children, seen on NBC from September 12, 1970 to September 4, 1971. Created by Frank Buxton and co-produced by Buxton and Lee Mendelson, the program was notable for its hosts – comedienne Jo Anne Worley, comedian Jonathan Winters and writer and actor Woody Allen. The pilot, televised on March 28, 1970, starred Worley, Allen and Tom Smothers, who was replaced with Winters when the show became a series.\n\nBased on Buxton's travels as a comedian (and later, as host of the ABC series Discovery), which took him on tours to various factories, Hot Dog explained, in a humorous manner, how we do things (such as snore) and how things were made (such as the eponymous hot dogs and their buns, plus condiments like mustard).\n\nSeventy topics were covered during the course of this series, which lasted 13 episodes and was rerun the rest of the season. NBC won a Peabody award for the series in 1970.\n\nSome of the music in this series was performed by The Youngbloods.\n\nSyndication and alternate versions\nReruns of Hot Dog were syndicated during the 1977–1978 television season, at a time when Allen had firmly established himself as a motion picture star, director, and writer. Portions of Hot Dog were also seen on a local KNBC children's program in Los Angeles, That's Cat, which debuted in 1976.\n\nIn 1971, the Individual topic segments were sold to schools on 16mm film.\n\nTopics \n(listed alphabetically)\n \"How does a frog jump?\"\n \"How does a letter get through the mail?\"\n \"How do they get toothpaste in the tube?\"\n \"How do they make a baseball glove?\" \n \"How do they make a hot dog roll?\"\n \"How do they make a surfboard?\"\n \"How do they make baseballs?\"\n “How do they make bicycles?”\n \"How do they make bowling balls?\"\n \"How do they make bubblegum?\"\n \"How do they make cartoons?\"\n \"How do they make chocolate?\"\n \"How do they make playing cards?\" \n \"How do they make pennies?\" \n \"How do they make plywood\"\n \"How do they make spaghetti?\"\n \"How do they make tennis shoes?\"\n \"How do they make toothbrushes?\"\n \"How do they make T-shirts?\"\n \"How money is made\"\n \"Is that really lead in a lead pencil?\"\n \"What makes popcorn pop?\"\n \"What's a compass?\"\n \"Where does honey come from?\"\n \"Where does lumber come from?\"\n \"Where do felt tip pens come from?\"\n \"Who invented the hot dog?\"\n\nReferences\n\n The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television by Wesley Hyatt (Billboard Books 1997)\n\nExternal links\n \n List of productions, including Hot Dog episodes. produced by Lee Mendelson – Frank Buxton Joint Film Productions\n Frank Buxton's web page on the series Hot Dog\n\nScience education television series\n1970s American documentary television series\n1970s American children's television series\n1970s American science fiction television series\n1970 American television series debuts\n1971 American television series endings\nAmerican children's education television series\nNBC original programming\nPeabody Award-winning television programs"
] |
[
"Daniel Barenboim",
"Musical style",
"what was daniel's musical style?",
"In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era,",
"and did he change this style?",
"I don't know.",
"what was significant about his musical style?",
"Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos",
"how were they received?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_318c2c6de07f4fdb993d798ec0399974_0
|
what else is known about musical style in this section?
| 5 |
Aside from Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas what else is known about musical style in the section?
|
Daniel Barenboim
|
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta). Notable recordings as a conductor include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert and Schumann, the Da Ponte operas of Mozart, numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle, and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist. By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played. Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle. To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective. CANNOTANSWER
|
Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (
|
Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
List of peace activists
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
| true |
[
"A roulade is an elaborate embellishment of several notes sung to one syllable.\nIt is most associated with (but not restricted to) the operatic coloratura vocal style. It consists of a single phrase, or could even be part of a longer phrase. It is more extended than ornaments such as a trill, mordent or turn, but not to the extent that it could be called a cadenza (which is usually more than one phrase and is extended enough to be considered a musical section in itself). It is usually performed in a rhythmically free style, either by use of rubato or over a musical pause and it is in this way that it is distinguished from a melisma. Examples are in the operatic works of Bellini and Donizetti and the Nocturnes of Chopin. Extended embellishments found in modern-day Gospel vocalisations could be said to be roulades.\n\nMusical techniques\nSinging",
"In poetic and musical meter, and by analogy in publishing, an anacrusis (from , , literally: 'pushing up', plural anacruses) is a brief introduction (not to be confused with a literary or musical introduction, foreword, or with a preface).\n\nIt is a set of syllables or notes, or a single syllable or note, which precedes what is considered the first foot of a poetic line (or the first syllable of the first foot) in poetry and the first beat (or the first beat of the first measure) in music that is not its own phrase, section, or line and is not considered part of the line, phrase, or section which came before, if any.\n\nPoetry \nIn poetry, a set of extrametrical syllables at the beginning of a verse is said to stand in anacrusis ( \"pushing up\"). \"An extrametrical prelude to the verse,\" or, \"extrametrical unstressed syllables preceding the initial lift.\" The technique is seen in Old English poetry, and in lines of iambic pentameter, the technique applies a variation on the typical pentameter line causing it to appear at first glance as trochaic. Below, the anacrusis in the fourth line of William Blake's poem \"The Tyger\" (with punctuation modernized) is in italics:\n\nThe poem is in trochaic tetrameter, in which the first syllable of each line is expected to be stressed, but the fourth line begins with the additional unstressed syllable \"Could\".\n\nMusic \n\nIn music, an anacrusis (also known as a pickup, or fractional pick-up) is a note or sequence of notes, a motif, which precedes the first downbeat in a bar in a musical phrase. \"The span from the beginning of a group to the strongest beat in the group.\" Anacrusis, especially reoccurring anacrusis (anacrusis motif played before every measure or every other measure), \"is a common means of weighting the first beat,\" and thus strengthening or articulating the meter.\nThe musical term is inferred from the terminology of poetry. Anacruses may involve fine details such as rhythm and phrasing, or may involve wider features such as musical form (such as when used repeatedly).\n\nThe anacrusis is a perceived grouping which is context generated in the individual phrasing of a concrete composition. The grouping of one or more antecedent tone events to a perceived phrase gestalt may be rhythmically evoked by their temporal proximity to the phrase's first downbeat (perceived phrase onset).\n\nAn anacrusis may also be evoked solely metrically (non-rhythmically ), i. e. tonally, that is, without the downbeat perception enforced by a relative long value.\n\nAlthough the anacrusis is integrated in a musical phrase gestalt (grouped to it), it is not located in the perceived 'body' of the phrase (which is spanning from its first downbeat to its ending beat), but before the phrase (hence the German term \"Auftakt\"; literally: \"upbeat\"). In this respect – in a sequence of phrases – the anacrusis also may be perceived 'between' two phrases, neither being perceived as part of the ending of a former one, nor being located in the following one.\n\nOutside of that the term of the anacrusis is most commonly used where it applies everywhere else 'within' the 'body' of the phrase between the 'head' (first downbeat) and the 'foot' (ending beat) where, by what ever musical means, a grouping is perceived from an upbeat to a downbeat (especially also to the phrases ending beat).\n\nSince an anacrusis \"is an incomplete measure that allows the composition[, section, or phrase] to start on a beat other than one,\" if anacrusis is present, the first bar after the anacrusis is assigned bar number 1, and Western standards for musical notation often include the recommendation that when a piece of music begins with an anacrusis, the notation should omit a corresponding number of beats from the final bar of the piece, or the final bar before a repeat sign, in order to keep the length of the entire piece at a whole number of bars. This final partial measure is the complement. However, an anacrusis may last an entire bar.\n\nExamples\n\n In the song \"Happy Birthday to You\", the anacrusis forms the Happy and the accent is on the first syllable of Birthday.\n\n In \"The Star-Spangled Banner\", the word O! in the first line is an anacrusis in the music:\n{| style=\"text-align: center;\"\n| x || / || x || x || / || x || x || / || x || x || / || ||\n|-\n|Oh,||say,||can||you||see,||by|| the||dawn's||ear-||ly ||light||. . .\n|}\n At the beginning of the Beatles' \"Yellow Submarine\", \"In the\" is the anacrusis, while \"town\" falls on the downbeat.\n\nOther fields \n\nIn academic publishing, the term is sometimes used in an article to mark an introductory idea standing between the abstract and the introduction proper.\n\nSee also\n\nCaesura\nCount off\nProsody (music)\nScansion\nTacet\n\nReferences\n\nGreek words and phrases\nPoetic rhythm\nRhythm and meter"
] |
[
"Daniel Barenboim",
"Musical style",
"what was daniel's musical style?",
"In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era,",
"and did he change this style?",
"I don't know.",
"what was significant about his musical style?",
"Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos",
"how were they received?",
"I don't know.",
"what else is known about musical style in this section?",
"Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas ("
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C_318c2c6de07f4fdb993d798ec0399974_0
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any other interesting information?
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Besides Daniel Barenboim's musical style, are there any other interesting information?
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Daniel Barenboim
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In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta). Notable recordings as a conductor include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert and Schumann, the Da Ponte operas of Mozart, numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle, and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist. By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played. Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle. To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective. CANNOTANSWER
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He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
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Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
List of peace activists
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
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"A narrative technique (known for literary fictional narratives as a literary technique, literary device, or fictional device) is any of several specific methods the creator of a narrative uses to convey what they want—in other words, a strategy used in the making of a narrative to relay information to the audience and particularly to develop the narrative, usually in order to make it more complete, complex, or interesting. Literary techniques are distinguished from literary elements, which exist inherently in works of writing.\n\nSetting\n\nPlots\n\nPerspective\n\nStyle\n\nTheme\n\nCharacter\n\nSee also \n Plot device\n\nNotes\n\nReferences \n \n\n \nNarratology\nPoetic devices\nStyle (fiction)",
"SYSTAT was a command on the DEC TOPS-10 and RSTS/E computer operating systems by which one obtained the current general status of the running operating system. The commands showed the logged-on users, processes, I/O, and other interesting system management information.\n\nReferences\n\nDigital Equipment Corporation"
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[
"Daniel Barenboim",
"Musical style",
"what was daniel's musical style?",
"In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era,",
"and did he change this style?",
"I don't know.",
"what was significant about his musical style?",
"Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos",
"how were they received?",
"I don't know.",
"what else is known about musical style in this section?",
"Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (",
"any other interesting information?",
"He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist."
] |
C_318c2c6de07f4fdb993d798ec0399974_0
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how was this performance received?
| 7 |
How was Daniel Barenboim's Concierto de Aranjuez performance received?
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Daniel Barenboim
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In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta). Notable recordings as a conductor include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert and Schumann, the Da Ponte operas of Mozart, numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle, and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist. By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played. Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle. To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim - A Retrospective. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.
The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
List of peace activists
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
| false |
[
"High Performance was a quarterly arts magazine based out of Los Angeles founded in 1978 and published until 1997. Its editorial mission was to provide support and a critical context for new, innovative and unrecognized work in the arts.\n\nHigh Performance started out covering exclusively performance art and gradually grew to include video, sound, and public art. It dealt with viewing the arts in the larger context of contemporary life, examining how the arts contribute in addressing social and cultural concerns, and also how those concerns impact the arts. In 1994, High Performance received the Alternative Press Award for Cultural Coverage from the Utne Reader, and was nominated three other times for the same award.\n\nEditors and publishers\nLinda Frye Burnham served as the magazine's founding editor from 1978 to 1985. Steven Durland was the editor from 1986 until its end in 1997. From 1983 to 1995, High Performance was published by Astro Artz (renamed 18th Street Arts Center in 1988). In July 1995, High Performance was acquired by Art in the Public Interest (API), a new organization formed by Burnham and Durland to research and develop information about artists collaborating with their communities. After a brief hiatus, the magazine renewed publication in early 1996 and published five more issues, but rising costs and an inability to garner needed stabilization funding forced API to cease publication in 1997. In 1999, Burnham and Durland initiated the Community Arts Network on the Web. Much of the content from High Performance is available on that site.\n\nExternal links\n High Performance Magazine Complete Issue List Art in the Public Interest\n Finding aid for High Performance magazine records, 1953-2005, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.\n\nReferences\n\nVisual arts magazines published in the United States\nQuarterly magazines published in the United States\nPerformance art in Los Angeles\nMagazines established in 1978\nMagazines disestablished in 1997\nPerformance art\nContemporary art magazines\nDefunct magazines published in the United States\nMagazines published in Los Angeles",
"\"No One Knows How to Love Me Quite Like You Do\" is a R&B/hip-hop song performed by Aaliyah and Tia Hawkins. It was released as a promotional airplay single in the U.S. and is the fourth release from Aaliyah's debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.\n\nThe single was written and produced by R. Kelly. On \"No One Knows How to Love Me Quite Like You Do\" Aaliyah tells her lover, no one else knows how to love her quite like he does over a hip hop-styled beat.\n\nChart performance\n\"No One Knows How to Love Me Quite Like You Do\" remained on the charts for a limited time and charted on the Mediabase mainstream urban chart and peaked at #1. The most spins it received in a week was 1000.\n\nReferences\n\n1994 songs\n1995 singles\nAaliyah songs\nSongs written by R. Kelly\nSong recordings produced by R. Kelly\nNew jack swing songs\nBlackground Records singles"
] |
[
"Maya civilization",
"Investigation of Maya civilization"
] |
C_f3af675fc9294dec9e5f837a1620ba95_0
|
Why was the Maya civilization being investigated?
| 1 |
Why was the Maya civilization being investigated?
|
Maya civilization
|
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatan and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs. The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copan and in the Yucatan Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region. In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported. CANNOTANSWER
|
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire.
|
The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.
The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period () saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.
Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well as a ruler. Closed patronage systems were the dominant force in Maya politics, although how patronage affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown in size, reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed sophisticated art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.
Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways. Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, and structures specially aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. Theirs was the most advanced writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest known instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice.
Mesoamerica
The Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide. The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems. The set of traits shared by Mesoamerican cultures also included astronomical knowledge, blood and human sacrifice, and a cosmovision that viewed the world as divided into four divisions aligned with the cardinal directions, each with different attributes, and a three-way division of the world into the celestial realm, the earth, and the underworld.
By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the domestication of plants, a process that eventually led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. The diverse climate allowed for wide variation in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of maize, beans, and squashes. All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age technology; after c. 1000 AD copper, silver and gold were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the wheel, and possessed few domesticated animals; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe. Mesoamericans viewed the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities. The ritual Mesoamerican ballgame was widely played. Mesoamerica is linguistically diverse, with most languages falling within a small number of language families—the major families are Mayan, Mixe–Zoquean, Otomanguean, and Uto-Aztecan; there are also a number of smaller families and isolates. The Mesoamerican language area shares a number of important features, including widespread loanwords, and use of a vigesimal number system.
The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica, and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. During the Early Classic period, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that extended beyond the Maya area into the highlands of central Mexico. At around the same time, there was a strong Maya presence at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan. Centuries later, during the 9th century AD, murals at Cacaxtla, another site in the central Mexican highlands, were painted in a Maya style. This may have been either an effort to align itself with the still-powerful Maya area after the collapse of Teotihuacan and ensuing political fragmentation in the Mexican Highlands, or an attempt to express a distant Maya origin of the inhabitants. The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.
Geography
The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Most of the peninsula is formed by a vast plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline.
The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain; a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén. To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and a portion of the south of Yucatán state. Farther north, the vegetation turns to lower forest consisting of dense scrub.
The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-Columbian population centres of the highlands were located in the largest highland valleys, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southern highlands, a belt of volcanic cones runs parallel to the Pacific coast. The highlands extend northwards into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east.
History
The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture emerged. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of Maya chronology, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decline. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello (modern-day Belize) has been carbon dated to around 2600 BC. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period was characterised by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic. By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stelae. A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately . Although not as large, Tikal was already a significant city by around 350 BC.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is unknown.
Classic period (c. 250–900 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites.
During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. This intervention was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal in early 378. The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover. A year later, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ahiin I. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city in the Petén Basin. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other. At various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II of Calakmul captured Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. Yuknoom Chʼeen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal. He thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 695 to 738. His reign ended catastrophically when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and was decapitated in a public ritual. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by 300. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.
Classic Maya collapse
During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased activity. Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.
Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This only served to exacerbate systemic problems. By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of rulership. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities. Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. One by one, cities stopped sculpting dated monuments; the last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.
Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD)
Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, because many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths. Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of Classic Period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.
The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding Classic Period. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years. Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by the natural terrain. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom. The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the other members served him as advisors.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which ended only shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces. During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in internal sociopolitical organization. On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states. The Kʼicheʼ had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ.
Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 AD)
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico; they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. The Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. Good relations did not last, due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months later. This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525. Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546. This left only the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent. In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.
Persistence of Maya culture
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life. The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be practised. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times, the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, despite vigorous efforts by Catholic missionaries. The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas, and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.
Investigation of Maya civilization
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at Christianization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region.
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.
Politics
Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the entire Maya cultural area into a single state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relationships with each other and were engaged in a complex web of rivalries, periods of dominance or submission, vassalage, and alliances. At times, different polities achieved regional dominance, such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal. The first reliably evidenced polities formed in the Maya lowlands in the 9th century BC.
During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical form, where elite ideology justified the ruler's authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. The divine king was the centre of political power, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, judicial, and military functions of the polity. The divine authority invested within the ruler was such that the king was able to mobilize both the aristocracy and commoners in executing huge infrastructure projects, apparently with no police force or standing army. Some polities engaged in a strategy of increasing administration, and filling administrative posts with loyal supporters rather than blood relatives. Within a polity, mid-ranking population centres would have played a key role in managing resources and internal conflict.
The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of dominance over other large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other cases, loose alliance networks were formed around a dominant city. Border settlements, usually located about halfway between neighbouring capitals, often switched allegiance over the course of their history, and at times acted independently. Dominant capitals exacted tribute in the form of luxury items from subjugated population centres. Political power was reinforced by military power, and the capture and humiliation of enemy warriors played an important part in elite culture. An overriding sense of pride and honour among the warrior aristocracy could lead to extended feuds and vendettas, which caused political instability and the fragmentation of polities.
Society
From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, various sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political organization became increasingly complex. By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex web of political hierarchies, the wealthy segment of society multiplied. A middle class may have developed that included artisans, low ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, labourers, and slaves. According to indigenous histories, land was held communally by noble houses or clans. Such clans held that the land was the property of the clan ancestors, and such ties between the land and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds.
King and court
Classic Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god, whose gift of maize was the basis of Mesoamerican civilization. Maya royal succession was patrilineal, and royal power only passed to queens when doing otherwise would result in the extinction of the dynasty. Typically, power was passed to the eldest son. A young prince was called a chʼok ("youth"), although this word later came to refer to nobility in general. The royal heir was called bʼaah chʼok ("head youth"). Various points in the young prince's childhood were marked by ritual; the most important was a bloodletting ceremony at age five or six years. Although being of the royal bloodline was of utmost importance, the heir also had to be a successful war leader, as demonstrated by taking of captives. The enthronement of a new king was a highly elaborate ceremony, involving a series of separate acts that included enthronement upon a jaguar-skin cushion, human sacrifice, and receiving the symbols of royal power, such as a headband bearing a jade representation of the so-called "jester god", an elaborate headdress adorned with quetzal feathers, and a sceptre representing the god Kʼawiil.
Maya political administration, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives. Officials are referred to as being "owned" by their sponsor, and this relationship continued even after the death of the sponsor. The Maya royal court was a vibrant and dynamic political institution. There was no universal structure for the Maya royal court, instead each polity formed a royal court that was suited to its own individual context. A number of royal and noble titles have been identified by epigraphers translating Classic Maya inscriptions. Ajaw is usually translated as "lord" or "king". In the Early Classic, an ajaw was the ruler of a city. Later, with increasing social complexity, the ajaw was a member of the ruling class and a major city could have more than one, each ruling over different districts. Paramount rulers distinguished themselves from the extended nobility by prefixing the word kʼuhul to their ajaw title. A kʼuhul ajaw was "divine lord", originally confined to the kings of the most prestigious and ancient royal lines. Kalomte was a royal title, whose exact meaning is not yet deciphered, but it was held only by the most powerful kings of the strongest dynasties. It indicated an overlord, or high king, and the title was only in use during the Classic period. By the Late Classic, the absolute power of the kʼuhul ajaw had weakened, and the political system had diversified to include a wider aristocracy, that by this time may well have expanded disproportionately.
A sajal was ranked below the ajaw, and indicated a subservient lord. A sajal would be lord of a second- or third-tier site, answering to an ajaw, who may himself have been subservient to a kalomte. A sajal would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the sajal title to warfare; they are often mentioned as the holders of war captives. Sajal meant "feared one". The titles of ah tzʼihb and ah chʼul hun are both related to scribes. The ah tzʼihb was a royal scribe, usually a member of the royal family; the ah chʼul hun was the Keeper of the Holy Books, a title that is closely associated with the ajaw title, indicating that an ajaw always held the ah chʼul hun title simultaneously. Other courtly titles, the functions of which are not well understood, were yajaw kʼahk''' ("Lord of Fire"), tiʼhuun and ti'sakhuun. These last two may be variations on the same title, and Mark Zender has suggested that the holder of this title may have been the spokesman for the ruler. Courtly titles are overwhelmingly male-oriented, and in those relatively rare occasions where they are applied to a woman, they appear to be used as honorifics for female royalty. Titled elites were often associated with particular structures in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Classic period cities, indicating that such office holders either owned that structure, or that the structure was an important focus for their activities. A lakam, or standard-bearer, was possibly the only non-elite post-holder in the royal court. The lakam was only found in larger sites, and they appear to have been responsible for the taxation of local districts.
Different factions may have existed in the royal court. The kʼuhul ahaw and his household would have formed the central power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior aristocracy, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have formed an additional faction. Rivalry between different factions would have led to dynamic political institutions as compromises and disagreements were played out. In such a setting, public performance was vital. Such performances included ritual dances, presentation of war captives, offerings of tribute, human sacrifice, and religious ritual.
Commoners
Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90% of the population, but relatively little is known about them. Their houses were generally constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little trace in the archaeological record. Some commoner dwellings were raised on low platforms, and these can be identified, but an unknown quantity of commoner houses were not. Such low-status dwellings can only be detected by extensive remote-sensing surveys of apparently empty terrain. The range of commoners was broad; it consisted of everyone not of noble birth, and therefore included everyone from the poorest farmers to wealthy craftsmen and commoners appointed to bureaucratic positions. Commoners engaged in essential production activities, including that of products destined for use by the elite, such as cotton and cacao, as well as subsistence crops for their own use, and utilitarian items such as ceramics and stone tools. Commoners took part in warfare, and could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. Commoners paid taxes to the elite in the form of staple goods such as maize, flour and game. It is likely that hard-working commoners who displayed exceptional skills and initiative could become influential members of Maya society.
Warfare
Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. Military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the control of trade routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy state. Little is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or training. Warfare is depicted in Maya art from the Classic period, and wars and victories are mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Unfortunately, the inscriptions do not provide information upon the causes of war, or the form it took. In the 8th–9th centuries, intensive warfare resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén. The rapid abandonment of Aguateca by its inhabitants has provided a rare opportunity to examine the remains of Maya weaponry in situ. Aguateca was stormed by unknown enemies around 810 AD, who overcame its formidable defences and burned the royal palace. The elite inhabitants of the city either fled or were captured, and never returned to collect their abandoned property. The inhabitants of the periphery abandoned the site soon after. This is an example of intensive warfare carried out by an enemy in order to eliminate a Maya state, rather than subjugate it. Research at Aguateca indicated that Classic period warriors were primarily members of the elite.
From as early as the Preclassic period, the ruler of a Maya polity was expected to be a distinguished war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the Classic period, such trophy heads no longer appeared on the king's belt, but Classic period kings are frequently depicted standing over humiliated war captives. Right up to the end of the Postclassic period, Maya kings led as war captains. Maya inscriptions from the Classic show that a defeated king could be captured, tortured, and sacrificed. The Spanish recorded that Maya leaders kept track of troop movements in painted books.
The outcome of a successful military campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The captured nobles and their families could be imprisoned, or sacrificed. At the least severe end of the scale, the defeated polity would be obliged to pay tribute to the victor.
Warriors
During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specialised knowledge inherent in the particular military role was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders. There were also units of full-time mercenaries who followed permanent leaders. Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were primarily farmers; the needs of their crops usually came before warfare. Maya warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder.
There is some evidence from the Classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare ruling queens. By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in battle.
Weapons
The atlatl (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic. This was a stick with a notched end to hold a dart or javelin. The stick was used to launch the missile with more force and accuracy than could be accomplished by simply hurling it with the arm alone. Evidence in the form of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. Commoners used blowguns in war, which also served as their hunting weapon. The bow and arrow is another weapon that was used by the ancient Maya for both war and hunting. Although present in the Maya region during the Classic period, its use as a weapon of war was not favoured; it did not become a common weapon until the Postclassic. The Contact period Maya also used two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl. Maya warriors wore body armour in the form of quilted cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armour compared favourably to the steel armour worn by the Spanish when they conquered the region. Warriors bore wooden or animal hide shields decorated with feathers and animal skins.
Trade
Trade was a key component of Maya society, and in the development of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most important usually controlled access to vital trade goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make the textiles to be traded throughout Mesoamerica. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of salt. In the Postclassic, the Maya engaged in a flourishing slave trade with wider Mesoamerica.
The Maya engaged in long-distance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an Early Classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, trade routes particularly focused on central Mexico and the Gulf coast. In the Early Classic, Chichen Itza was at the hub of an extensive trade network that imported gold discs from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Long-distance trade of both luxury and utilitarian goods was probably controlled by the royal family. Prestige goods obtained by trade were used both for consumption by the city's ruler, and as luxury gifts to consolidate the loyalty of vassals and allies.
Trade routes not only supplied physical goods, they facilitated the movement of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. Shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in the Maya region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Preclassic Maya civilization, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic collapse. Even the Spanish Conquest did not immediately terminate all Maya trading activity; for example, the Contact period Manche Chʼol traded the prestige crops of cacao, annatto and vanilla into colonial Verapaz.
Merchants
Little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trading expeditions. The majority of traders were middle class, but were largely engaged in local and regional trade rather than the prestigious long-distance trading that was the preserve of the elite. The travelling of merchants into dangerous foreign territory was likened to a passage through the underworld; the patron deities of merchants were two underworld gods carrying backpacks. When merchants travelled, they painted themselves black, like their patron gods, and went heavily armed.
The Maya had no pack animals, so all trade goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland; if the trade route followed a river or the coast, then goods were transported in canoes. A substantial Maya trading canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. It was made from a large hollowed-out tree trunk and had a palm-covered canopy. The canoe was broad and was powered by 25 rowers. Trade goods carried included cacao, obsidian, ceramics, textiles, food and drink for the crew, and copper bells and axes. Cacao was used as currency (although not exclusively), and its value was such that counterfeiting occurred by removing the flesh from the pod, and stuffing it with dirt or avocado rind.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces are difficult to identify archaeologically. However, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the region. At some Classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scattered stones as the permanent foundations of market stalls. A 2007 study analysed soils from a modern Guatemalan market and compared the results with those obtained from analysis at a proposed ancient market at Chunchucmil. Unusually high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites indicated similar food production and vegetable sales activity. The calculated density of market stalls at Chunchucmil strongly suggests that a thriving market economy already existed in the Early Classic. Archaeologists have tentatively identified marketplaces at an increasing number of Maya cities by means of a combination of archaeology and soil analysis. When the Spanish arrived, Postclassic cities in the highlands had markets in permanent plazas, with officials on hand to settle disputes, enforce rules, and collect taxes.
Art
Maya art is essentially the art of the royal court. It is almost exclusively concerned with the Maya elite and their world. Maya art was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents only a small proportion of the art that the Maya created, it represents a wider variety of subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. Maya art has many regional styles, and is unique in the ancient Americas in bearing narrative text. The finest surviving Maya art dates to the Late Classic period.
The Maya exhibited a preference for the colour green or blue-green, and used the same word for the colours blue and green. Correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green jade, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tesserae and beads, to carved heads weighing . The Maya nobility practised dental modification, and some lords wore encrusted jade in their teeth. Mosaic funerary masks could also be fashioned from jade, such as that of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque.
Maya stone sculpture emerged into the archaeological record as a fully developed tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. Because of the biodegradability of wood, the corpus of Maya woodwork has almost entirely disappeared. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include three-dimensional sculptures, and hieroglyphic panels. Stone Maya stelae are widespread in city sites, often paired with low, circular stones referred to as altars in the literature. Stone sculpture also took other forms, such as the limestone relief panels at Palenque and Piedras Negras. At Yaxchilan, Dos Pilas, Copán, and other sites, stone stairways were decorated with sculpture. The hieroglyphic stairway at Copán comprises the longest surviving Maya hieroglyphic text, and consists of 2,200 individual glyphs.
The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall, and the three-dimensional form was built up using small stones. Finally, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form; human body forms were first modelled in stucco, with their costumes added afterwards. The final stucco sculpture was then brightly painted. Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic, and such decoration continued into the Classic period.
The Maya had a long tradition of mural painting; rich polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Walls were coated with plaster, and polychrome designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic tombs painted in cream, red, and black have been excavated at Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal. Among the best preserved murals are a full-size series of Late Classic paintings at Bonampak.
Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. They were technically very challenging to produce, requiring considerable skill on the part of the artisan. Large obsidian eccentrics can measure over in length. Their actual form varies considerably but they generally depict human, animal and geometric forms associated with Maya religion. Eccentric flints show a great variety of forms, such as crescents, crosses, snakes, and scorpions. The largest and most elaborate examples display multiple human heads, with minor heads sometimes branching off from larger one.
Maya textiles are very poorly represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean region, it is likely that they were high-value items. A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best evidence for textile art is where they are represented in other media, such as painted murals or ceramics. Such secondary representations show the elite of the Maya court adorned with sumptuous cloths, generally these would have been cotton, but jaguar pelts and deer hides are also shown.
Ceramics are the most commonly surviving type of Maya art. The Maya had no knowledge of the potter's wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desired form. Maya pottery was not glazed, although it often had a fine finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay slips blended with minerals and coloured clays. Ancient Maya firing techniques have yet to be replicated. A quantity of extremely fine ceramic figurines have been excavated from Late Classic tombs on Jaina Island, in northern Yucatán. They stand from high and were hand modelled, with exquisite detail. The Ik-style polychrome ceramic corpus, including finely painted plates and cylindrical vessels, originated in Late Classic Motul de San José. It includes a set of features such as hieroglyphs painted in a pink or pale red colour and scenes with dancers wearing masks. One of the most distinctive features is the realistic representation of subjects as they appeared in life. The subject matter of the vessels includes courtly life from the Petén region in the 8th century AD, such as diplomatic meetings, feasting, bloodletting, scenes of warriors and the sacrifice of prisoners of war.
Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make small objects in gold, silver and copper. The Maya generally hammered sheet metal into objects such as beads, bells, and discs. In the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method to cast small metal pieces.
One poorly studied area of Maya folk art is graffiti. Additional graffiti, not part of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great quantity of graffiti has been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti was often inscribed haphazardly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a mix of crude, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period artistic conventions.
Architecture
The Maya produced a vast array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural legacy. Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences craft specialization in Maya society, centralised organization and the political means to mobilize a large workforce. It is estimated that a large elite residence at Copán required an estimated 10,686 man-days to build, which compares to 67-man-days for a commoner's hut. It is further estimated that 65% of the labour required to build the noble residence was used in the quarrying, transporting, and finishing of the stone used in construction, and 24% of the labour was required for the manufacture and application of limestone-based plaster. Altogether, it is estimated that two to three months were required for the construction of the residence for this single noble at Copán, using between 80 and 130 full-time labourers. A Classic-period city like Tikal was spread over , with an urban core covering . The labour required to build such a city was immense, running into many millions of man-days. The most massive structures ever erected by the Maya were built during the Preclassic period. Craft specialization would have required dedicated stonemasons and plasterers by the Late Preclassic, and would have required planners and architects.
Urban design
Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative centre surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes. The centres of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes separated from nearby residential areas by walls. These precincts contained pyramid temples and other monumental architecture dedicated to elite activities, such as basal platforms that supported administrative or elite residential complexes. Sculpted monuments were raised to record the deeds of the ruling dynasty. City centres also featured plazas, sacred ballcourts and buildings used for marketplaces and schools. Frequently causeways linked the centre to outlying areas of the city. Some of these classes of architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city, which served as sacred centres for non-royal lineages. The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential complexes housing wealthy lineages. The largest and richest of these elite compounds sometimes possessed sculpture and art of craftsmanship equal to that of royal art.
The ceremonial centre of the Maya city was where the ruling elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was also where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city centre, while commoners had their residences dispersed further away from the ceremonial centre. Residential units were built on top of stone platforms to raise them above the level of the rain season floodwaters.
Building materials and methods
The Maya built their cities with Neolithic technology; they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The exact type of stone used in masonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this also affected the building style. Across a broad swathe of the Maya area, limestone was immediately available. The local limestone is relatively soft when freshly cut, but hardens with exposure. There was great variety in the quality of limestone, with good-quality stone available in the Usumacinta region; in the northern Yucatán, the limestone used in construction was of relatively poor quality. Volcanic tuff was used at Copán, and nearby Quiriguá employed sandstone. In Comalcalco, where suitable stone was not available locally, fired bricks were employed. Limestone was burned at high temperatures in order to manufacture cement, plaster, and stucco. Lime-based cement was used to seal stonework in place, and stone blocks were fashioned using rope-and-water abrasion, and with obsidian tools. The Maya did not employ a functional wheel, so all loads were transported on litters, barges, or rolled on logs. Heavy loads were lifted with rope, but probably without employing pulleys.
Wood was used for beams, and for lintels, even in masonry structures. Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was also applied; this consisted of mud strengthened with straw and was applied as a coating over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood and thatch, adobe was used throughout Maya history, even after the development of masonry structures. In the southern Maya area, adobe was employed in monumental architecture when no suitable stone was locally available.
Principal construction types
The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, sacbeob (causeways), patios and plazas. Some cities also possessed extensive hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagery. Many buildings were adorned with sculpture or painted stucco reliefs.
Palaces and acropoleis
These complexes were usually located in the site core, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom range structure. The term acropolis, in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite residential compounds. They generally extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof combs. Rooms often had stone benches, used for sleeping, and holes indicate where curtains once hung. Large palaces, such as at Palenque, could be fitted with a water supply, and sweat baths were often found within the complex, or nearby. During the Early Classic, rulers were sometimes buried underneath the acropolis complex. Some rooms in palaces were true throne rooms; in the royal palace of Palenque there were a number of throne rooms that were used for important events, including the inauguration of new kings.
Palaces are usually arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards; some examples are adorned with sculpture. Some palaces possess associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant evidence that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and that a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal receptions, and important rituals.
Pyramids and temples
Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic texts as kʼuh nah, meaning "god's house". Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon low platforms. By the Late Preclassic period, their walls were of stone, and the development of the corbel arch allowed stone roofs to replace thatch. By the Classic period, temple roofs were being topped with roof combs that extended the height of the temple and served as a foundation for monumental art. The temple shrines contained between one and three rooms, and were dedicated to important deities. Such a deity might be one of the patron gods of the city, or a deified ancestor. In general, freestanding pyramids were shrines honouring powerful ancestors.
E-Groups and observatories
The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. The Lost World complex at Tikal started out as an E-Group built towards the end of the Middle Preclassic. Due to its nature, the basic layout of an E-Group was constant. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza; it was usually a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three small temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes. E-Groups were raised across the central and southern Maya area for over a millennium; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their function may have been symbolic.
As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomical bodies, including the planet Venus, and various constellations. The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level edifice, with a conical superstructure. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. At Copán, a pair of stelae were raised to mark the position of the setting sun at the equinoxes.
Triadic pyramids
Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Temple IV, the largest pyramid at Tikal. The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the central plaza on top of the basal platform. No securely established forerunners of Triadic Groups are known, but they may have developed from the eastern range building of E-Group complexes. The triadic form was the predominant architectural form in the Petén region during the Late Preclassic. Examples of triadic pyramids are known from as many as 88 archaeological sites. At Nakbe, there are at least a dozen examples of triadic complexes and the four largest structures in the city are triadic in nature. At El Mirador there are probably as many as 36 triadic structures. Examples of the triadic form are even known from Dzibilchaltun in the far north of the Yucatán Peninsula, and Qʼumarkaj in the Highlands of Guatemala. The triadic pyramid remained a popular architectural form for centuries after the first examples were built; it continued in use into the Classic Period, with later examples being found at Uaxactun, Caracol, Seibal, Nakum, Tikal and Palenque. The Qʼumarkaj example is the only one that has been dated to the Postclassic Period. The triple-temple form of the triadic pyramid appears to be related to Maya mythology.
Ballcourts
The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the Classic period, the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. By the time of Spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Highlands, at cities such as Qʼumarkaj and Iximche. Throughout Maya history, ballcourts maintained a characteristic form consisting of an ɪ shape, with a central playing area terminating in two transverse end zones. The central playing area usually measures between long, and is flanked by two lateral structures that stood up to high. The lateral platforms often supported structures that may have held privileged spectators. The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is the largest in Mesoamerica, measuring long by wide, with walls standing high.
Regional architectural styles
Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style. Such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural styles.
Central Petén
The central Petén style of architecture is modelled after the great city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. One of the finest examples of Central Petén style architecture is Tikal Temple I. Examples of sites in the Central Petén style include Altun Ha, Calakmul, Holmul, Ixkun, Nakum, Naranjo, and Yaxhá.
Puuc
The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened their corbel arches; this allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions of long-nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca, outside the Maya area. In contrast, the lower façades were left undecorated. Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites.
Chenes
The Chenes style is very similar to the Puuc style, but predates the use of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural realm. Some buildings contained interior stairways that accessed different levels. The Chenes style is most commonly encountered in the southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula, although individual buildings in the style can be found elsewhere in the peninsula. Examples of Chenes sites include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Tabasqueño.
Río Bec
The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, and also features elements of the Central Petén style, such as prominent roof combs. Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking interior rooms, with steep, almost vertical, stairways and false doors. These towers were adorned with deity masks, and were built to impress the viewer, rather than serve any practical function. Such false towers are only found in the Río Bec region. Río Bec sites include Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Xpuhil.
Usumacinta
The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal structures. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. Many sites erected stelae, but Palenque instead developed finely sculpted panelling to decorate its buildings.
Language
Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. Proto-Mayan diverged during the Preclassic period to form the major Mayan language groups that make up the family, including Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. These groups diverged further during the pre-Columbian era to form over 30 languages that have survived into modern times. The language of almost all Classic Maya texts over the entire Maya area has been identified as Chʼolan; Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, also appears to be in, or related to, Chʼolan. The use of Chʼolan as the language of Maya text does not necessarily indicate that it was the language commonly used by the local populace – it may have been equivalent to Medieval Latin as a ritual or prestige language. Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige language of the Classic Maya elite, used in inter-polity communication such as diplomacy and trade. By the Postclassic period, Yucatec was also being written in Maya codices alongside Chʼolan.
Writing and literacy
The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. It was the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system of more than a dozen systems that developed in Mesoamerica. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 300–200 BC, in the Petén Basin. However, this is preceded by several other Mesoamerican writing systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts. Early Maya script had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the late 1st century AD, or early 2nd century. Similarities between the Isthmian script and Early Maya script of the Pacific coast suggest that the two systems developed in tandem. By about AD 250, the Maya script had become a more formalised and consistent writing system.
The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity is disputed. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed. In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe stated:
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. Other media include the aforementioned codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a variety of materials, including bone, shell, obsidian, and jade.
Writing system
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing) is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words.Tanaka 2008, pp. 30, 53. Among the writing systems of the Pre-Columbian New World, Maya script most closely represents the spoken language. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) were phonetic.
The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics. The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language name amatl used to produce codices.Tobin 2001. The skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the Spanish conquest. The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society.
The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts, and ongoing work continues to further illuminate the content.Kettunen & Helmke 2014, p. 9.
Logosyllabic script
The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern. For ease of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. Thus, any glyph block in a piece of text can be identified. C4 would be third block counting from the left, and the fourth block counting downwards. If a monument or artefact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, rather they continue in the alphabetic series; if there are more than 26 columns, the labelling continues as A', B', etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of text.
Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left (block A1), continues to the second block in the double-column (B1), then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column (A2), and thus continues in zig-zag fashion. Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top left of the next double column. Where an inscription ends in a single (unpaired) column, this final column is usually read straight downwards.
Individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or phonetic sign. Some main signs are abstract, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are "head variants", personifications of the word they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, usually attached to a main sign, although a block may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of speech elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. Small sections of a main sign could be used to represent the whole main sign, and Maya scribes were highly inventive in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements.
Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from pliable hair. A Classic period sculpture from Copán, Honduras, depicts a scribe with an inkpot fashioned from a conch shell. Excavations at Aguateca uncovered a number of scribal artefacts from the residences of elite status scribes, including palettes and mortars and pestles.
Scribes and literacy
Commoners were illiterate; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the aristocracy could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. Maya scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning "one who writes or paints". There were probably scribal schools where members of the aristocracy were taught to write. Scribal activity is identifiable in the archaeological record; Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I, king of Tikal, was interred with his paint pot. Some junior members of the Copán royal dynasty have also been found buried with their writing implements. A palace at Copán has been identified as that of a noble lineage of scribes; it is decorated with sculpture that includes figures holding ink pots.
Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpture. Usually, only a single scribe signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpture; eight sculptors signed one stela at Piedras Negras. However, most works remained unsigned by their artists.
Mathematics
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide, although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system. The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD. In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish.
The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero; during the Classic period other glyphs were used. The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 used repetitions of these symbols. The value of a numeral was determined by its position; as a numeral shifted upwards, its basic value multiplied by twenty. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and so on. For example, the number 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next level up, and two dots on the next level after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. Simple addition could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column.
Calendar
The Maya calendrical system, in common with other Mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period. However, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with great accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World; for example, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the Julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was central to Maya religious practices. The calendar combined a non-repeating Long Count with three interlocking cycles, each measuring a progressively larger period. These were the 260-day tzolkʼin, the 365-day haabʼ, and the 52-year Calendar Round, resulting from the combination of the tzolkʼin with the haab'. There were also additional calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god Kʼawiil.
The basic unit in the Maya calendar was one day, or kʼin, and 20 kʼin grouped to form a winal. The next unit, instead of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a rough approximation of the solar year (hence producing 360 days). This 360-day year was called a tun. Each succeeding level of multiplication followed the vigesimal system.
The 260-day tzolkʼin provided the basic cycle of Maya ceremony, and the foundations of Maya prophecy. No astronomical basis for this count has been proved, and it may be that the 260-day count is based on the human gestation period. This is reinforced by the use of the tzolkʼin to record dates of birth, and provide corresponding prophecy. The 260-day cycle repeated a series of 20-day-names, with a number from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the cycle a particular day occurred.
The 365-day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named 20-day winals, completed by the addition of a 5-day period called the wayeb. The wayeb was considered to be a dangerous time, when the barriers between the mortal and supernatural realms were broken, allowing malignant deities to cross over and interfere in human concerns. In a similar way to the tzʼolkin, the named winal would be prefixed by a number (from 0 to 19), in the case of the shorter wayeb period, the prefix numbers ran 0 to 4. Since each day in the tzʼolkin had a name and number (e.g. 8 Ajaw), this would interlock with the haab, producing an additional number and name, to give any day a more complete designation, for example 8 Ajaw 13 Keh. Such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round. In most Mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit for measuring time.
As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start point. The Maya set the beginning of their calendar as the end of a previous cycle of bakʼtuns, equivalent to a day in 3114 BC. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the world in its current form. The Maya used the Long Count Calendar to fix any given day of the Calendar Round within their current great Piktun cycle consisting of either 20 bakʼtuns. There was some variation in the calendar, specifically texts in Palenque demonstrate that the piktun cycle that ended in 3114 BC had only 13 bakʼtuns, but others used a cycle of 13 + 20 bakʼtun in the current piktun. Additionally, there may have been some regional variation in how these exceptional cycles were managed.
A full long count date consisted of an introductory glyph followed by five glyphs counting off the number of bakʼtuns, katʼuns, tuns, winals, and kʼins since the start of the current creation. This would be followed by the tzʼolkin portion of the Calendar Round date, and after a number of intervening glyphs, the Long Count date would end with the Haab portion of the Calendar Round date.
Correlation of the Long Count calendar
Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic period. The Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. The most generally accepted correlation is the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation. This equates the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the Gregorian date of 12 November 1539. Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube argue for a two-day shift from the standard GMT correlation. The Spinden Correlation would shift the Long Count dates back by 260 years; it also accords with the documentary evidence, and is better suited to the archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, but presents problems with the rest of the Maya region. The George Vaillant Correlation would shift all Maya dates 260 years later, and would greatly shorten the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dating of dated wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation.
Astronomy
The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was mainly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it also had some practical applications, such as providing aid in crop planting and harvesting. The priesthood refined observations and recorded eclipses of the sun and moon, and movements of Venus and the stars; these were measured against dated events in the past, on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the same astronomical conditions prevailed. Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomical observations using the naked eye, assisted by crossed sticks as a sighting device. Analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that, at the time of European contact, the Maya had recorded eclipse tables, calendars, and astronomical knowledge that was more accurate at that time than comparable knowledge in Europe.
The Maya measured the 584-day Venus cycle with an error of just two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight 365-day haab calendrical cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins. For the Maya, the heliacal rising of Venus was associated with destruction and upheaval. Venus was closely associated with warfare, and the hieroglyph meaning "war" incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet. Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus' path. Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rising of Venus, and would also sacrifice important captives to coincide with such conjunctions.
Solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be especially dangerous events that could bring catastrophe upon the world. In the Dresden Codex, a solar eclipse is represented by a serpent devouring the kʼin ("day") hieroglyph. Eclipses were interpreted as the sun or moon being bitten, and lunar tables were recorded in order that the Maya might be able to predict them, and perform the appropriate ceremonies to ward off disaster.
Religion and mythology
In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural realm inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. At the core of Maya religious practice was the worship of deceased ancestors, who would intercede for their living descendants in dealings with the supernatural realm. The earliest intermediaries between humans and the supernatural were shamans. Maya ritual included the use of hallucinogens for chilan, oracular priests. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water lilies, which are hallucinogenic in high doses. As the Maya civilization developed, the ruling elite codified the Maya world view into religious cults that justified their right to rule. In the Late Preclassic, this process culminated in the institution of the divine king, the kʼuhul ajaw, endowed with ultimate political and religious power.
The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the mortal world in between. Each level had four cardinal directions associated with a different colour; north was white, east was red, south was yellow, and west was black. Major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours.
Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the family. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a prominent male ancestor would be emphasised, often with a household shrine. As Maya society developed, and the elite became more powerful, Maya royalty developed their household shrines into the great pyramids that held the tombs of their ancestors.
Belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and influenced every aspect of it, from the simplest day-to-day activities such as food preparation, to trade, politics, and elite activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. The Maya priesthood was a closed group, drawing its members from the established elite; by the Early Classic they were recording increasingly complex ritual information in their hieroglyphic books, including astronomical observations, calendrical cycles, history and mythology. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feasting, bloodletting, incense burning, music, ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, human sacrifice. During the Classic period, the Maya ruler was the high priest, and the direct conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly likely that, among commoners, shamanism continued in parallel to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious emphasis had changed; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more frequent recourse to human sacrifice.
Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques. One important, though incomplete, resource is physical evidence, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. Maya art, architecture, and writing are another resource, and these can be combined with ethnographic sources, including records of Maya religious practices made by the Spanish during the conquest.
Human sacrifice
Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour.
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, perhaps in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the death gods. In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days later ritually decapitated him. Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled. Another myth associated with decapitation was that of the Hero Twins recounted in the Popol Vuh: playing a ballgame against the gods of the underworld, the heroes achieved victory, but one of each pair of twins was decapitated by their opponents.
During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. In one ritual, the corpse would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet, and the officiating priest would then dress himself in the skin of the sacrificial victim and perform a ritual dance symbolizing the rebirth of life. Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.
Deities
The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad interpretation of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. The Maya interpretation of deities was closely tied to the calendar, astronomy, and their cosmology. The importance of a deity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of celestial bodies. The priestly interpretation of astronomical records and books was therefore crucial, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual propitiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offering. Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. They also had a dual day-night/life-death aspect.
Itzamna was the creator god, but he also embodied the cosmos, and was simultaneously a sun god; Kʼinich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its journey through the underworld. The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the mortal realm; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the same function. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood. The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains. The nine lords of the night each governed one of the underworld realms. Other important deities included the moon goddess, the maize god, and the Hero Twins.
The Popol Vuh was written in the Latin script in early colonial times, and was probably transcribed from a hieroglyphic book by an unknown Kʼicheʼ Maya nobleman. It is one of the most outstanding works of indigenous literature in the Americas. The Popul Vuh recounts the mythical creation of the world, the legend of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ kingdom. Deities recorded in the Popul Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, believed by some to be the Kʼicheʼ maize god, and a triad of deities led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil, and also including the moon goddess Awilix, and the mountain god Jacawitz.
In common with other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered serpent deities. Such worship was rare during the Classic period, but by the Postclassic the feathered serpent had spread to both the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands. In Yucatán, the feathered serpent deity was Kukulkan, among the Kʼicheʼ it was Qʼuqʼumatz. Kukulkan had his origins in the Classic period War Serpent, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan'', and has also been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in these earlier Maya traditions, the worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of central Mexico. Likewise, Qʼuqʼumatz had a composite origin, combining the attributes of Mexican Quetzalcoatl with aspects of the Classic period Itzamna.
Agriculture
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food, but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, intensive gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs. Contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya in areas that were densely populated in pre-Columbian times, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that maize, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide variety of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved a record of foodstuffs stored in Maya homes, among them were chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were in the process of being ground, perhaps to produce cooking oil. In addition to basic foodstuffs, the Maya also cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was especially prized by the elite, who consumed chocolate beverages. Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into valuable textiles in order to be traded.
The Maya had few domestic animals; dogs were domesticated by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck by the Late Postclassic. Ocellated turkeys were unsuitable for domestication, but were rounded up in the wild and penned for fattening. All of these were used as food animals; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is possible that deer were also penned and fattened.
Maya sites
There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum. The Río Bec sites of the base of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, other than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Qʼumarkaj (also known as Utatlán). In the northern Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is generally difficult. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún. Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.
Museum collections
There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections. The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over 250 museums in its Maya Museum database, and the European Association of Mayanists lists just under 50 museums in Europe alone.
See also
Entheogenics and the Maya
Huastec civilization
Index of Mexico-related articles
Songs of Dzitbalche
References
Bibliography
Alt URL
Full list from FAMSI archived from the original on 2015-06-08.
Further reading
External links
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI)
Primary sources of Maya history – part one by Ronald A. Barnett
Mesoweb by Joel Skidmore.
Maya Map – A map of the Maya civilization.
Former monarchies of North America
History of Guatemala
History of Belize
History of Chiapas
History of El Salvador
History of Honduras
2nd-millennium BC establishments
1697 disestablishments in North America
Former countries in North America
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[
"La Mar, also known by its Maya name Rabbit Stone, is the modern name for a ruined city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization located in the state of Chiapas in Mexico. During the 8th century AD, it was an ally of the nearby center Piedras Negras. Stela 12 at Piedras Negras, identifies one of the kings of La Mar as being named Parrot Chaak.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nEntry on Mesoweb\n\nMaya sites in Chiapas\nArchaeological sites in Mexico\nFormer populated places in Mexico\nPopulated places established in the 8th century BC\n8th-century BC establishments in the Maya civilization\n8th century in the Maya civilization",
"Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization (2004), an archaeological book written about the ancient Maya civilization. It was written by Arthur Demarest, Ingram Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.\n\nThe book discusses the complex lifestyle and amazing political history of the Maya states, from the first to eighth centuries. It also gives an explanation of the mystery of the ninth-century abandonment of most of the great rainforest cities. It goes on to conclude that the Maya civilization has lessons for civilization today.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Book at Cambridge Library catalogue\n\n2004 non-fiction books\nMaya civilization\nAmerican history books\nMesoamerican studies books"
] |
[
"Maya civilization",
"Investigation of Maya civilization",
"Why was the Maya civilization being investigated?",
"The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire."
] |
C_f3af675fc9294dec9e5f837a1620ba95_0
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Was there anything bad that caused the investigation as well?
| 2 |
Was there anything bad that caused the agents of the Catholic Church to investigate the Maya civilization?
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Maya civilization
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The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatan and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs. The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copan and in the Yucatan Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region. In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported. CANNOTANSWER
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Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world.
|
The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.
The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period () saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.
Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well as a ruler. Closed patronage systems were the dominant force in Maya politics, although how patronage affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown in size, reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed sophisticated art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.
Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways. Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, and structures specially aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. Theirs was the most advanced writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest known instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice.
Mesoamerica
The Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide. The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems. The set of traits shared by Mesoamerican cultures also included astronomical knowledge, blood and human sacrifice, and a cosmovision that viewed the world as divided into four divisions aligned with the cardinal directions, each with different attributes, and a three-way division of the world into the celestial realm, the earth, and the underworld.
By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the domestication of plants, a process that eventually led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. The diverse climate allowed for wide variation in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of maize, beans, and squashes. All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age technology; after c. 1000 AD copper, silver and gold were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the wheel, and possessed few domesticated animals; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe. Mesoamericans viewed the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities. The ritual Mesoamerican ballgame was widely played. Mesoamerica is linguistically diverse, with most languages falling within a small number of language families—the major families are Mayan, Mixe–Zoquean, Otomanguean, and Uto-Aztecan; there are also a number of smaller families and isolates. The Mesoamerican language area shares a number of important features, including widespread loanwords, and use of a vigesimal number system.
The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica, and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. During the Early Classic period, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that extended beyond the Maya area into the highlands of central Mexico. At around the same time, there was a strong Maya presence at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan. Centuries later, during the 9th century AD, murals at Cacaxtla, another site in the central Mexican highlands, were painted in a Maya style. This may have been either an effort to align itself with the still-powerful Maya area after the collapse of Teotihuacan and ensuing political fragmentation in the Mexican Highlands, or an attempt to express a distant Maya origin of the inhabitants. The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.
Geography
The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Most of the peninsula is formed by a vast plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline.
The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain; a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén. To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and a portion of the south of Yucatán state. Farther north, the vegetation turns to lower forest consisting of dense scrub.
The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-Columbian population centres of the highlands were located in the largest highland valleys, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southern highlands, a belt of volcanic cones runs parallel to the Pacific coast. The highlands extend northwards into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east.
History
The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture emerged. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of Maya chronology, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decline. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello (modern-day Belize) has been carbon dated to around 2600 BC. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period was characterised by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic. By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stelae. A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately . Although not as large, Tikal was already a significant city by around 350 BC.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is unknown.
Classic period (c. 250–900 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites.
During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. This intervention was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal in early 378. The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover. A year later, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ahiin I. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city in the Petén Basin. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other. At various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II of Calakmul captured Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. Yuknoom Chʼeen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal. He thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 695 to 738. His reign ended catastrophically when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and was decapitated in a public ritual. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by 300. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.
Classic Maya collapse
During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased activity. Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.
Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This only served to exacerbate systemic problems. By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of rulership. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities. Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. One by one, cities stopped sculpting dated monuments; the last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.
Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD)
Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, because many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths. Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of Classic Period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.
The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding Classic Period. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years. Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by the natural terrain. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom. The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the other members served him as advisors.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which ended only shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces. During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in internal sociopolitical organization. On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states. The Kʼicheʼ had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ.
Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 AD)
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico; they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. The Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. Good relations did not last, due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months later. This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525. Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546. This left only the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent. In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.
Persistence of Maya culture
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life. The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be practised. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times, the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, despite vigorous efforts by Catholic missionaries. The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas, and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.
Investigation of Maya civilization
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at Christianization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region.
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.
Politics
Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the entire Maya cultural area into a single state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relationships with each other and were engaged in a complex web of rivalries, periods of dominance or submission, vassalage, and alliances. At times, different polities achieved regional dominance, such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal. The first reliably evidenced polities formed in the Maya lowlands in the 9th century BC.
During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical form, where elite ideology justified the ruler's authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. The divine king was the centre of political power, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, judicial, and military functions of the polity. The divine authority invested within the ruler was such that the king was able to mobilize both the aristocracy and commoners in executing huge infrastructure projects, apparently with no police force or standing army. Some polities engaged in a strategy of increasing administration, and filling administrative posts with loyal supporters rather than blood relatives. Within a polity, mid-ranking population centres would have played a key role in managing resources and internal conflict.
The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of dominance over other large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other cases, loose alliance networks were formed around a dominant city. Border settlements, usually located about halfway between neighbouring capitals, often switched allegiance over the course of their history, and at times acted independently. Dominant capitals exacted tribute in the form of luxury items from subjugated population centres. Political power was reinforced by military power, and the capture and humiliation of enemy warriors played an important part in elite culture. An overriding sense of pride and honour among the warrior aristocracy could lead to extended feuds and vendettas, which caused political instability and the fragmentation of polities.
Society
From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, various sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political organization became increasingly complex. By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex web of political hierarchies, the wealthy segment of society multiplied. A middle class may have developed that included artisans, low ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, labourers, and slaves. According to indigenous histories, land was held communally by noble houses or clans. Such clans held that the land was the property of the clan ancestors, and such ties between the land and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds.
King and court
Classic Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god, whose gift of maize was the basis of Mesoamerican civilization. Maya royal succession was patrilineal, and royal power only passed to queens when doing otherwise would result in the extinction of the dynasty. Typically, power was passed to the eldest son. A young prince was called a chʼok ("youth"), although this word later came to refer to nobility in general. The royal heir was called bʼaah chʼok ("head youth"). Various points in the young prince's childhood were marked by ritual; the most important was a bloodletting ceremony at age five or six years. Although being of the royal bloodline was of utmost importance, the heir also had to be a successful war leader, as demonstrated by taking of captives. The enthronement of a new king was a highly elaborate ceremony, involving a series of separate acts that included enthronement upon a jaguar-skin cushion, human sacrifice, and receiving the symbols of royal power, such as a headband bearing a jade representation of the so-called "jester god", an elaborate headdress adorned with quetzal feathers, and a sceptre representing the god Kʼawiil.
Maya political administration, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives. Officials are referred to as being "owned" by their sponsor, and this relationship continued even after the death of the sponsor. The Maya royal court was a vibrant and dynamic political institution. There was no universal structure for the Maya royal court, instead each polity formed a royal court that was suited to its own individual context. A number of royal and noble titles have been identified by epigraphers translating Classic Maya inscriptions. Ajaw is usually translated as "lord" or "king". In the Early Classic, an ajaw was the ruler of a city. Later, with increasing social complexity, the ajaw was a member of the ruling class and a major city could have more than one, each ruling over different districts. Paramount rulers distinguished themselves from the extended nobility by prefixing the word kʼuhul to their ajaw title. A kʼuhul ajaw was "divine lord", originally confined to the kings of the most prestigious and ancient royal lines. Kalomte was a royal title, whose exact meaning is not yet deciphered, but it was held only by the most powerful kings of the strongest dynasties. It indicated an overlord, or high king, and the title was only in use during the Classic period. By the Late Classic, the absolute power of the kʼuhul ajaw had weakened, and the political system had diversified to include a wider aristocracy, that by this time may well have expanded disproportionately.
A sajal was ranked below the ajaw, and indicated a subservient lord. A sajal would be lord of a second- or third-tier site, answering to an ajaw, who may himself have been subservient to a kalomte. A sajal would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the sajal title to warfare; they are often mentioned as the holders of war captives. Sajal meant "feared one". The titles of ah tzʼihb and ah chʼul hun are both related to scribes. The ah tzʼihb was a royal scribe, usually a member of the royal family; the ah chʼul hun was the Keeper of the Holy Books, a title that is closely associated with the ajaw title, indicating that an ajaw always held the ah chʼul hun title simultaneously. Other courtly titles, the functions of which are not well understood, were yajaw kʼahk''' ("Lord of Fire"), tiʼhuun and ti'sakhuun. These last two may be variations on the same title, and Mark Zender has suggested that the holder of this title may have been the spokesman for the ruler. Courtly titles are overwhelmingly male-oriented, and in those relatively rare occasions where they are applied to a woman, they appear to be used as honorifics for female royalty. Titled elites were often associated with particular structures in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Classic period cities, indicating that such office holders either owned that structure, or that the structure was an important focus for their activities. A lakam, or standard-bearer, was possibly the only non-elite post-holder in the royal court. The lakam was only found in larger sites, and they appear to have been responsible for the taxation of local districts.
Different factions may have existed in the royal court. The kʼuhul ahaw and his household would have formed the central power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior aristocracy, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have formed an additional faction. Rivalry between different factions would have led to dynamic political institutions as compromises and disagreements were played out. In such a setting, public performance was vital. Such performances included ritual dances, presentation of war captives, offerings of tribute, human sacrifice, and religious ritual.
Commoners
Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90% of the population, but relatively little is known about them. Their houses were generally constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little trace in the archaeological record. Some commoner dwellings were raised on low platforms, and these can be identified, but an unknown quantity of commoner houses were not. Such low-status dwellings can only be detected by extensive remote-sensing surveys of apparently empty terrain. The range of commoners was broad; it consisted of everyone not of noble birth, and therefore included everyone from the poorest farmers to wealthy craftsmen and commoners appointed to bureaucratic positions. Commoners engaged in essential production activities, including that of products destined for use by the elite, such as cotton and cacao, as well as subsistence crops for their own use, and utilitarian items such as ceramics and stone tools. Commoners took part in warfare, and could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. Commoners paid taxes to the elite in the form of staple goods such as maize, flour and game. It is likely that hard-working commoners who displayed exceptional skills and initiative could become influential members of Maya society.
Warfare
Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. Military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the control of trade routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy state. Little is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or training. Warfare is depicted in Maya art from the Classic period, and wars and victories are mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Unfortunately, the inscriptions do not provide information upon the causes of war, or the form it took. In the 8th–9th centuries, intensive warfare resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén. The rapid abandonment of Aguateca by its inhabitants has provided a rare opportunity to examine the remains of Maya weaponry in situ. Aguateca was stormed by unknown enemies around 810 AD, who overcame its formidable defences and burned the royal palace. The elite inhabitants of the city either fled or were captured, and never returned to collect their abandoned property. The inhabitants of the periphery abandoned the site soon after. This is an example of intensive warfare carried out by an enemy in order to eliminate a Maya state, rather than subjugate it. Research at Aguateca indicated that Classic period warriors were primarily members of the elite.
From as early as the Preclassic period, the ruler of a Maya polity was expected to be a distinguished war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the Classic period, such trophy heads no longer appeared on the king's belt, but Classic period kings are frequently depicted standing over humiliated war captives. Right up to the end of the Postclassic period, Maya kings led as war captains. Maya inscriptions from the Classic show that a defeated king could be captured, tortured, and sacrificed. The Spanish recorded that Maya leaders kept track of troop movements in painted books.
The outcome of a successful military campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The captured nobles and their families could be imprisoned, or sacrificed. At the least severe end of the scale, the defeated polity would be obliged to pay tribute to the victor.
Warriors
During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specialised knowledge inherent in the particular military role was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders. There were also units of full-time mercenaries who followed permanent leaders. Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were primarily farmers; the needs of their crops usually came before warfare. Maya warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder.
There is some evidence from the Classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare ruling queens. By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in battle.
Weapons
The atlatl (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic. This was a stick with a notched end to hold a dart or javelin. The stick was used to launch the missile with more force and accuracy than could be accomplished by simply hurling it with the arm alone. Evidence in the form of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. Commoners used blowguns in war, which also served as their hunting weapon. The bow and arrow is another weapon that was used by the ancient Maya for both war and hunting. Although present in the Maya region during the Classic period, its use as a weapon of war was not favoured; it did not become a common weapon until the Postclassic. The Contact period Maya also used two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl. Maya warriors wore body armour in the form of quilted cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armour compared favourably to the steel armour worn by the Spanish when they conquered the region. Warriors bore wooden or animal hide shields decorated with feathers and animal skins.
Trade
Trade was a key component of Maya society, and in the development of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most important usually controlled access to vital trade goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make the textiles to be traded throughout Mesoamerica. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of salt. In the Postclassic, the Maya engaged in a flourishing slave trade with wider Mesoamerica.
The Maya engaged in long-distance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an Early Classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, trade routes particularly focused on central Mexico and the Gulf coast. In the Early Classic, Chichen Itza was at the hub of an extensive trade network that imported gold discs from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Long-distance trade of both luxury and utilitarian goods was probably controlled by the royal family. Prestige goods obtained by trade were used both for consumption by the city's ruler, and as luxury gifts to consolidate the loyalty of vassals and allies.
Trade routes not only supplied physical goods, they facilitated the movement of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. Shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in the Maya region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Preclassic Maya civilization, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic collapse. Even the Spanish Conquest did not immediately terminate all Maya trading activity; for example, the Contact period Manche Chʼol traded the prestige crops of cacao, annatto and vanilla into colonial Verapaz.
Merchants
Little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trading expeditions. The majority of traders were middle class, but were largely engaged in local and regional trade rather than the prestigious long-distance trading that was the preserve of the elite. The travelling of merchants into dangerous foreign territory was likened to a passage through the underworld; the patron deities of merchants were two underworld gods carrying backpacks. When merchants travelled, they painted themselves black, like their patron gods, and went heavily armed.
The Maya had no pack animals, so all trade goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland; if the trade route followed a river or the coast, then goods were transported in canoes. A substantial Maya trading canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. It was made from a large hollowed-out tree trunk and had a palm-covered canopy. The canoe was broad and was powered by 25 rowers. Trade goods carried included cacao, obsidian, ceramics, textiles, food and drink for the crew, and copper bells and axes. Cacao was used as currency (although not exclusively), and its value was such that counterfeiting occurred by removing the flesh from the pod, and stuffing it with dirt or avocado rind.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces are difficult to identify archaeologically. However, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the region. At some Classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scattered stones as the permanent foundations of market stalls. A 2007 study analysed soils from a modern Guatemalan market and compared the results with those obtained from analysis at a proposed ancient market at Chunchucmil. Unusually high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites indicated similar food production and vegetable sales activity. The calculated density of market stalls at Chunchucmil strongly suggests that a thriving market economy already existed in the Early Classic. Archaeologists have tentatively identified marketplaces at an increasing number of Maya cities by means of a combination of archaeology and soil analysis. When the Spanish arrived, Postclassic cities in the highlands had markets in permanent plazas, with officials on hand to settle disputes, enforce rules, and collect taxes.
Art
Maya art is essentially the art of the royal court. It is almost exclusively concerned with the Maya elite and their world. Maya art was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents only a small proportion of the art that the Maya created, it represents a wider variety of subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. Maya art has many regional styles, and is unique in the ancient Americas in bearing narrative text. The finest surviving Maya art dates to the Late Classic period.
The Maya exhibited a preference for the colour green or blue-green, and used the same word for the colours blue and green. Correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green jade, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tesserae and beads, to carved heads weighing . The Maya nobility practised dental modification, and some lords wore encrusted jade in their teeth. Mosaic funerary masks could also be fashioned from jade, such as that of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque.
Maya stone sculpture emerged into the archaeological record as a fully developed tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. Because of the biodegradability of wood, the corpus of Maya woodwork has almost entirely disappeared. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include three-dimensional sculptures, and hieroglyphic panels. Stone Maya stelae are widespread in city sites, often paired with low, circular stones referred to as altars in the literature. Stone sculpture also took other forms, such as the limestone relief panels at Palenque and Piedras Negras. At Yaxchilan, Dos Pilas, Copán, and other sites, stone stairways were decorated with sculpture. The hieroglyphic stairway at Copán comprises the longest surviving Maya hieroglyphic text, and consists of 2,200 individual glyphs.
The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall, and the three-dimensional form was built up using small stones. Finally, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form; human body forms were first modelled in stucco, with their costumes added afterwards. The final stucco sculpture was then brightly painted. Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic, and such decoration continued into the Classic period.
The Maya had a long tradition of mural painting; rich polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Walls were coated with plaster, and polychrome designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic tombs painted in cream, red, and black have been excavated at Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal. Among the best preserved murals are a full-size series of Late Classic paintings at Bonampak.
Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. They were technically very challenging to produce, requiring considerable skill on the part of the artisan. Large obsidian eccentrics can measure over in length. Their actual form varies considerably but they generally depict human, animal and geometric forms associated with Maya religion. Eccentric flints show a great variety of forms, such as crescents, crosses, snakes, and scorpions. The largest and most elaborate examples display multiple human heads, with minor heads sometimes branching off from larger one.
Maya textiles are very poorly represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean region, it is likely that they were high-value items. A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best evidence for textile art is where they are represented in other media, such as painted murals or ceramics. Such secondary representations show the elite of the Maya court adorned with sumptuous cloths, generally these would have been cotton, but jaguar pelts and deer hides are also shown.
Ceramics are the most commonly surviving type of Maya art. The Maya had no knowledge of the potter's wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desired form. Maya pottery was not glazed, although it often had a fine finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay slips blended with minerals and coloured clays. Ancient Maya firing techniques have yet to be replicated. A quantity of extremely fine ceramic figurines have been excavated from Late Classic tombs on Jaina Island, in northern Yucatán. They stand from high and were hand modelled, with exquisite detail. The Ik-style polychrome ceramic corpus, including finely painted plates and cylindrical vessels, originated in Late Classic Motul de San José. It includes a set of features such as hieroglyphs painted in a pink or pale red colour and scenes with dancers wearing masks. One of the most distinctive features is the realistic representation of subjects as they appeared in life. The subject matter of the vessels includes courtly life from the Petén region in the 8th century AD, such as diplomatic meetings, feasting, bloodletting, scenes of warriors and the sacrifice of prisoners of war.
Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make small objects in gold, silver and copper. The Maya generally hammered sheet metal into objects such as beads, bells, and discs. In the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method to cast small metal pieces.
One poorly studied area of Maya folk art is graffiti. Additional graffiti, not part of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great quantity of graffiti has been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti was often inscribed haphazardly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a mix of crude, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period artistic conventions.
Architecture
The Maya produced a vast array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural legacy. Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences craft specialization in Maya society, centralised organization and the political means to mobilize a large workforce. It is estimated that a large elite residence at Copán required an estimated 10,686 man-days to build, which compares to 67-man-days for a commoner's hut. It is further estimated that 65% of the labour required to build the noble residence was used in the quarrying, transporting, and finishing of the stone used in construction, and 24% of the labour was required for the manufacture and application of limestone-based plaster. Altogether, it is estimated that two to three months were required for the construction of the residence for this single noble at Copán, using between 80 and 130 full-time labourers. A Classic-period city like Tikal was spread over , with an urban core covering . The labour required to build such a city was immense, running into many millions of man-days. The most massive structures ever erected by the Maya were built during the Preclassic period. Craft specialization would have required dedicated stonemasons and plasterers by the Late Preclassic, and would have required planners and architects.
Urban design
Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative centre surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes. The centres of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes separated from nearby residential areas by walls. These precincts contained pyramid temples and other monumental architecture dedicated to elite activities, such as basal platforms that supported administrative or elite residential complexes. Sculpted monuments were raised to record the deeds of the ruling dynasty. City centres also featured plazas, sacred ballcourts and buildings used for marketplaces and schools. Frequently causeways linked the centre to outlying areas of the city. Some of these classes of architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city, which served as sacred centres for non-royal lineages. The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential complexes housing wealthy lineages. The largest and richest of these elite compounds sometimes possessed sculpture and art of craftsmanship equal to that of royal art.
The ceremonial centre of the Maya city was where the ruling elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was also where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city centre, while commoners had their residences dispersed further away from the ceremonial centre. Residential units were built on top of stone platforms to raise them above the level of the rain season floodwaters.
Building materials and methods
The Maya built their cities with Neolithic technology; they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The exact type of stone used in masonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this also affected the building style. Across a broad swathe of the Maya area, limestone was immediately available. The local limestone is relatively soft when freshly cut, but hardens with exposure. There was great variety in the quality of limestone, with good-quality stone available in the Usumacinta region; in the northern Yucatán, the limestone used in construction was of relatively poor quality. Volcanic tuff was used at Copán, and nearby Quiriguá employed sandstone. In Comalcalco, where suitable stone was not available locally, fired bricks were employed. Limestone was burned at high temperatures in order to manufacture cement, plaster, and stucco. Lime-based cement was used to seal stonework in place, and stone blocks were fashioned using rope-and-water abrasion, and with obsidian tools. The Maya did not employ a functional wheel, so all loads were transported on litters, barges, or rolled on logs. Heavy loads were lifted with rope, but probably without employing pulleys.
Wood was used for beams, and for lintels, even in masonry structures. Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was also applied; this consisted of mud strengthened with straw and was applied as a coating over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood and thatch, adobe was used throughout Maya history, even after the development of masonry structures. In the southern Maya area, adobe was employed in monumental architecture when no suitable stone was locally available.
Principal construction types
The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, sacbeob (causeways), patios and plazas. Some cities also possessed extensive hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagery. Many buildings were adorned with sculpture or painted stucco reliefs.
Palaces and acropoleis
These complexes were usually located in the site core, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom range structure. The term acropolis, in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite residential compounds. They generally extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof combs. Rooms often had stone benches, used for sleeping, and holes indicate where curtains once hung. Large palaces, such as at Palenque, could be fitted with a water supply, and sweat baths were often found within the complex, or nearby. During the Early Classic, rulers were sometimes buried underneath the acropolis complex. Some rooms in palaces were true throne rooms; in the royal palace of Palenque there were a number of throne rooms that were used for important events, including the inauguration of new kings.
Palaces are usually arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards; some examples are adorned with sculpture. Some palaces possess associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant evidence that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and that a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal receptions, and important rituals.
Pyramids and temples
Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic texts as kʼuh nah, meaning "god's house". Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon low platforms. By the Late Preclassic period, their walls were of stone, and the development of the corbel arch allowed stone roofs to replace thatch. By the Classic period, temple roofs were being topped with roof combs that extended the height of the temple and served as a foundation for monumental art. The temple shrines contained between one and three rooms, and were dedicated to important deities. Such a deity might be one of the patron gods of the city, or a deified ancestor. In general, freestanding pyramids were shrines honouring powerful ancestors.
E-Groups and observatories
The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. The Lost World complex at Tikal started out as an E-Group built towards the end of the Middle Preclassic. Due to its nature, the basic layout of an E-Group was constant. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza; it was usually a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three small temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes. E-Groups were raised across the central and southern Maya area for over a millennium; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their function may have been symbolic.
As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomical bodies, including the planet Venus, and various constellations. The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level edifice, with a conical superstructure. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. At Copán, a pair of stelae were raised to mark the position of the setting sun at the equinoxes.
Triadic pyramids
Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Temple IV, the largest pyramid at Tikal. The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the central plaza on top of the basal platform. No securely established forerunners of Triadic Groups are known, but they may have developed from the eastern range building of E-Group complexes. The triadic form was the predominant architectural form in the Petén region during the Late Preclassic. Examples of triadic pyramids are known from as many as 88 archaeological sites. At Nakbe, there are at least a dozen examples of triadic complexes and the four largest structures in the city are triadic in nature. At El Mirador there are probably as many as 36 triadic structures. Examples of the triadic form are even known from Dzibilchaltun in the far north of the Yucatán Peninsula, and Qʼumarkaj in the Highlands of Guatemala. The triadic pyramid remained a popular architectural form for centuries after the first examples were built; it continued in use into the Classic Period, with later examples being found at Uaxactun, Caracol, Seibal, Nakum, Tikal and Palenque. The Qʼumarkaj example is the only one that has been dated to the Postclassic Period. The triple-temple form of the triadic pyramid appears to be related to Maya mythology.
Ballcourts
The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the Classic period, the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. By the time of Spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Highlands, at cities such as Qʼumarkaj and Iximche. Throughout Maya history, ballcourts maintained a characteristic form consisting of an ɪ shape, with a central playing area terminating in two transverse end zones. The central playing area usually measures between long, and is flanked by two lateral structures that stood up to high. The lateral platforms often supported structures that may have held privileged spectators. The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is the largest in Mesoamerica, measuring long by wide, with walls standing high.
Regional architectural styles
Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style. Such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural styles.
Central Petén
The central Petén style of architecture is modelled after the great city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. One of the finest examples of Central Petén style architecture is Tikal Temple I. Examples of sites in the Central Petén style include Altun Ha, Calakmul, Holmul, Ixkun, Nakum, Naranjo, and Yaxhá.
Puuc
The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened their corbel arches; this allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions of long-nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca, outside the Maya area. In contrast, the lower façades were left undecorated. Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites.
Chenes
The Chenes style is very similar to the Puuc style, but predates the use of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural realm. Some buildings contained interior stairways that accessed different levels. The Chenes style is most commonly encountered in the southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula, although individual buildings in the style can be found elsewhere in the peninsula. Examples of Chenes sites include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Tabasqueño.
Río Bec
The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, and also features elements of the Central Petén style, such as prominent roof combs. Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking interior rooms, with steep, almost vertical, stairways and false doors. These towers were adorned with deity masks, and were built to impress the viewer, rather than serve any practical function. Such false towers are only found in the Río Bec region. Río Bec sites include Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Xpuhil.
Usumacinta
The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal structures. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. Many sites erected stelae, but Palenque instead developed finely sculpted panelling to decorate its buildings.
Language
Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. Proto-Mayan diverged during the Preclassic period to form the major Mayan language groups that make up the family, including Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. These groups diverged further during the pre-Columbian era to form over 30 languages that have survived into modern times. The language of almost all Classic Maya texts over the entire Maya area has been identified as Chʼolan; Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, also appears to be in, or related to, Chʼolan. The use of Chʼolan as the language of Maya text does not necessarily indicate that it was the language commonly used by the local populace – it may have been equivalent to Medieval Latin as a ritual or prestige language. Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige language of the Classic Maya elite, used in inter-polity communication such as diplomacy and trade. By the Postclassic period, Yucatec was also being written in Maya codices alongside Chʼolan.
Writing and literacy
The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. It was the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system of more than a dozen systems that developed in Mesoamerica. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 300–200 BC, in the Petén Basin. However, this is preceded by several other Mesoamerican writing systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts. Early Maya script had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the late 1st century AD, or early 2nd century. Similarities between the Isthmian script and Early Maya script of the Pacific coast suggest that the two systems developed in tandem. By about AD 250, the Maya script had become a more formalised and consistent writing system.
The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity is disputed. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed. In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe stated:
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. Other media include the aforementioned codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a variety of materials, including bone, shell, obsidian, and jade.
Writing system
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing) is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words.Tanaka 2008, pp. 30, 53. Among the writing systems of the Pre-Columbian New World, Maya script most closely represents the spoken language. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) were phonetic.
The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics. The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language name amatl used to produce codices.Tobin 2001. The skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the Spanish conquest. The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society.
The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts, and ongoing work continues to further illuminate the content.Kettunen & Helmke 2014, p. 9.
Logosyllabic script
The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern. For ease of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. Thus, any glyph block in a piece of text can be identified. C4 would be third block counting from the left, and the fourth block counting downwards. If a monument or artefact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, rather they continue in the alphabetic series; if there are more than 26 columns, the labelling continues as A', B', etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of text.
Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left (block A1), continues to the second block in the double-column (B1), then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column (A2), and thus continues in zig-zag fashion. Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top left of the next double column. Where an inscription ends in a single (unpaired) column, this final column is usually read straight downwards.
Individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or phonetic sign. Some main signs are abstract, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are "head variants", personifications of the word they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, usually attached to a main sign, although a block may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of speech elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. Small sections of a main sign could be used to represent the whole main sign, and Maya scribes were highly inventive in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements.
Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from pliable hair. A Classic period sculpture from Copán, Honduras, depicts a scribe with an inkpot fashioned from a conch shell. Excavations at Aguateca uncovered a number of scribal artefacts from the residences of elite status scribes, including palettes and mortars and pestles.
Scribes and literacy
Commoners were illiterate; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the aristocracy could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. Maya scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning "one who writes or paints". There were probably scribal schools where members of the aristocracy were taught to write. Scribal activity is identifiable in the archaeological record; Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I, king of Tikal, was interred with his paint pot. Some junior members of the Copán royal dynasty have also been found buried with their writing implements. A palace at Copán has been identified as that of a noble lineage of scribes; it is decorated with sculpture that includes figures holding ink pots.
Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpture. Usually, only a single scribe signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpture; eight sculptors signed one stela at Piedras Negras. However, most works remained unsigned by their artists.
Mathematics
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide, although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system. The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD. In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish.
The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero; during the Classic period other glyphs were used. The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 used repetitions of these symbols. The value of a numeral was determined by its position; as a numeral shifted upwards, its basic value multiplied by twenty. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and so on. For example, the number 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next level up, and two dots on the next level after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. Simple addition could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column.
Calendar
The Maya calendrical system, in common with other Mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period. However, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with great accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World; for example, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the Julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was central to Maya religious practices. The calendar combined a non-repeating Long Count with three interlocking cycles, each measuring a progressively larger period. These were the 260-day tzolkʼin, the 365-day haabʼ, and the 52-year Calendar Round, resulting from the combination of the tzolkʼin with the haab'. There were also additional calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god Kʼawiil.
The basic unit in the Maya calendar was one day, or kʼin, and 20 kʼin grouped to form a winal. The next unit, instead of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a rough approximation of the solar year (hence producing 360 days). This 360-day year was called a tun. Each succeeding level of multiplication followed the vigesimal system.
The 260-day tzolkʼin provided the basic cycle of Maya ceremony, and the foundations of Maya prophecy. No astronomical basis for this count has been proved, and it may be that the 260-day count is based on the human gestation period. This is reinforced by the use of the tzolkʼin to record dates of birth, and provide corresponding prophecy. The 260-day cycle repeated a series of 20-day-names, with a number from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the cycle a particular day occurred.
The 365-day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named 20-day winals, completed by the addition of a 5-day period called the wayeb. The wayeb was considered to be a dangerous time, when the barriers between the mortal and supernatural realms were broken, allowing malignant deities to cross over and interfere in human concerns. In a similar way to the tzʼolkin, the named winal would be prefixed by a number (from 0 to 19), in the case of the shorter wayeb period, the prefix numbers ran 0 to 4. Since each day in the tzʼolkin had a name and number (e.g. 8 Ajaw), this would interlock with the haab, producing an additional number and name, to give any day a more complete designation, for example 8 Ajaw 13 Keh. Such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round. In most Mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit for measuring time.
As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start point. The Maya set the beginning of their calendar as the end of a previous cycle of bakʼtuns, equivalent to a day in 3114 BC. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the world in its current form. The Maya used the Long Count Calendar to fix any given day of the Calendar Round within their current great Piktun cycle consisting of either 20 bakʼtuns. There was some variation in the calendar, specifically texts in Palenque demonstrate that the piktun cycle that ended in 3114 BC had only 13 bakʼtuns, but others used a cycle of 13 + 20 bakʼtun in the current piktun. Additionally, there may have been some regional variation in how these exceptional cycles were managed.
A full long count date consisted of an introductory glyph followed by five glyphs counting off the number of bakʼtuns, katʼuns, tuns, winals, and kʼins since the start of the current creation. This would be followed by the tzʼolkin portion of the Calendar Round date, and after a number of intervening glyphs, the Long Count date would end with the Haab portion of the Calendar Round date.
Correlation of the Long Count calendar
Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic period. The Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. The most generally accepted correlation is the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation. This equates the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the Gregorian date of 12 November 1539. Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube argue for a two-day shift from the standard GMT correlation. The Spinden Correlation would shift the Long Count dates back by 260 years; it also accords with the documentary evidence, and is better suited to the archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, but presents problems with the rest of the Maya region. The George Vaillant Correlation would shift all Maya dates 260 years later, and would greatly shorten the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dating of dated wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation.
Astronomy
The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was mainly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it also had some practical applications, such as providing aid in crop planting and harvesting. The priesthood refined observations and recorded eclipses of the sun and moon, and movements of Venus and the stars; these were measured against dated events in the past, on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the same astronomical conditions prevailed. Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomical observations using the naked eye, assisted by crossed sticks as a sighting device. Analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that, at the time of European contact, the Maya had recorded eclipse tables, calendars, and astronomical knowledge that was more accurate at that time than comparable knowledge in Europe.
The Maya measured the 584-day Venus cycle with an error of just two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight 365-day haab calendrical cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins. For the Maya, the heliacal rising of Venus was associated with destruction and upheaval. Venus was closely associated with warfare, and the hieroglyph meaning "war" incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet. Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus' path. Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rising of Venus, and would also sacrifice important captives to coincide with such conjunctions.
Solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be especially dangerous events that could bring catastrophe upon the world. In the Dresden Codex, a solar eclipse is represented by a serpent devouring the kʼin ("day") hieroglyph. Eclipses were interpreted as the sun or moon being bitten, and lunar tables were recorded in order that the Maya might be able to predict them, and perform the appropriate ceremonies to ward off disaster.
Religion and mythology
In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural realm inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. At the core of Maya religious practice was the worship of deceased ancestors, who would intercede for their living descendants in dealings with the supernatural realm. The earliest intermediaries between humans and the supernatural were shamans. Maya ritual included the use of hallucinogens for chilan, oracular priests. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water lilies, which are hallucinogenic in high doses. As the Maya civilization developed, the ruling elite codified the Maya world view into religious cults that justified their right to rule. In the Late Preclassic, this process culminated in the institution of the divine king, the kʼuhul ajaw, endowed with ultimate political and religious power.
The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the mortal world in between. Each level had four cardinal directions associated with a different colour; north was white, east was red, south was yellow, and west was black. Major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours.
Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the family. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a prominent male ancestor would be emphasised, often with a household shrine. As Maya society developed, and the elite became more powerful, Maya royalty developed their household shrines into the great pyramids that held the tombs of their ancestors.
Belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and influenced every aspect of it, from the simplest day-to-day activities such as food preparation, to trade, politics, and elite activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. The Maya priesthood was a closed group, drawing its members from the established elite; by the Early Classic they were recording increasingly complex ritual information in their hieroglyphic books, including astronomical observations, calendrical cycles, history and mythology. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feasting, bloodletting, incense burning, music, ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, human sacrifice. During the Classic period, the Maya ruler was the high priest, and the direct conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly likely that, among commoners, shamanism continued in parallel to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious emphasis had changed; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more frequent recourse to human sacrifice.
Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques. One important, though incomplete, resource is physical evidence, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. Maya art, architecture, and writing are another resource, and these can be combined with ethnographic sources, including records of Maya religious practices made by the Spanish during the conquest.
Human sacrifice
Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour.
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, perhaps in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the death gods. In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days later ritually decapitated him. Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled. Another myth associated with decapitation was that of the Hero Twins recounted in the Popol Vuh: playing a ballgame against the gods of the underworld, the heroes achieved victory, but one of each pair of twins was decapitated by their opponents.
During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. In one ritual, the corpse would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet, and the officiating priest would then dress himself in the skin of the sacrificial victim and perform a ritual dance symbolizing the rebirth of life. Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.
Deities
The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad interpretation of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. The Maya interpretation of deities was closely tied to the calendar, astronomy, and their cosmology. The importance of a deity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of celestial bodies. The priestly interpretation of astronomical records and books was therefore crucial, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual propitiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offering. Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. They also had a dual day-night/life-death aspect.
Itzamna was the creator god, but he also embodied the cosmos, and was simultaneously a sun god; Kʼinich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its journey through the underworld. The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the mortal realm; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the same function. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood. The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains. The nine lords of the night each governed one of the underworld realms. Other important deities included the moon goddess, the maize god, and the Hero Twins.
The Popol Vuh was written in the Latin script in early colonial times, and was probably transcribed from a hieroglyphic book by an unknown Kʼicheʼ Maya nobleman. It is one of the most outstanding works of indigenous literature in the Americas. The Popul Vuh recounts the mythical creation of the world, the legend of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ kingdom. Deities recorded in the Popul Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, believed by some to be the Kʼicheʼ maize god, and a triad of deities led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil, and also including the moon goddess Awilix, and the mountain god Jacawitz.
In common with other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered serpent deities. Such worship was rare during the Classic period, but by the Postclassic the feathered serpent had spread to both the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands. In Yucatán, the feathered serpent deity was Kukulkan, among the Kʼicheʼ it was Qʼuqʼumatz. Kukulkan had his origins in the Classic period War Serpent, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan'', and has also been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in these earlier Maya traditions, the worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of central Mexico. Likewise, Qʼuqʼumatz had a composite origin, combining the attributes of Mexican Quetzalcoatl with aspects of the Classic period Itzamna.
Agriculture
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food, but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, intensive gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs. Contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya in areas that were densely populated in pre-Columbian times, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that maize, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide variety of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved a record of foodstuffs stored in Maya homes, among them were chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were in the process of being ground, perhaps to produce cooking oil. In addition to basic foodstuffs, the Maya also cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was especially prized by the elite, who consumed chocolate beverages. Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into valuable textiles in order to be traded.
The Maya had few domestic animals; dogs were domesticated by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck by the Late Postclassic. Ocellated turkeys were unsuitable for domestication, but were rounded up in the wild and penned for fattening. All of these were used as food animals; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is possible that deer were also penned and fattened.
Maya sites
There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum. The Río Bec sites of the base of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, other than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Qʼumarkaj (also known as Utatlán). In the northern Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is generally difficult. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún. Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.
Museum collections
There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections. The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over 250 museums in its Maya Museum database, and the European Association of Mayanists lists just under 50 museums in Europe alone.
See also
Entheogenics and the Maya
Huastec civilization
Index of Mexico-related articles
Songs of Dzitbalche
References
Bibliography
Alt URL
Full list from FAMSI archived from the original on 2015-06-08.
Further reading
External links
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI)
Primary sources of Maya history – part one by Ronald A. Barnett
Mesoweb by Joel Skidmore.
Maya Map – A map of the Maya civilization.
Former monarchies of North America
History of Guatemala
History of Belize
History of Chiapas
History of El Salvador
History of Honduras
2nd-millennium BC establishments
1697 disestablishments in North America
Former countries in North America
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"Dacia Felix Bank (, BDF) was the second private bank established in Romania after the Romanian Revolution. It was founded in Cluj-Napoca in March 1991.\n\nAt that time, the Caritas Ponzi scheme was running out in the same city and, together, Dacia Felix Bank and Caritas circulated one third of the Romanian money supply in the early 1990s.\n\nAs in the banking sector there were no regulations in the year of its establishment, the founders of the bank, including Mircea Horia Hossu and Sever Mureșan, established it as a trading company without the National Bank of Romania (BNR). After attracting money from the population's deposits, Dacia Felix Bank started to have problems in 1996 due to bad loans. A criminal investigation conducted since that year was encountered difficulties: Daniel Morar, at that time prosecutor of the Cluj Tribunal and later Judge of the Constitutional Court, remembered that the bank refused to send to the prosecutors the documents they had requested for the investigation. On 5 July 1996, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that Sever Mureșan and Mircea Horia Hossu were suspects of carrying out operations by which the bank was injured by about 2000 billion lei, and that the volume of the bad investments at that time represented about 70% of the total investments. In 1997, the bank was taken over by a group of Israeli investors, which initially avoided bankruptcy, winning the lawsuit filed by the CEC Bank and the BNR. However, in 2000, the BNR demanded again bankruptcy, with PricewaterhouseCoopers as liquidator. Their report showed that the collapse of the bank was caused by the taking over of the bank by its shareholders in violation of the banking law and the practice of unfair business.\n\nDuring this time, Mureșan and Hossu were investigated. Hossu was sentenced in 2000 to 10 years in prison for bribery as he received cash in exchange of bad loans. He was caught in France in 2007 and was extradited to Romania, being released after the performance of about half of the sentence. Mureșan was acquitted in 2005 due to the statute of limitations, but was forced to pay about $100 million to cover the incurred damages.\n\nReferences\n\nDefunct banks of Romania\nBanks established in 1991\nBanks disestablished in 2001\nCompanies based in Cluj-Napoca",
"Teori Albino Zavascki (15 August 1948 – 19 January 2017) was a Brazilian judge who served as a Minister of the Superior Court of Justice from 8 May 2003 until 29 November 2012, appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and as a Minister of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil from 29 November 2012 until his death in 19 January 2017, having been appointed to the position by President Dilma Rousseff. At the time of his death he was the justice in charge of the trials resulting from Operation Car Wash.\n\nDeath \n\nZavascki was killed in an air disaster in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro on 19 January 2017. Official enquiries into the crash began on 20 January and the cockpit voice recorder was recovered. Also killed were four other people on board, including the pilot, and , a partner in BTG Pactual, whose president, André Esteves, had been arrested in the Operation Car Wash investigation. More than two hundred politicians and business people were possibly implicated in a graft scheme that Zavascki was investigating.\n\nFinal Investigation Results \nOn 22.01.2018, the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos, CENIPA) presented their final report. The conclusion was that there was no shortage of kerosene. Apparently the accident was caused by three major factors:\n Bad visual climate conditions. At the time of the accident the horizontal visibility was 1500 meters and the rainfall was 25 mm/h.\n Cultural practices of the pilots: the investigations found that several pilots who fly in this region rely heavily on their experience and don't follow strict security procedures, including informal practices which inhibit an adequate analysis of the risks involved in this specific landing procedure.\n Spatial disorientation: as a consequence of the bad visibility, the flight curve executed, the low level above the sea and the stress of the pilot, he probably lost control of the plane.\n\nReferences\n\n|-\n\nJudges\n\n1948 births\n2017 deaths\nPeople from Faxinal dos Guedes\nBrazilian people of Polish descent\nSupreme Federal Court of Brazil justices\n21st-century judges\nVictims of aviation accidents or incidents in Brazil"
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[
"Maya civilization",
"Investigation of Maya civilization",
"Why was the Maya civilization being investigated?",
"The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire.",
"Was there anything bad that caused the investigation as well?",
"Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world."
] |
C_f3af675fc9294dec9e5f837a1620ba95_0
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How did people perceive the Maya civilization to be?
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How did people perceive the Maya civilization from the accounts of the agents of the Catholic Church?
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Maya civilization
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The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatan and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs. The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copan and in the Yucatan Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region. In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported. CANNOTANSWER
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In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population
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The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.
The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period () saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.
Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well as a ruler. Closed patronage systems were the dominant force in Maya politics, although how patronage affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown in size, reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed sophisticated art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.
Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways. Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, and structures specially aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. Theirs was the most advanced writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest known instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice.
Mesoamerica
The Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide. The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems. The set of traits shared by Mesoamerican cultures also included astronomical knowledge, blood and human sacrifice, and a cosmovision that viewed the world as divided into four divisions aligned with the cardinal directions, each with different attributes, and a three-way division of the world into the celestial realm, the earth, and the underworld.
By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the domestication of plants, a process that eventually led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. The diverse climate allowed for wide variation in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of maize, beans, and squashes. All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age technology; after c. 1000 AD copper, silver and gold were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the wheel, and possessed few domesticated animals; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe. Mesoamericans viewed the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities. The ritual Mesoamerican ballgame was widely played. Mesoamerica is linguistically diverse, with most languages falling within a small number of language families—the major families are Mayan, Mixe–Zoquean, Otomanguean, and Uto-Aztecan; there are also a number of smaller families and isolates. The Mesoamerican language area shares a number of important features, including widespread loanwords, and use of a vigesimal number system.
The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica, and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. During the Early Classic period, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that extended beyond the Maya area into the highlands of central Mexico. At around the same time, there was a strong Maya presence at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan. Centuries later, during the 9th century AD, murals at Cacaxtla, another site in the central Mexican highlands, were painted in a Maya style. This may have been either an effort to align itself with the still-powerful Maya area after the collapse of Teotihuacan and ensuing political fragmentation in the Mexican Highlands, or an attempt to express a distant Maya origin of the inhabitants. The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.
Geography
The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Most of the peninsula is formed by a vast plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline.
The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain; a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén. To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and a portion of the south of Yucatán state. Farther north, the vegetation turns to lower forest consisting of dense scrub.
The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-Columbian population centres of the highlands were located in the largest highland valleys, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southern highlands, a belt of volcanic cones runs parallel to the Pacific coast. The highlands extend northwards into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east.
History
The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture emerged. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of Maya chronology, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decline. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello (modern-day Belize) has been carbon dated to around 2600 BC. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period was characterised by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic. By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stelae. A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately . Although not as large, Tikal was already a significant city by around 350 BC.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is unknown.
Classic period (c. 250–900 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites.
During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. This intervention was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal in early 378. The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover. A year later, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ahiin I. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city in the Petén Basin. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other. At various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II of Calakmul captured Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. Yuknoom Chʼeen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal. He thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 695 to 738. His reign ended catastrophically when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and was decapitated in a public ritual. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by 300. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.
Classic Maya collapse
During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased activity. Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.
Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This only served to exacerbate systemic problems. By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of rulership. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities. Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. One by one, cities stopped sculpting dated monuments; the last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.
Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD)
Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, because many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths. Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of Classic Period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.
The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding Classic Period. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years. Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by the natural terrain. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom. The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the other members served him as advisors.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which ended only shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces. During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in internal sociopolitical organization. On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states. The Kʼicheʼ had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ.
Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 AD)
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico; they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. The Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. Good relations did not last, due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months later. This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525. Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546. This left only the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent. In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.
Persistence of Maya culture
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life. The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be practised. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times, the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, despite vigorous efforts by Catholic missionaries. The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas, and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.
Investigation of Maya civilization
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at Christianization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region.
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.
Politics
Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the entire Maya cultural area into a single state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relationships with each other and were engaged in a complex web of rivalries, periods of dominance or submission, vassalage, and alliances. At times, different polities achieved regional dominance, such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal. The first reliably evidenced polities formed in the Maya lowlands in the 9th century BC.
During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical form, where elite ideology justified the ruler's authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. The divine king was the centre of political power, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, judicial, and military functions of the polity. The divine authority invested within the ruler was such that the king was able to mobilize both the aristocracy and commoners in executing huge infrastructure projects, apparently with no police force or standing army. Some polities engaged in a strategy of increasing administration, and filling administrative posts with loyal supporters rather than blood relatives. Within a polity, mid-ranking population centres would have played a key role in managing resources and internal conflict.
The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of dominance over other large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other cases, loose alliance networks were formed around a dominant city. Border settlements, usually located about halfway between neighbouring capitals, often switched allegiance over the course of their history, and at times acted independently. Dominant capitals exacted tribute in the form of luxury items from subjugated population centres. Political power was reinforced by military power, and the capture and humiliation of enemy warriors played an important part in elite culture. An overriding sense of pride and honour among the warrior aristocracy could lead to extended feuds and vendettas, which caused political instability and the fragmentation of polities.
Society
From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, various sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political organization became increasingly complex. By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex web of political hierarchies, the wealthy segment of society multiplied. A middle class may have developed that included artisans, low ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, labourers, and slaves. According to indigenous histories, land was held communally by noble houses or clans. Such clans held that the land was the property of the clan ancestors, and such ties between the land and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds.
King and court
Classic Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god, whose gift of maize was the basis of Mesoamerican civilization. Maya royal succession was patrilineal, and royal power only passed to queens when doing otherwise would result in the extinction of the dynasty. Typically, power was passed to the eldest son. A young prince was called a chʼok ("youth"), although this word later came to refer to nobility in general. The royal heir was called bʼaah chʼok ("head youth"). Various points in the young prince's childhood were marked by ritual; the most important was a bloodletting ceremony at age five or six years. Although being of the royal bloodline was of utmost importance, the heir also had to be a successful war leader, as demonstrated by taking of captives. The enthronement of a new king was a highly elaborate ceremony, involving a series of separate acts that included enthronement upon a jaguar-skin cushion, human sacrifice, and receiving the symbols of royal power, such as a headband bearing a jade representation of the so-called "jester god", an elaborate headdress adorned with quetzal feathers, and a sceptre representing the god Kʼawiil.
Maya political administration, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives. Officials are referred to as being "owned" by their sponsor, and this relationship continued even after the death of the sponsor. The Maya royal court was a vibrant and dynamic political institution. There was no universal structure for the Maya royal court, instead each polity formed a royal court that was suited to its own individual context. A number of royal and noble titles have been identified by epigraphers translating Classic Maya inscriptions. Ajaw is usually translated as "lord" or "king". In the Early Classic, an ajaw was the ruler of a city. Later, with increasing social complexity, the ajaw was a member of the ruling class and a major city could have more than one, each ruling over different districts. Paramount rulers distinguished themselves from the extended nobility by prefixing the word kʼuhul to their ajaw title. A kʼuhul ajaw was "divine lord", originally confined to the kings of the most prestigious and ancient royal lines. Kalomte was a royal title, whose exact meaning is not yet deciphered, but it was held only by the most powerful kings of the strongest dynasties. It indicated an overlord, or high king, and the title was only in use during the Classic period. By the Late Classic, the absolute power of the kʼuhul ajaw had weakened, and the political system had diversified to include a wider aristocracy, that by this time may well have expanded disproportionately.
A sajal was ranked below the ajaw, and indicated a subservient lord. A sajal would be lord of a second- or third-tier site, answering to an ajaw, who may himself have been subservient to a kalomte. A sajal would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the sajal title to warfare; they are often mentioned as the holders of war captives. Sajal meant "feared one". The titles of ah tzʼihb and ah chʼul hun are both related to scribes. The ah tzʼihb was a royal scribe, usually a member of the royal family; the ah chʼul hun was the Keeper of the Holy Books, a title that is closely associated with the ajaw title, indicating that an ajaw always held the ah chʼul hun title simultaneously. Other courtly titles, the functions of which are not well understood, were yajaw kʼahk''' ("Lord of Fire"), tiʼhuun and ti'sakhuun. These last two may be variations on the same title, and Mark Zender has suggested that the holder of this title may have been the spokesman for the ruler. Courtly titles are overwhelmingly male-oriented, and in those relatively rare occasions where they are applied to a woman, they appear to be used as honorifics for female royalty. Titled elites were often associated with particular structures in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Classic period cities, indicating that such office holders either owned that structure, or that the structure was an important focus for their activities. A lakam, or standard-bearer, was possibly the only non-elite post-holder in the royal court. The lakam was only found in larger sites, and they appear to have been responsible for the taxation of local districts.
Different factions may have existed in the royal court. The kʼuhul ahaw and his household would have formed the central power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior aristocracy, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have formed an additional faction. Rivalry between different factions would have led to dynamic political institutions as compromises and disagreements were played out. In such a setting, public performance was vital. Such performances included ritual dances, presentation of war captives, offerings of tribute, human sacrifice, and religious ritual.
Commoners
Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90% of the population, but relatively little is known about them. Their houses were generally constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little trace in the archaeological record. Some commoner dwellings were raised on low platforms, and these can be identified, but an unknown quantity of commoner houses were not. Such low-status dwellings can only be detected by extensive remote-sensing surveys of apparently empty terrain. The range of commoners was broad; it consisted of everyone not of noble birth, and therefore included everyone from the poorest farmers to wealthy craftsmen and commoners appointed to bureaucratic positions. Commoners engaged in essential production activities, including that of products destined for use by the elite, such as cotton and cacao, as well as subsistence crops for their own use, and utilitarian items such as ceramics and stone tools. Commoners took part in warfare, and could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. Commoners paid taxes to the elite in the form of staple goods such as maize, flour and game. It is likely that hard-working commoners who displayed exceptional skills and initiative could become influential members of Maya society.
Warfare
Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. Military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the control of trade routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy state. Little is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or training. Warfare is depicted in Maya art from the Classic period, and wars and victories are mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Unfortunately, the inscriptions do not provide information upon the causes of war, or the form it took. In the 8th–9th centuries, intensive warfare resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén. The rapid abandonment of Aguateca by its inhabitants has provided a rare opportunity to examine the remains of Maya weaponry in situ. Aguateca was stormed by unknown enemies around 810 AD, who overcame its formidable defences and burned the royal palace. The elite inhabitants of the city either fled or were captured, and never returned to collect their abandoned property. The inhabitants of the periphery abandoned the site soon after. This is an example of intensive warfare carried out by an enemy in order to eliminate a Maya state, rather than subjugate it. Research at Aguateca indicated that Classic period warriors were primarily members of the elite.
From as early as the Preclassic period, the ruler of a Maya polity was expected to be a distinguished war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the Classic period, such trophy heads no longer appeared on the king's belt, but Classic period kings are frequently depicted standing over humiliated war captives. Right up to the end of the Postclassic period, Maya kings led as war captains. Maya inscriptions from the Classic show that a defeated king could be captured, tortured, and sacrificed. The Spanish recorded that Maya leaders kept track of troop movements in painted books.
The outcome of a successful military campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The captured nobles and their families could be imprisoned, or sacrificed. At the least severe end of the scale, the defeated polity would be obliged to pay tribute to the victor.
Warriors
During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specialised knowledge inherent in the particular military role was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders. There were also units of full-time mercenaries who followed permanent leaders. Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were primarily farmers; the needs of their crops usually came before warfare. Maya warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder.
There is some evidence from the Classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare ruling queens. By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in battle.
Weapons
The atlatl (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic. This was a stick with a notched end to hold a dart or javelin. The stick was used to launch the missile with more force and accuracy than could be accomplished by simply hurling it with the arm alone. Evidence in the form of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. Commoners used blowguns in war, which also served as their hunting weapon. The bow and arrow is another weapon that was used by the ancient Maya for both war and hunting. Although present in the Maya region during the Classic period, its use as a weapon of war was not favoured; it did not become a common weapon until the Postclassic. The Contact period Maya also used two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl. Maya warriors wore body armour in the form of quilted cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armour compared favourably to the steel armour worn by the Spanish when they conquered the region. Warriors bore wooden or animal hide shields decorated with feathers and animal skins.
Trade
Trade was a key component of Maya society, and in the development of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most important usually controlled access to vital trade goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make the textiles to be traded throughout Mesoamerica. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of salt. In the Postclassic, the Maya engaged in a flourishing slave trade with wider Mesoamerica.
The Maya engaged in long-distance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an Early Classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, trade routes particularly focused on central Mexico and the Gulf coast. In the Early Classic, Chichen Itza was at the hub of an extensive trade network that imported gold discs from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Long-distance trade of both luxury and utilitarian goods was probably controlled by the royal family. Prestige goods obtained by trade were used both for consumption by the city's ruler, and as luxury gifts to consolidate the loyalty of vassals and allies.
Trade routes not only supplied physical goods, they facilitated the movement of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. Shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in the Maya region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Preclassic Maya civilization, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic collapse. Even the Spanish Conquest did not immediately terminate all Maya trading activity; for example, the Contact period Manche Chʼol traded the prestige crops of cacao, annatto and vanilla into colonial Verapaz.
Merchants
Little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trading expeditions. The majority of traders were middle class, but were largely engaged in local and regional trade rather than the prestigious long-distance trading that was the preserve of the elite. The travelling of merchants into dangerous foreign territory was likened to a passage through the underworld; the patron deities of merchants were two underworld gods carrying backpacks. When merchants travelled, they painted themselves black, like their patron gods, and went heavily armed.
The Maya had no pack animals, so all trade goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland; if the trade route followed a river or the coast, then goods were transported in canoes. A substantial Maya trading canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. It was made from a large hollowed-out tree trunk and had a palm-covered canopy. The canoe was broad and was powered by 25 rowers. Trade goods carried included cacao, obsidian, ceramics, textiles, food and drink for the crew, and copper bells and axes. Cacao was used as currency (although not exclusively), and its value was such that counterfeiting occurred by removing the flesh from the pod, and stuffing it with dirt or avocado rind.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces are difficult to identify archaeologically. However, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the region. At some Classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scattered stones as the permanent foundations of market stalls. A 2007 study analysed soils from a modern Guatemalan market and compared the results with those obtained from analysis at a proposed ancient market at Chunchucmil. Unusually high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites indicated similar food production and vegetable sales activity. The calculated density of market stalls at Chunchucmil strongly suggests that a thriving market economy already existed in the Early Classic. Archaeologists have tentatively identified marketplaces at an increasing number of Maya cities by means of a combination of archaeology and soil analysis. When the Spanish arrived, Postclassic cities in the highlands had markets in permanent plazas, with officials on hand to settle disputes, enforce rules, and collect taxes.
Art
Maya art is essentially the art of the royal court. It is almost exclusively concerned with the Maya elite and their world. Maya art was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents only a small proportion of the art that the Maya created, it represents a wider variety of subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. Maya art has many regional styles, and is unique in the ancient Americas in bearing narrative text. The finest surviving Maya art dates to the Late Classic period.
The Maya exhibited a preference for the colour green or blue-green, and used the same word for the colours blue and green. Correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green jade, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tesserae and beads, to carved heads weighing . The Maya nobility practised dental modification, and some lords wore encrusted jade in their teeth. Mosaic funerary masks could also be fashioned from jade, such as that of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque.
Maya stone sculpture emerged into the archaeological record as a fully developed tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. Because of the biodegradability of wood, the corpus of Maya woodwork has almost entirely disappeared. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include three-dimensional sculptures, and hieroglyphic panels. Stone Maya stelae are widespread in city sites, often paired with low, circular stones referred to as altars in the literature. Stone sculpture also took other forms, such as the limestone relief panels at Palenque and Piedras Negras. At Yaxchilan, Dos Pilas, Copán, and other sites, stone stairways were decorated with sculpture. The hieroglyphic stairway at Copán comprises the longest surviving Maya hieroglyphic text, and consists of 2,200 individual glyphs.
The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall, and the three-dimensional form was built up using small stones. Finally, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form; human body forms were first modelled in stucco, with their costumes added afterwards. The final stucco sculpture was then brightly painted. Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic, and such decoration continued into the Classic period.
The Maya had a long tradition of mural painting; rich polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Walls were coated with plaster, and polychrome designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic tombs painted in cream, red, and black have been excavated at Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal. Among the best preserved murals are a full-size series of Late Classic paintings at Bonampak.
Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. They were technically very challenging to produce, requiring considerable skill on the part of the artisan. Large obsidian eccentrics can measure over in length. Their actual form varies considerably but they generally depict human, animal and geometric forms associated with Maya religion. Eccentric flints show a great variety of forms, such as crescents, crosses, snakes, and scorpions. The largest and most elaborate examples display multiple human heads, with minor heads sometimes branching off from larger one.
Maya textiles are very poorly represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean region, it is likely that they were high-value items. A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best evidence for textile art is where they are represented in other media, such as painted murals or ceramics. Such secondary representations show the elite of the Maya court adorned with sumptuous cloths, generally these would have been cotton, but jaguar pelts and deer hides are also shown.
Ceramics are the most commonly surviving type of Maya art. The Maya had no knowledge of the potter's wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desired form. Maya pottery was not glazed, although it often had a fine finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay slips blended with minerals and coloured clays. Ancient Maya firing techniques have yet to be replicated. A quantity of extremely fine ceramic figurines have been excavated from Late Classic tombs on Jaina Island, in northern Yucatán. They stand from high and were hand modelled, with exquisite detail. The Ik-style polychrome ceramic corpus, including finely painted plates and cylindrical vessels, originated in Late Classic Motul de San José. It includes a set of features such as hieroglyphs painted in a pink or pale red colour and scenes with dancers wearing masks. One of the most distinctive features is the realistic representation of subjects as they appeared in life. The subject matter of the vessels includes courtly life from the Petén region in the 8th century AD, such as diplomatic meetings, feasting, bloodletting, scenes of warriors and the sacrifice of prisoners of war.
Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make small objects in gold, silver and copper. The Maya generally hammered sheet metal into objects such as beads, bells, and discs. In the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method to cast small metal pieces.
One poorly studied area of Maya folk art is graffiti. Additional graffiti, not part of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great quantity of graffiti has been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti was often inscribed haphazardly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a mix of crude, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period artistic conventions.
Architecture
The Maya produced a vast array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural legacy. Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences craft specialization in Maya society, centralised organization and the political means to mobilize a large workforce. It is estimated that a large elite residence at Copán required an estimated 10,686 man-days to build, which compares to 67-man-days for a commoner's hut. It is further estimated that 65% of the labour required to build the noble residence was used in the quarrying, transporting, and finishing of the stone used in construction, and 24% of the labour was required for the manufacture and application of limestone-based plaster. Altogether, it is estimated that two to three months were required for the construction of the residence for this single noble at Copán, using between 80 and 130 full-time labourers. A Classic-period city like Tikal was spread over , with an urban core covering . The labour required to build such a city was immense, running into many millions of man-days. The most massive structures ever erected by the Maya were built during the Preclassic period. Craft specialization would have required dedicated stonemasons and plasterers by the Late Preclassic, and would have required planners and architects.
Urban design
Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative centre surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes. The centres of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes separated from nearby residential areas by walls. These precincts contained pyramid temples and other monumental architecture dedicated to elite activities, such as basal platforms that supported administrative or elite residential complexes. Sculpted monuments were raised to record the deeds of the ruling dynasty. City centres also featured plazas, sacred ballcourts and buildings used for marketplaces and schools. Frequently causeways linked the centre to outlying areas of the city. Some of these classes of architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city, which served as sacred centres for non-royal lineages. The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential complexes housing wealthy lineages. The largest and richest of these elite compounds sometimes possessed sculpture and art of craftsmanship equal to that of royal art.
The ceremonial centre of the Maya city was where the ruling elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was also where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city centre, while commoners had their residences dispersed further away from the ceremonial centre. Residential units were built on top of stone platforms to raise them above the level of the rain season floodwaters.
Building materials and methods
The Maya built their cities with Neolithic technology; they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The exact type of stone used in masonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this also affected the building style. Across a broad swathe of the Maya area, limestone was immediately available. The local limestone is relatively soft when freshly cut, but hardens with exposure. There was great variety in the quality of limestone, with good-quality stone available in the Usumacinta region; in the northern Yucatán, the limestone used in construction was of relatively poor quality. Volcanic tuff was used at Copán, and nearby Quiriguá employed sandstone. In Comalcalco, where suitable stone was not available locally, fired bricks were employed. Limestone was burned at high temperatures in order to manufacture cement, plaster, and stucco. Lime-based cement was used to seal stonework in place, and stone blocks were fashioned using rope-and-water abrasion, and with obsidian tools. The Maya did not employ a functional wheel, so all loads were transported on litters, barges, or rolled on logs. Heavy loads were lifted with rope, but probably without employing pulleys.
Wood was used for beams, and for lintels, even in masonry structures. Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was also applied; this consisted of mud strengthened with straw and was applied as a coating over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood and thatch, adobe was used throughout Maya history, even after the development of masonry structures. In the southern Maya area, adobe was employed in monumental architecture when no suitable stone was locally available.
Principal construction types
The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, sacbeob (causeways), patios and plazas. Some cities also possessed extensive hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagery. Many buildings were adorned with sculpture or painted stucco reliefs.
Palaces and acropoleis
These complexes were usually located in the site core, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom range structure. The term acropolis, in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite residential compounds. They generally extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof combs. Rooms often had stone benches, used for sleeping, and holes indicate where curtains once hung. Large palaces, such as at Palenque, could be fitted with a water supply, and sweat baths were often found within the complex, or nearby. During the Early Classic, rulers were sometimes buried underneath the acropolis complex. Some rooms in palaces were true throne rooms; in the royal palace of Palenque there were a number of throne rooms that were used for important events, including the inauguration of new kings.
Palaces are usually arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards; some examples are adorned with sculpture. Some palaces possess associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant evidence that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and that a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal receptions, and important rituals.
Pyramids and temples
Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic texts as kʼuh nah, meaning "god's house". Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon low platforms. By the Late Preclassic period, their walls were of stone, and the development of the corbel arch allowed stone roofs to replace thatch. By the Classic period, temple roofs were being topped with roof combs that extended the height of the temple and served as a foundation for monumental art. The temple shrines contained between one and three rooms, and were dedicated to important deities. Such a deity might be one of the patron gods of the city, or a deified ancestor. In general, freestanding pyramids were shrines honouring powerful ancestors.
E-Groups and observatories
The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. The Lost World complex at Tikal started out as an E-Group built towards the end of the Middle Preclassic. Due to its nature, the basic layout of an E-Group was constant. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza; it was usually a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three small temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes. E-Groups were raised across the central and southern Maya area for over a millennium; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their function may have been symbolic.
As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomical bodies, including the planet Venus, and various constellations. The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level edifice, with a conical superstructure. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. At Copán, a pair of stelae were raised to mark the position of the setting sun at the equinoxes.
Triadic pyramids
Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Temple IV, the largest pyramid at Tikal. The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the central plaza on top of the basal platform. No securely established forerunners of Triadic Groups are known, but they may have developed from the eastern range building of E-Group complexes. The triadic form was the predominant architectural form in the Petén region during the Late Preclassic. Examples of triadic pyramids are known from as many as 88 archaeological sites. At Nakbe, there are at least a dozen examples of triadic complexes and the four largest structures in the city are triadic in nature. At El Mirador there are probably as many as 36 triadic structures. Examples of the triadic form are even known from Dzibilchaltun in the far north of the Yucatán Peninsula, and Qʼumarkaj in the Highlands of Guatemala. The triadic pyramid remained a popular architectural form for centuries after the first examples were built; it continued in use into the Classic Period, with later examples being found at Uaxactun, Caracol, Seibal, Nakum, Tikal and Palenque. The Qʼumarkaj example is the only one that has been dated to the Postclassic Period. The triple-temple form of the triadic pyramid appears to be related to Maya mythology.
Ballcourts
The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the Classic period, the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. By the time of Spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Highlands, at cities such as Qʼumarkaj and Iximche. Throughout Maya history, ballcourts maintained a characteristic form consisting of an ɪ shape, with a central playing area terminating in two transverse end zones. The central playing area usually measures between long, and is flanked by two lateral structures that stood up to high. The lateral platforms often supported structures that may have held privileged spectators. The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is the largest in Mesoamerica, measuring long by wide, with walls standing high.
Regional architectural styles
Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style. Such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural styles.
Central Petén
The central Petén style of architecture is modelled after the great city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. One of the finest examples of Central Petén style architecture is Tikal Temple I. Examples of sites in the Central Petén style include Altun Ha, Calakmul, Holmul, Ixkun, Nakum, Naranjo, and Yaxhá.
Puuc
The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened their corbel arches; this allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions of long-nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca, outside the Maya area. In contrast, the lower façades were left undecorated. Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites.
Chenes
The Chenes style is very similar to the Puuc style, but predates the use of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural realm. Some buildings contained interior stairways that accessed different levels. The Chenes style is most commonly encountered in the southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula, although individual buildings in the style can be found elsewhere in the peninsula. Examples of Chenes sites include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Tabasqueño.
Río Bec
The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, and also features elements of the Central Petén style, such as prominent roof combs. Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking interior rooms, with steep, almost vertical, stairways and false doors. These towers were adorned with deity masks, and were built to impress the viewer, rather than serve any practical function. Such false towers are only found in the Río Bec region. Río Bec sites include Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Xpuhil.
Usumacinta
The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal structures. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. Many sites erected stelae, but Palenque instead developed finely sculpted panelling to decorate its buildings.
Language
Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. Proto-Mayan diverged during the Preclassic period to form the major Mayan language groups that make up the family, including Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. These groups diverged further during the pre-Columbian era to form over 30 languages that have survived into modern times. The language of almost all Classic Maya texts over the entire Maya area has been identified as Chʼolan; Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, also appears to be in, or related to, Chʼolan. The use of Chʼolan as the language of Maya text does not necessarily indicate that it was the language commonly used by the local populace – it may have been equivalent to Medieval Latin as a ritual or prestige language. Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige language of the Classic Maya elite, used in inter-polity communication such as diplomacy and trade. By the Postclassic period, Yucatec was also being written in Maya codices alongside Chʼolan.
Writing and literacy
The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. It was the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system of more than a dozen systems that developed in Mesoamerica. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 300–200 BC, in the Petén Basin. However, this is preceded by several other Mesoamerican writing systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts. Early Maya script had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the late 1st century AD, or early 2nd century. Similarities between the Isthmian script and Early Maya script of the Pacific coast suggest that the two systems developed in tandem. By about AD 250, the Maya script had become a more formalised and consistent writing system.
The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity is disputed. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed. In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe stated:
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. Other media include the aforementioned codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a variety of materials, including bone, shell, obsidian, and jade.
Writing system
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing) is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words.Tanaka 2008, pp. 30, 53. Among the writing systems of the Pre-Columbian New World, Maya script most closely represents the spoken language. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) were phonetic.
The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics. The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language name amatl used to produce codices.Tobin 2001. The skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the Spanish conquest. The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society.
The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts, and ongoing work continues to further illuminate the content.Kettunen & Helmke 2014, p. 9.
Logosyllabic script
The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern. For ease of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. Thus, any glyph block in a piece of text can be identified. C4 would be third block counting from the left, and the fourth block counting downwards. If a monument or artefact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, rather they continue in the alphabetic series; if there are more than 26 columns, the labelling continues as A', B', etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of text.
Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left (block A1), continues to the second block in the double-column (B1), then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column (A2), and thus continues in zig-zag fashion. Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top left of the next double column. Where an inscription ends in a single (unpaired) column, this final column is usually read straight downwards.
Individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or phonetic sign. Some main signs are abstract, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are "head variants", personifications of the word they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, usually attached to a main sign, although a block may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of speech elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. Small sections of a main sign could be used to represent the whole main sign, and Maya scribes were highly inventive in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements.
Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from pliable hair. A Classic period sculpture from Copán, Honduras, depicts a scribe with an inkpot fashioned from a conch shell. Excavations at Aguateca uncovered a number of scribal artefacts from the residences of elite status scribes, including palettes and mortars and pestles.
Scribes and literacy
Commoners were illiterate; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the aristocracy could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. Maya scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning "one who writes or paints". There were probably scribal schools where members of the aristocracy were taught to write. Scribal activity is identifiable in the archaeological record; Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I, king of Tikal, was interred with his paint pot. Some junior members of the Copán royal dynasty have also been found buried with their writing implements. A palace at Copán has been identified as that of a noble lineage of scribes; it is decorated with sculpture that includes figures holding ink pots.
Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpture. Usually, only a single scribe signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpture; eight sculptors signed one stela at Piedras Negras. However, most works remained unsigned by their artists.
Mathematics
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide, although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system. The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD. In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish.
The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero; during the Classic period other glyphs were used. The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 used repetitions of these symbols. The value of a numeral was determined by its position; as a numeral shifted upwards, its basic value multiplied by twenty. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and so on. For example, the number 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next level up, and two dots on the next level after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. Simple addition could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column.
Calendar
The Maya calendrical system, in common with other Mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period. However, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with great accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World; for example, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the Julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was central to Maya religious practices. The calendar combined a non-repeating Long Count with three interlocking cycles, each measuring a progressively larger period. These were the 260-day tzolkʼin, the 365-day haabʼ, and the 52-year Calendar Round, resulting from the combination of the tzolkʼin with the haab'. There were also additional calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god Kʼawiil.
The basic unit in the Maya calendar was one day, or kʼin, and 20 kʼin grouped to form a winal. The next unit, instead of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a rough approximation of the solar year (hence producing 360 days). This 360-day year was called a tun. Each succeeding level of multiplication followed the vigesimal system.
The 260-day tzolkʼin provided the basic cycle of Maya ceremony, and the foundations of Maya prophecy. No astronomical basis for this count has been proved, and it may be that the 260-day count is based on the human gestation period. This is reinforced by the use of the tzolkʼin to record dates of birth, and provide corresponding prophecy. The 260-day cycle repeated a series of 20-day-names, with a number from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the cycle a particular day occurred.
The 365-day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named 20-day winals, completed by the addition of a 5-day period called the wayeb. The wayeb was considered to be a dangerous time, when the barriers between the mortal and supernatural realms were broken, allowing malignant deities to cross over and interfere in human concerns. In a similar way to the tzʼolkin, the named winal would be prefixed by a number (from 0 to 19), in the case of the shorter wayeb period, the prefix numbers ran 0 to 4. Since each day in the tzʼolkin had a name and number (e.g. 8 Ajaw), this would interlock with the haab, producing an additional number and name, to give any day a more complete designation, for example 8 Ajaw 13 Keh. Such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round. In most Mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit for measuring time.
As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start point. The Maya set the beginning of their calendar as the end of a previous cycle of bakʼtuns, equivalent to a day in 3114 BC. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the world in its current form. The Maya used the Long Count Calendar to fix any given day of the Calendar Round within their current great Piktun cycle consisting of either 20 bakʼtuns. There was some variation in the calendar, specifically texts in Palenque demonstrate that the piktun cycle that ended in 3114 BC had only 13 bakʼtuns, but others used a cycle of 13 + 20 bakʼtun in the current piktun. Additionally, there may have been some regional variation in how these exceptional cycles were managed.
A full long count date consisted of an introductory glyph followed by five glyphs counting off the number of bakʼtuns, katʼuns, tuns, winals, and kʼins since the start of the current creation. This would be followed by the tzʼolkin portion of the Calendar Round date, and after a number of intervening glyphs, the Long Count date would end with the Haab portion of the Calendar Round date.
Correlation of the Long Count calendar
Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic period. The Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. The most generally accepted correlation is the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation. This equates the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the Gregorian date of 12 November 1539. Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube argue for a two-day shift from the standard GMT correlation. The Spinden Correlation would shift the Long Count dates back by 260 years; it also accords with the documentary evidence, and is better suited to the archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, but presents problems with the rest of the Maya region. The George Vaillant Correlation would shift all Maya dates 260 years later, and would greatly shorten the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dating of dated wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation.
Astronomy
The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was mainly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it also had some practical applications, such as providing aid in crop planting and harvesting. The priesthood refined observations and recorded eclipses of the sun and moon, and movements of Venus and the stars; these were measured against dated events in the past, on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the same astronomical conditions prevailed. Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomical observations using the naked eye, assisted by crossed sticks as a sighting device. Analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that, at the time of European contact, the Maya had recorded eclipse tables, calendars, and astronomical knowledge that was more accurate at that time than comparable knowledge in Europe.
The Maya measured the 584-day Venus cycle with an error of just two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight 365-day haab calendrical cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins. For the Maya, the heliacal rising of Venus was associated with destruction and upheaval. Venus was closely associated with warfare, and the hieroglyph meaning "war" incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet. Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus' path. Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rising of Venus, and would also sacrifice important captives to coincide with such conjunctions.
Solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be especially dangerous events that could bring catastrophe upon the world. In the Dresden Codex, a solar eclipse is represented by a serpent devouring the kʼin ("day") hieroglyph. Eclipses were interpreted as the sun or moon being bitten, and lunar tables were recorded in order that the Maya might be able to predict them, and perform the appropriate ceremonies to ward off disaster.
Religion and mythology
In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural realm inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. At the core of Maya religious practice was the worship of deceased ancestors, who would intercede for their living descendants in dealings with the supernatural realm. The earliest intermediaries between humans and the supernatural were shamans. Maya ritual included the use of hallucinogens for chilan, oracular priests. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water lilies, which are hallucinogenic in high doses. As the Maya civilization developed, the ruling elite codified the Maya world view into religious cults that justified their right to rule. In the Late Preclassic, this process culminated in the institution of the divine king, the kʼuhul ajaw, endowed with ultimate political and religious power.
The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the mortal world in between. Each level had four cardinal directions associated with a different colour; north was white, east was red, south was yellow, and west was black. Major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours.
Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the family. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a prominent male ancestor would be emphasised, often with a household shrine. As Maya society developed, and the elite became more powerful, Maya royalty developed their household shrines into the great pyramids that held the tombs of their ancestors.
Belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and influenced every aspect of it, from the simplest day-to-day activities such as food preparation, to trade, politics, and elite activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. The Maya priesthood was a closed group, drawing its members from the established elite; by the Early Classic they were recording increasingly complex ritual information in their hieroglyphic books, including astronomical observations, calendrical cycles, history and mythology. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feasting, bloodletting, incense burning, music, ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, human sacrifice. During the Classic period, the Maya ruler was the high priest, and the direct conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly likely that, among commoners, shamanism continued in parallel to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious emphasis had changed; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more frequent recourse to human sacrifice.
Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques. One important, though incomplete, resource is physical evidence, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. Maya art, architecture, and writing are another resource, and these can be combined with ethnographic sources, including records of Maya religious practices made by the Spanish during the conquest.
Human sacrifice
Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour.
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, perhaps in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the death gods. In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days later ritually decapitated him. Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled. Another myth associated with decapitation was that of the Hero Twins recounted in the Popol Vuh: playing a ballgame against the gods of the underworld, the heroes achieved victory, but one of each pair of twins was decapitated by their opponents.
During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. In one ritual, the corpse would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet, and the officiating priest would then dress himself in the skin of the sacrificial victim and perform a ritual dance symbolizing the rebirth of life. Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.
Deities
The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad interpretation of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. The Maya interpretation of deities was closely tied to the calendar, astronomy, and their cosmology. The importance of a deity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of celestial bodies. The priestly interpretation of astronomical records and books was therefore crucial, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual propitiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offering. Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. They also had a dual day-night/life-death aspect.
Itzamna was the creator god, but he also embodied the cosmos, and was simultaneously a sun god; Kʼinich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its journey through the underworld. The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the mortal realm; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the same function. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood. The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains. The nine lords of the night each governed one of the underworld realms. Other important deities included the moon goddess, the maize god, and the Hero Twins.
The Popol Vuh was written in the Latin script in early colonial times, and was probably transcribed from a hieroglyphic book by an unknown Kʼicheʼ Maya nobleman. It is one of the most outstanding works of indigenous literature in the Americas. The Popul Vuh recounts the mythical creation of the world, the legend of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ kingdom. Deities recorded in the Popul Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, believed by some to be the Kʼicheʼ maize god, and a triad of deities led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil, and also including the moon goddess Awilix, and the mountain god Jacawitz.
In common with other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered serpent deities. Such worship was rare during the Classic period, but by the Postclassic the feathered serpent had spread to both the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands. In Yucatán, the feathered serpent deity was Kukulkan, among the Kʼicheʼ it was Qʼuqʼumatz. Kukulkan had his origins in the Classic period War Serpent, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan'', and has also been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in these earlier Maya traditions, the worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of central Mexico. Likewise, Qʼuqʼumatz had a composite origin, combining the attributes of Mexican Quetzalcoatl with aspects of the Classic period Itzamna.
Agriculture
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food, but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, intensive gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs. Contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya in areas that were densely populated in pre-Columbian times, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that maize, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide variety of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved a record of foodstuffs stored in Maya homes, among them were chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were in the process of being ground, perhaps to produce cooking oil. In addition to basic foodstuffs, the Maya also cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was especially prized by the elite, who consumed chocolate beverages. Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into valuable textiles in order to be traded.
The Maya had few domestic animals; dogs were domesticated by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck by the Late Postclassic. Ocellated turkeys were unsuitable for domestication, but were rounded up in the wild and penned for fattening. All of these were used as food animals; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is possible that deer were also penned and fattened.
Maya sites
There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum. The Río Bec sites of the base of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, other than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Qʼumarkaj (also known as Utatlán). In the northern Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is generally difficult. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún. Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.
Museum collections
There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections. The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over 250 museums in its Maya Museum database, and the European Association of Mayanists lists just under 50 museums in Europe alone.
See also
Entheogenics and the Maya
Huastec civilization
Index of Mexico-related articles
Songs of Dzitbalche
References
Bibliography
Alt URL
Full list from FAMSI archived from the original on 2015-06-08.
Further reading
External links
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI)
Primary sources of Maya history – part one by Ronald A. Barnett
Mesoweb by Joel Skidmore.
Maya Map – A map of the Maya civilization.
Former monarchies of North America
History of Guatemala
History of Belize
History of Chiapas
History of El Salvador
History of Honduras
2nd-millennium BC establishments
1697 disestablishments in North America
Former countries in North America
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"Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization (2004), an archaeological book written about the ancient Maya civilization. It was written by Arthur Demarest, Ingram Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.\n\nThe book discusses the complex lifestyle and amazing political history of the Maya states, from the first to eighth centuries. It also gives an explanation of the mystery of the ninth-century abandonment of most of the great rainforest cities. It goes on to conclude that the Maya civilization has lessons for civilization today.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Book at Cambridge Library catalogue\n\n2004 non-fiction books\nMaya civilization\nAmerican history books\nMesoamerican studies books",
"The Southern Maya Area (SMA) is a part of Mesoamerica, long believed important to the rise of Maya civilization, the period that is also known as Preclassic Maya. It lies within a broad arc or cantilevered rectangle from Chiapa de Corzo, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the northwest due south to Izapa and Paso de la Amada, from Chiapa de Corzo southeast to Copán, Honduras, and from Copán south to Chalchuapa, El Salvador.\n\nThe Pacific Ocean forms the southern and western limits of the Southern Maya Area. Within this area and in addition to these sites are found the major centers of Kaminaljuyu, Takalik Abaj, Chocolá, El Sitio, El Jobo, La Blanca, Ujuxte, Palo Gordo, El Baúl, Cotzumalhuapa, Monte Alto, Semetabaj, El Portón, Zacualpa, Zaculeu, Balberta, and La Montana; many of these sites are believed to have been built and populated by speakers of Maya languages, and others by speakers of other Mesoamerican languages, including Xinca, Lenca, Mixe–Zoquean, and Pipil; accordingly, in consideration of the multilingual character of the Southern Maya Area, in many ways Southern \"Maya\" Area is a misnomer.\n\nMost of these centers developed to their apogees in the Preclassic period before declining or disappearing. In addition to these large sites, many Early Preclassic communities, found mostly along the Pacific Coast, bear witness to the seminal character of the Southern area; notably these include La Victoria, a site studied by Michael Coe that yielded the first secure ceramic sequence from early on in Preclassic times. Since Coe's work, John E. Clark and other scholars from the New World Archaeological Foundation have found, at Paso de la Amada and other sites, ceramics that refine Coe's sequence and deepen it in time, pushing it back to BC. This applies to the earliest nuclear centers, fine pottery, figurines, and other manifestations of the beginnings of complex society and culture in Mesoamerica. \n\nThe earliest pristine ballcourt and evidence of a ranked society (a rich child's burial), indicative of emerging social hierarchization, were found at Paso de la Amada. And nearby at La Blanca, archaeologists discovered a quatrefoil made of baked clay buried near Mound 1, one of the largest and earliest temple mounds in Mesoamerica, indicating an early fount of what later became core Maya ideology.\n\nTerminological and theoretical issues\nControversy remains about the origins of Maya civilization as scholars continue to search for and engage in debate about the roots or first pulses of what became an ancient civilization traditionally considered to have been one of the greatest of the world. Combined with the early frame of cultural development relative to elsewhere in Mesoamerica and given that the Southern area remains distinctly mysterious with respect to how and why complex societies developed as dramatically as they did, the Southern Maya Area is almost as much a theoretical construct as it is a geographical and temporal reality. This is because topics such as cultural evolution, complex societies, early urbanism, and the construction of (ancient) identity, all framed and discussed in highly abstract ways, necessarily are raised.\n\nIf the Southern Maya Area is a part of Mesoamerica delineated from the rest of Mesoamerica spatially, temporally and, in one specific sense – by the still unresolved question of its possibly crucial role in the origins of Maya civilization - one needs to understand that posing this large research question risks falling into ultimately meaningless, infinitely regressing arguments about how “origins” might be considered or defined – essentially arguments about qualitative or inevitably subjectively rendered entities or topics, giving way to questions such as, What is “Maya civilization”? What is “Maya”? What is “civilization”? What allows us to call this or that civilization “great”? One way to conceptualize the quandary of seeking first cause/s is to understand that such an effort leads to infinite regression unless a metaconcept is accepted which, in the case of Maya civilization, is whatever it is primordially that made “Maya” “Maya.” Another way is to focus on ahistorical processes - environmental circumscription, peer polity interaction, and other theories.\n\nDespite these seemingly terminologically pitfall-laden inquiries, the question of Maya origins is justified for professional focus and elaboration, since all historical topics are, by their nature, constituted not only by ascriptions weighting the given topic in importance and cast by this or that interpretation or interpretative context but also by “fact.” Of necessity, these kinds of questions are rooted in the history of scholarship about this or that topic, taking into account different or new emphases or de-emphases, usually generationally or paradigmatically determined. Accordingly, “Maya civilization” is both a reality - as John Lloyd Stephens first discovered - and a scholarly construct, with strands in the weave composed of actual patterns and “emergent” entities and characteristics but also of patterns and agentive decisions historically in the scholarly world, these, themselves, retroactively considered and reconsidered.\n\nThe Thermometer theory\n\nMaya scholarship long has considered the ancient Maya in a temporal and geographic sense to have come into being, thermometer-fashion – as things began to “warm up,” socially and culturally – at the “bottom,” that is, in Southern Mesoamerica, in the Early Preclassic period: events and processes coalesced on the Pacific coast of what is now Guatemala and southern Mexico and in the piedmont and highlands of Guatemala and in northern El Salvador, moved north in Classic period times to the Maya Lowlands of northern Guatemala and southern Chiapas, Mexico; and migrated still further north into Yucatán following the Maya “collapse” in the 10th century AD. Mayanists from the New World Archaeological Foundation as well as other institutions have pioneered the efforts to discover the radix of Maya civilization from work at such sites as Chiapa de Corzo and Izapa building on efforts by Michael Coe at La Victoria, on the southern Pacific coast of Mexico, and followed up by the work of scholars such as John E. Clark, Barbara Voorhies, Barbara Stark, Robert Sharer and others. Notable, as well, is the work of Franz Termer at Palo Gordo. Work by Carnegie archaeologists A. V. Kidder and Edwin M. Shook at Kaminaljuyu has been fundamental in moving attention to the origins of Maya civilization to the South. Since their work, many other sites have been identified and at which investigations have either been carried out or are contemplated in determining the role of the Southern area in the trajectory of Maya civilization.\n\nTwo “emergents,” linguistics and the Olmec\nThe notion of an aboriginal Maya stimulus – linguistic, cultural, and ethnic strands interweaving together from late in the Paleoindian or Archaic periods – derives primarily from reconstructions of Maya linguistics. Ironically, a non-Maya stimulus also is considered, the Olmec; as at Takalik Abaj, direct Olmec influence seems to have come to Chocolá, as the remarkable monument known as the \"Shook Panel\" was found some ten kilometers south of the site.\n\nBeyond these two “emergent” factors, processual archaeology continues to look at functionalist and highly theoretized aspects of social and cultural process, including egalitarian-to-hierarchical communities and other cultural evolutionary sequences, for example, those of Service and Fried, and of environment, “man-land interactions,” and zero-sum finite resource responses (e.g., “carrying capacity”).\n\nRough and sometimes illogically and erroneously inspired characterizations of social and cultural development derived from evolutionary biology threaten to muddy the discussion just as traditional yet persistent cultural historical characterizations leave many questions unanswered, given their emphasis on description as opposed to explanation.\n\nBy this token a theoretical dichotomy exists between advocates of autochthonous developments, that is, developments occurring from internal - often functionalist - processes, and those proposing that more fundamental in the creation of History have been native genius, diffusion, migrations, and so forth.\n\nHistorical linguists long have posed that a proto-Maya language had as its homeland the western highlands of southern Guatemala. While the issue remains somewhat controversial, no viable competing theory yet has been offered, although qualifications to the original view of Maya linguistic origin continue to be provided.\n\nAccordingly, since a language or language family may be considered a cultural universal, linguistics seemingly points to the Southern area as the aboriginal home of the Maya.\n\nAnother theorized stimulus, forerunner, or “mother” to the Maya, at least with regard to certain hallmark traits of Maya civilization – writing and the Maya calendar – is the Olmec phenomenon. Archaeology does tend to support a movement through time and space, west from the Olmec heartland in Tabasco and Veracruz, Mexico; across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, down the Pacific coast of Mexico and Guatemala, and east from the coast through the piedmont - where Chocolá and Takalik Abaj are found - and highlands beyond Kaminaljuyu. However, such a scenario depends on how much or little one attributes a formal unity to Olmec civilization.\n\nCompeting theories\nDiscussions of the Southern Maya area as important if not essential to the rise of Classic Maya civilization and must be related to discussions of the putative primacy of developments in the Northern Petén, and vice versa. Fundamentally, the debate is between those who put more weight on the temporal priority of complex cultural and social achievements in the South and those who favor northern Guatemala for these developments. Large Preclassic cities with structures boasting the most massive scale in the ancient Maya world include El Mirador, Nakbe, Tintal, Wakna, and others from the Mirador Basin, north of the greatest Maya city in Classic times, Tikal. Without doubt, these cities represent an extraordinary development in Maya civilization; however, their dating remains essentially Late Preclassic, and scant evidence is found of two of the hallmark traits of Classic Maya civilization: upright carved shaft stones called stelae, which marked the birth of the cult of kingship, and hieroglyphic writing. While stelae and hieroglyphic writing from the Preclassic abound in the Southern area, proponents of the Lowlands, i.e., the Mirador Basin, as the origin locus for Maya civilization assert that the first Maya societies to reach the level of the state, accordingly, base their claim fundamentally on size and scale of construction, as well as on myriad evidence of distinct connections between these northern cities including even the sacbeob, the “white ways” or “high roads” that networked among them.\n\nSome of the debates between Southern Maya area scholars and what might be called the “autochthonous school” of Maya scholarship – those advocating a unique or primary role to antecedents to Classic Maya civilization in the Northern Petén – are based as well on highly theoritized accounts of expansion of Maya peoples as interpreted by changing ceramic spheres. While some evidence supports the “Chicanel Expansion,” one does not find Chicanel pottery in the southern Highlands nor, indeed, in any significant quantity anywhere in the Southern area in the Preclassic\n\nWhile evidence such as size and scale of site and of individual structures (e.g., El Tigre at El Mirador) is compelling, developments in the Southern area remain resilient against conclusive consensus. The temporal priority of plentiful as opposed to scant evidence of stelae and writing in the Preclassic south compared to the Mirador Basin must be based principally on absolute dating, although this problem, itself, becomes difficult to resolve when events are dated by 14C (“calibrated” or “uncalibrated”) – still the most widely used absolute dating method in Mesoamerica – and which cannot be rendered more fine-grained than ca. 100 years and often is less precise. Accordingly, the debate about temporal priority will remain unresolved unless and until other absolute dating methods such as archaeomagnetics and luminescence (hitherto, thermoluminescence), are applied more widely, or Long Count-dated texts, e.g., Cycle 6, are found earlier than those found thus far, which are Cycle 7. While relative dating methods – principally ceramic – are highly reliable, having been cross-referenced from many sites, and with sophisticated statistics available, unless anchored to absolute dates, these remain uncertain especially when the scholar's focus is on the early periods of development in Mesoamerica.\n\n\"High Traits\" of the Southern Maya\n“High traits” of ancient Maya civilization prominently include hieroglyphic writing and the Maya Long Count calendar, with the former constituting one of a handful, worldwide, of pristine inventions of writing and the latter comprising the invention of the concept of zero and other mathematical achievements unequalled at the time in Europe as well as extraordinary achievements in astronomy. Beginning in the Late Preclassic period and proliferating exponentially during the Classic Maya period, Maya texts are dateable because correlation can be made between Maya Long Count dates and the Gregorian calendar. Accordingly, with great certainty we can speak of the Classic period as framed by the large-scale appearance throughout the Maya world by the third to fourth century AD of dated texts on carved monuments, and by the disappearance of these texts on monuments by the 10th century AD. (Consensual acceptance of one correlation between the Maya Long Count and the Gregorian calendar – known as the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson or \"G.M.T.” correlation – has come only fairly recently. In this correlation, a beginning date of August 12, 3114 BC, gives the Maya calendar its arrow-of-time character, just as the 0 date for the Christian calendar divides Western time-keeping into an absolute divide by virtue of which an infinite counting of both past and future time is permitted as opposed to “cyclical time.”)\n\nAs mentioned, one of the arguments in favor of the Southern area as “more seminal” to those of the Petén is based on the presently inarguable fact that by far the greatest number of Preclassic hieroglyphic texts are found in the South; for example, numerous texts were carved on monuments from Kaminaljuyu, the greatest city in the Southern area and one of the great ancient cities in world cultural patrimony. Several of the earliest calendrical texts, as well, are found in the South at, for example, Takalik Abaj and El Baúl, although the very earliest – by ca. 60 years – confirmed thus far are found at Chiapa de Corzo and Tres Zapotes, that is, from sites with an Olmec (or “epi-Olmec”) identity. Glyphs found at San Bartolo, in the Petén, may date to as early as 300 BC, but these texts are very short in length and do not bear Long Count or Calendar Round dates. Calendrical origins, themselves, from the most compelling evidence, must be attributed to a thin latitudinal band stretching across southern Guatemala, and including sites such as Chocolá and Takalik Abaj.\n\nIn addition to hieroglyphics and calendrical innovations, the Southern area is noted for sites that, early on in the trajectory of Mesoamerica civilization, can be characterized as fully urban, and also for the appearance of long-distance trade in such vital commodities as obsidian and cacao, for the first true cults of sacred rulership or kingship, for masterfully carved monumental art, and for a very complex ideology and religion, probably based on some primordial version of the Popol Vuh.\n\nWe are left with the developments in the South still attributable fundamentally to their own autochthonous emergence, excepting, as mentioned, the evidence of some kind of Olmec influence spreading east to west across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, south along the Pacific coast, and west to east through the Guatemalan piedmont to the highlands, at Kaminaljuyu, and then east still farther. This putative march of Olmec missionaries, warriors, and/or traders – a scenario really feasible only if one accepts the Cultura Madre concept of Olmec civilization as opposed to the primus inter pares argument and if one interprets artifacts as “Olmec” and not simply “Olmecoid” – conceivably would have been catalyzed by the threefold attractions of cacao, in Soconusco, Mexico; the Guatemalan piedmont, centrally in which lie Chocolá and Escuintla, Guatemala; obsidian, from enormous beds in the highlands, with Kaminaljuyu as the main beneficiary of trade in this “steel of the New World;\" and blue jade, hallmark of Olmec lore and treasure, from a great outcrop above the Motagua River east of Kaminaljuyu. That the Southern area originally constituted a truly astonishing source of material wealth, indeed a breadbasket, may have underlain the primordial appearance of cultural achievements such as writing, the calendar, kingship, masterful art, and complex religion, receives further support continuing through time in the Early Classic and evidence of interaction with Teotihuacan, the single greatest ancient city of Mesoamerica and the religious if not imperial capital for much of central Mexico, with hegemony extending far and wide. Such a profound material basis for the unique importance of the Southern area to civilizational developments is evidenced, as well, throughout the Classic period, with the appearance of the Cotzumalguapan culture – its sites ca. 60 kilometers east of Chocolá – and its emphasis on cacao and warfare, indicative of competition over this most highly prized commodity in Mesoamerica, and throughout the Postclassic, as ethnohistory records the enormous amounts of products, including cacao, exported from the South, a pattern that continued after the Conquest, with Spanish encomiendas still exploiting this vital resource and other agricultural products, and which constituted the beginning of the transformation of much of Guatemala into a vast farm growing cash-crops for export.\n\nReturning to the fact that \"Southern Maya Area\" risks being a misnomer, that the Southern Maya Area comprised a volatile mix of peoples, languages, and cultures with correspondingly dynamic interactions provides more support for the argument that the South took part in seminal developments and a vault upward socially and culturally to Classic Maya civilization, in a manner at least co-equal to the northern Petén.\n\nThe Early and Middle Classic: Chocolate Wars\nIt may be argued in favor of a greater unity in the Southern Maya Area than the ethnic and linguistic diversity might otherwise indicate simply by virtue of the fact that a “Preclassic collapse” occurred extending through much of the Southern Maya Area . In the Southern Maya Area, in times called Classic for the Maya in the Lowlands to the north, tantalizing evidence exists of an abhorrence of a vacuum in the materially very rich breadbasket of the Area – and, as mentioned, particularly of a continuation of what must have been an extraordinary intensively cultivated commodity of enormous importance in Mesoamerica, and the Maya, in cuisine, ideologically, and even as currency, cacao. In the Guatemalan piedmont, located not more than sixty kilometers east of Chocola, Cotzumalguapa, of Middle Classic trajectory, is renowned for carved stone sculpture intimately associating decapitation and other sacrifice with cacao, associations we must conclude are representative of fierce warfare over this commodity, and copious ethnohistory from early after the Spanish Conquest makes reference to “chiefs” and chiefdoms fighting over production and distribution of the chocolate bean and/or its processed forms.\n\nSee also\nOlmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures\nOlmec religion\n\nFootnotes\n\nReferences\nArnauld, M.-Charlotte, Alain Breton, Marie-France Fauvet-Berthelot and Juan Antonio Valdés, eds. (2003) Misceláneas...en honor a Alain Ichon. Centro Francés de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos/Asociación Tikal, Mexico and Guatemala\nBove, Frederick J. (1993) The Terminal Formative-Early Classic Transition. In University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology No. 6: The Balberta Project. The Terminal Formative-Early Classic Transition on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala; Frederick J. Bove, Sonia Medrano B., Brenda Lou P., and Bárbara Arroyo L., eds.; 177–194; University of Pittsburgh Department of Anthropology/Asociacion Tikal, Pittsburgh and Guatemala\nClark, John E. (1991) The Beginnings of Mesoamerica: Apologia for the Sononusco Early Formative. In The Formation of Complex Society in Southeastern Mesoamerica. William R. Fowler, ed.; 13–26; CRC Press, Boca Raton\nCoe, Michael D. (1961)\tLa Victoria, An Early Site on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol 53, Cambridge\nCoe, Michael D. (2005) The Maya. 7th ed. Thames and Hudson, London and New York\nFeinman, Gary M. and Joyce Marcus, eds. (1998) Archaic States. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe\nFowler, William R., ed. (1991) The Formation of Complex Society in Southeastern Mesoamerica. CRC Press, Boca Raton\nKaplan, Jonathan (2008) Hydraulics, Cacao, and Complex Developments at Preclassic Chocolá, Guatemala: Evidence and Implications. Latin American Antiquity 19(4):399-413\nKaplan, Jonathan (2011) Conclusion: The Southern Maya Region and the Problem of Unities. In The Southern Maya in the Late Preclassic: The Rise and Fall of an Early Mesoamerican Civilization. Michael W. Love and Jonathan Kaplan, eds.; 490–532. University Press of Colorado, Boulder\nKroeber, Alfred and Clyde C. Kluckhohn (1952) Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. Peabody Museum, Cambridge\nLove, Michael W. (2002) Early Complex Society in Pacific Guatemala: Settlements and Chronology of the Río Naranjo, Guatemala. New World Archaeological Foundation, Provo\nLove, Michael W. and Jonathan Kaplan, eds. (2011) The Southern Maya in the Late Preclassic: The Rise and Fall of an Early Mesoamerican Civilization. University Press of Colorado, Boulder\nLowe, Gareth W. (1977) The Mixe–Zoque as Competing Neighbors of the Early Lowland May. In The Origins of Maya Civilization; R. E. W. Adams, ed.; 197–248; School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series; University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque\nSharer, Robert J. (2005) The Ancient Maya. 6th ed. Stanford University Press, Stanford\n\n+\nGeography of Mesoamerica\nPre-Columbian cultural areas\n \n \n\nfi:Eteläinen maya-alue"
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[
"Maya civilization",
"Investigation of Maya civilization",
"Why was the Maya civilization being investigated?",
"The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire.",
"Was there anything bad that caused the investigation as well?",
"Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world.",
"How did people perceive the Maya civilization to be?",
"In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population"
] |
C_f3af675fc9294dec9e5f837a1620ba95_0
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Why did he say this?
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Why did Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson say that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population?
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Maya civilization
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The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatan and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs. The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copan and in the Yucatan Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region. In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported. CANNOTANSWER
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These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century,
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The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.
The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period () saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.
Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well as a ruler. Closed patronage systems were the dominant force in Maya politics, although how patronage affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown in size, reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed sophisticated art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.
Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways. Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, and structures specially aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. Theirs was the most advanced writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest known instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice.
Mesoamerica
The Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide. The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems. The set of traits shared by Mesoamerican cultures also included astronomical knowledge, blood and human sacrifice, and a cosmovision that viewed the world as divided into four divisions aligned with the cardinal directions, each with different attributes, and a three-way division of the world into the celestial realm, the earth, and the underworld.
By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the domestication of plants, a process that eventually led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. The diverse climate allowed for wide variation in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of maize, beans, and squashes. All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age technology; after c. 1000 AD copper, silver and gold were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the wheel, and possessed few domesticated animals; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe. Mesoamericans viewed the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities. The ritual Mesoamerican ballgame was widely played. Mesoamerica is linguistically diverse, with most languages falling within a small number of language families—the major families are Mayan, Mixe–Zoquean, Otomanguean, and Uto-Aztecan; there are also a number of smaller families and isolates. The Mesoamerican language area shares a number of important features, including widespread loanwords, and use of a vigesimal number system.
The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica, and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. During the Early Classic period, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that extended beyond the Maya area into the highlands of central Mexico. At around the same time, there was a strong Maya presence at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan. Centuries later, during the 9th century AD, murals at Cacaxtla, another site in the central Mexican highlands, were painted in a Maya style. This may have been either an effort to align itself with the still-powerful Maya area after the collapse of Teotihuacan and ensuing political fragmentation in the Mexican Highlands, or an attempt to express a distant Maya origin of the inhabitants. The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.
Geography
The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Most of the peninsula is formed by a vast plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline.
The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain; a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén. To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and a portion of the south of Yucatán state. Farther north, the vegetation turns to lower forest consisting of dense scrub.
The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-Columbian population centres of the highlands were located in the largest highland valleys, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southern highlands, a belt of volcanic cones runs parallel to the Pacific coast. The highlands extend northwards into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east.
History
The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture emerged. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of Maya chronology, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decline. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello (modern-day Belize) has been carbon dated to around 2600 BC. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period was characterised by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic. By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stelae. A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately . Although not as large, Tikal was already a significant city by around 350 BC.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is unknown.
Classic period (c. 250–900 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites.
During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. This intervention was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal in early 378. The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover. A year later, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ahiin I. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city in the Petén Basin. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other. At various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II of Calakmul captured Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. Yuknoom Chʼeen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal. He thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 695 to 738. His reign ended catastrophically when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and was decapitated in a public ritual. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by 300. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.
Classic Maya collapse
During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased activity. Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.
Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This only served to exacerbate systemic problems. By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of rulership. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities. Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. One by one, cities stopped sculpting dated monuments; the last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.
Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD)
Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, because many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths. Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of Classic Period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.
The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding Classic Period. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years. Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by the natural terrain. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom. The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the other members served him as advisors.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which ended only shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces. During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in internal sociopolitical organization. On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states. The Kʼicheʼ had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ.
Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 AD)
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico; they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. The Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. Good relations did not last, due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months later. This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525. Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546. This left only the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent. In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.
Persistence of Maya culture
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life. The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be practised. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times, the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, despite vigorous efforts by Catholic missionaries. The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas, and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.
Investigation of Maya civilization
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at Christianization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region.
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.
Politics
Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the entire Maya cultural area into a single state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relationships with each other and were engaged in a complex web of rivalries, periods of dominance or submission, vassalage, and alliances. At times, different polities achieved regional dominance, such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal. The first reliably evidenced polities formed in the Maya lowlands in the 9th century BC.
During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical form, where elite ideology justified the ruler's authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. The divine king was the centre of political power, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, judicial, and military functions of the polity. The divine authority invested within the ruler was such that the king was able to mobilize both the aristocracy and commoners in executing huge infrastructure projects, apparently with no police force or standing army. Some polities engaged in a strategy of increasing administration, and filling administrative posts with loyal supporters rather than blood relatives. Within a polity, mid-ranking population centres would have played a key role in managing resources and internal conflict.
The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of dominance over other large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other cases, loose alliance networks were formed around a dominant city. Border settlements, usually located about halfway between neighbouring capitals, often switched allegiance over the course of their history, and at times acted independently. Dominant capitals exacted tribute in the form of luxury items from subjugated population centres. Political power was reinforced by military power, and the capture and humiliation of enemy warriors played an important part in elite culture. An overriding sense of pride and honour among the warrior aristocracy could lead to extended feuds and vendettas, which caused political instability and the fragmentation of polities.
Society
From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, various sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political organization became increasingly complex. By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex web of political hierarchies, the wealthy segment of society multiplied. A middle class may have developed that included artisans, low ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, labourers, and slaves. According to indigenous histories, land was held communally by noble houses or clans. Such clans held that the land was the property of the clan ancestors, and such ties between the land and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds.
King and court
Classic Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god, whose gift of maize was the basis of Mesoamerican civilization. Maya royal succession was patrilineal, and royal power only passed to queens when doing otherwise would result in the extinction of the dynasty. Typically, power was passed to the eldest son. A young prince was called a chʼok ("youth"), although this word later came to refer to nobility in general. The royal heir was called bʼaah chʼok ("head youth"). Various points in the young prince's childhood were marked by ritual; the most important was a bloodletting ceremony at age five or six years. Although being of the royal bloodline was of utmost importance, the heir also had to be a successful war leader, as demonstrated by taking of captives. The enthronement of a new king was a highly elaborate ceremony, involving a series of separate acts that included enthronement upon a jaguar-skin cushion, human sacrifice, and receiving the symbols of royal power, such as a headband bearing a jade representation of the so-called "jester god", an elaborate headdress adorned with quetzal feathers, and a sceptre representing the god Kʼawiil.
Maya political administration, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives. Officials are referred to as being "owned" by their sponsor, and this relationship continued even after the death of the sponsor. The Maya royal court was a vibrant and dynamic political institution. There was no universal structure for the Maya royal court, instead each polity formed a royal court that was suited to its own individual context. A number of royal and noble titles have been identified by epigraphers translating Classic Maya inscriptions. Ajaw is usually translated as "lord" or "king". In the Early Classic, an ajaw was the ruler of a city. Later, with increasing social complexity, the ajaw was a member of the ruling class and a major city could have more than one, each ruling over different districts. Paramount rulers distinguished themselves from the extended nobility by prefixing the word kʼuhul to their ajaw title. A kʼuhul ajaw was "divine lord", originally confined to the kings of the most prestigious and ancient royal lines. Kalomte was a royal title, whose exact meaning is not yet deciphered, but it was held only by the most powerful kings of the strongest dynasties. It indicated an overlord, or high king, and the title was only in use during the Classic period. By the Late Classic, the absolute power of the kʼuhul ajaw had weakened, and the political system had diversified to include a wider aristocracy, that by this time may well have expanded disproportionately.
A sajal was ranked below the ajaw, and indicated a subservient lord. A sajal would be lord of a second- or third-tier site, answering to an ajaw, who may himself have been subservient to a kalomte. A sajal would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the sajal title to warfare; they are often mentioned as the holders of war captives. Sajal meant "feared one". The titles of ah tzʼihb and ah chʼul hun are both related to scribes. The ah tzʼihb was a royal scribe, usually a member of the royal family; the ah chʼul hun was the Keeper of the Holy Books, a title that is closely associated with the ajaw title, indicating that an ajaw always held the ah chʼul hun title simultaneously. Other courtly titles, the functions of which are not well understood, were yajaw kʼahk''' ("Lord of Fire"), tiʼhuun and ti'sakhuun. These last two may be variations on the same title, and Mark Zender has suggested that the holder of this title may have been the spokesman for the ruler. Courtly titles are overwhelmingly male-oriented, and in those relatively rare occasions where they are applied to a woman, they appear to be used as honorifics for female royalty. Titled elites were often associated with particular structures in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Classic period cities, indicating that such office holders either owned that structure, or that the structure was an important focus for their activities. A lakam, or standard-bearer, was possibly the only non-elite post-holder in the royal court. The lakam was only found in larger sites, and they appear to have been responsible for the taxation of local districts.
Different factions may have existed in the royal court. The kʼuhul ahaw and his household would have formed the central power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior aristocracy, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have formed an additional faction. Rivalry between different factions would have led to dynamic political institutions as compromises and disagreements were played out. In such a setting, public performance was vital. Such performances included ritual dances, presentation of war captives, offerings of tribute, human sacrifice, and religious ritual.
Commoners
Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90% of the population, but relatively little is known about them. Their houses were generally constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little trace in the archaeological record. Some commoner dwellings were raised on low platforms, and these can be identified, but an unknown quantity of commoner houses were not. Such low-status dwellings can only be detected by extensive remote-sensing surveys of apparently empty terrain. The range of commoners was broad; it consisted of everyone not of noble birth, and therefore included everyone from the poorest farmers to wealthy craftsmen and commoners appointed to bureaucratic positions. Commoners engaged in essential production activities, including that of products destined for use by the elite, such as cotton and cacao, as well as subsistence crops for their own use, and utilitarian items such as ceramics and stone tools. Commoners took part in warfare, and could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. Commoners paid taxes to the elite in the form of staple goods such as maize, flour and game. It is likely that hard-working commoners who displayed exceptional skills and initiative could become influential members of Maya society.
Warfare
Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. Military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the control of trade routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy state. Little is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or training. Warfare is depicted in Maya art from the Classic period, and wars and victories are mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Unfortunately, the inscriptions do not provide information upon the causes of war, or the form it took. In the 8th–9th centuries, intensive warfare resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén. The rapid abandonment of Aguateca by its inhabitants has provided a rare opportunity to examine the remains of Maya weaponry in situ. Aguateca was stormed by unknown enemies around 810 AD, who overcame its formidable defences and burned the royal palace. The elite inhabitants of the city either fled or were captured, and never returned to collect their abandoned property. The inhabitants of the periphery abandoned the site soon after. This is an example of intensive warfare carried out by an enemy in order to eliminate a Maya state, rather than subjugate it. Research at Aguateca indicated that Classic period warriors were primarily members of the elite.
From as early as the Preclassic period, the ruler of a Maya polity was expected to be a distinguished war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the Classic period, such trophy heads no longer appeared on the king's belt, but Classic period kings are frequently depicted standing over humiliated war captives. Right up to the end of the Postclassic period, Maya kings led as war captains. Maya inscriptions from the Classic show that a defeated king could be captured, tortured, and sacrificed. The Spanish recorded that Maya leaders kept track of troop movements in painted books.
The outcome of a successful military campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The captured nobles and their families could be imprisoned, or sacrificed. At the least severe end of the scale, the defeated polity would be obliged to pay tribute to the victor.
Warriors
During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specialised knowledge inherent in the particular military role was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders. There were also units of full-time mercenaries who followed permanent leaders. Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were primarily farmers; the needs of their crops usually came before warfare. Maya warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder.
There is some evidence from the Classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare ruling queens. By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in battle.
Weapons
The atlatl (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic. This was a stick with a notched end to hold a dart or javelin. The stick was used to launch the missile with more force and accuracy than could be accomplished by simply hurling it with the arm alone. Evidence in the form of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. Commoners used blowguns in war, which also served as their hunting weapon. The bow and arrow is another weapon that was used by the ancient Maya for both war and hunting. Although present in the Maya region during the Classic period, its use as a weapon of war was not favoured; it did not become a common weapon until the Postclassic. The Contact period Maya also used two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl. Maya warriors wore body armour in the form of quilted cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armour compared favourably to the steel armour worn by the Spanish when they conquered the region. Warriors bore wooden or animal hide shields decorated with feathers and animal skins.
Trade
Trade was a key component of Maya society, and in the development of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most important usually controlled access to vital trade goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make the textiles to be traded throughout Mesoamerica. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of salt. In the Postclassic, the Maya engaged in a flourishing slave trade with wider Mesoamerica.
The Maya engaged in long-distance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an Early Classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, trade routes particularly focused on central Mexico and the Gulf coast. In the Early Classic, Chichen Itza was at the hub of an extensive trade network that imported gold discs from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Long-distance trade of both luxury and utilitarian goods was probably controlled by the royal family. Prestige goods obtained by trade were used both for consumption by the city's ruler, and as luxury gifts to consolidate the loyalty of vassals and allies.
Trade routes not only supplied physical goods, they facilitated the movement of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. Shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in the Maya region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Preclassic Maya civilization, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic collapse. Even the Spanish Conquest did not immediately terminate all Maya trading activity; for example, the Contact period Manche Chʼol traded the prestige crops of cacao, annatto and vanilla into colonial Verapaz.
Merchants
Little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trading expeditions. The majority of traders were middle class, but were largely engaged in local and regional trade rather than the prestigious long-distance trading that was the preserve of the elite. The travelling of merchants into dangerous foreign territory was likened to a passage through the underworld; the patron deities of merchants were two underworld gods carrying backpacks. When merchants travelled, they painted themselves black, like their patron gods, and went heavily armed.
The Maya had no pack animals, so all trade goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland; if the trade route followed a river or the coast, then goods were transported in canoes. A substantial Maya trading canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. It was made from a large hollowed-out tree trunk and had a palm-covered canopy. The canoe was broad and was powered by 25 rowers. Trade goods carried included cacao, obsidian, ceramics, textiles, food and drink for the crew, and copper bells and axes. Cacao was used as currency (although not exclusively), and its value was such that counterfeiting occurred by removing the flesh from the pod, and stuffing it with dirt or avocado rind.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces are difficult to identify archaeologically. However, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the region. At some Classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scattered stones as the permanent foundations of market stalls. A 2007 study analysed soils from a modern Guatemalan market and compared the results with those obtained from analysis at a proposed ancient market at Chunchucmil. Unusually high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites indicated similar food production and vegetable sales activity. The calculated density of market stalls at Chunchucmil strongly suggests that a thriving market economy already existed in the Early Classic. Archaeologists have tentatively identified marketplaces at an increasing number of Maya cities by means of a combination of archaeology and soil analysis. When the Spanish arrived, Postclassic cities in the highlands had markets in permanent plazas, with officials on hand to settle disputes, enforce rules, and collect taxes.
Art
Maya art is essentially the art of the royal court. It is almost exclusively concerned with the Maya elite and their world. Maya art was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents only a small proportion of the art that the Maya created, it represents a wider variety of subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. Maya art has many regional styles, and is unique in the ancient Americas in bearing narrative text. The finest surviving Maya art dates to the Late Classic period.
The Maya exhibited a preference for the colour green or blue-green, and used the same word for the colours blue and green. Correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green jade, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tesserae and beads, to carved heads weighing . The Maya nobility practised dental modification, and some lords wore encrusted jade in their teeth. Mosaic funerary masks could also be fashioned from jade, such as that of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque.
Maya stone sculpture emerged into the archaeological record as a fully developed tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. Because of the biodegradability of wood, the corpus of Maya woodwork has almost entirely disappeared. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include three-dimensional sculptures, and hieroglyphic panels. Stone Maya stelae are widespread in city sites, often paired with low, circular stones referred to as altars in the literature. Stone sculpture also took other forms, such as the limestone relief panels at Palenque and Piedras Negras. At Yaxchilan, Dos Pilas, Copán, and other sites, stone stairways were decorated with sculpture. The hieroglyphic stairway at Copán comprises the longest surviving Maya hieroglyphic text, and consists of 2,200 individual glyphs.
The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall, and the three-dimensional form was built up using small stones. Finally, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form; human body forms were first modelled in stucco, with their costumes added afterwards. The final stucco sculpture was then brightly painted. Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic, and such decoration continued into the Classic period.
The Maya had a long tradition of mural painting; rich polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Walls were coated with plaster, and polychrome designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic tombs painted in cream, red, and black have been excavated at Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal. Among the best preserved murals are a full-size series of Late Classic paintings at Bonampak.
Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. They were technically very challenging to produce, requiring considerable skill on the part of the artisan. Large obsidian eccentrics can measure over in length. Their actual form varies considerably but they generally depict human, animal and geometric forms associated with Maya religion. Eccentric flints show a great variety of forms, such as crescents, crosses, snakes, and scorpions. The largest and most elaborate examples display multiple human heads, with minor heads sometimes branching off from larger one.
Maya textiles are very poorly represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean region, it is likely that they were high-value items. A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best evidence for textile art is where they are represented in other media, such as painted murals or ceramics. Such secondary representations show the elite of the Maya court adorned with sumptuous cloths, generally these would have been cotton, but jaguar pelts and deer hides are also shown.
Ceramics are the most commonly surviving type of Maya art. The Maya had no knowledge of the potter's wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desired form. Maya pottery was not glazed, although it often had a fine finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay slips blended with minerals and coloured clays. Ancient Maya firing techniques have yet to be replicated. A quantity of extremely fine ceramic figurines have been excavated from Late Classic tombs on Jaina Island, in northern Yucatán. They stand from high and were hand modelled, with exquisite detail. The Ik-style polychrome ceramic corpus, including finely painted plates and cylindrical vessels, originated in Late Classic Motul de San José. It includes a set of features such as hieroglyphs painted in a pink or pale red colour and scenes with dancers wearing masks. One of the most distinctive features is the realistic representation of subjects as they appeared in life. The subject matter of the vessels includes courtly life from the Petén region in the 8th century AD, such as diplomatic meetings, feasting, bloodletting, scenes of warriors and the sacrifice of prisoners of war.
Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make small objects in gold, silver and copper. The Maya generally hammered sheet metal into objects such as beads, bells, and discs. In the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method to cast small metal pieces.
One poorly studied area of Maya folk art is graffiti. Additional graffiti, not part of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great quantity of graffiti has been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti was often inscribed haphazardly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a mix of crude, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period artistic conventions.
Architecture
The Maya produced a vast array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural legacy. Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences craft specialization in Maya society, centralised organization and the political means to mobilize a large workforce. It is estimated that a large elite residence at Copán required an estimated 10,686 man-days to build, which compares to 67-man-days for a commoner's hut. It is further estimated that 65% of the labour required to build the noble residence was used in the quarrying, transporting, and finishing of the stone used in construction, and 24% of the labour was required for the manufacture and application of limestone-based plaster. Altogether, it is estimated that two to three months were required for the construction of the residence for this single noble at Copán, using between 80 and 130 full-time labourers. A Classic-period city like Tikal was spread over , with an urban core covering . The labour required to build such a city was immense, running into many millions of man-days. The most massive structures ever erected by the Maya were built during the Preclassic period. Craft specialization would have required dedicated stonemasons and plasterers by the Late Preclassic, and would have required planners and architects.
Urban design
Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative centre surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes. The centres of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes separated from nearby residential areas by walls. These precincts contained pyramid temples and other monumental architecture dedicated to elite activities, such as basal platforms that supported administrative or elite residential complexes. Sculpted monuments were raised to record the deeds of the ruling dynasty. City centres also featured plazas, sacred ballcourts and buildings used for marketplaces and schools. Frequently causeways linked the centre to outlying areas of the city. Some of these classes of architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city, which served as sacred centres for non-royal lineages. The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential complexes housing wealthy lineages. The largest and richest of these elite compounds sometimes possessed sculpture and art of craftsmanship equal to that of royal art.
The ceremonial centre of the Maya city was where the ruling elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was also where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city centre, while commoners had their residences dispersed further away from the ceremonial centre. Residential units were built on top of stone platforms to raise them above the level of the rain season floodwaters.
Building materials and methods
The Maya built their cities with Neolithic technology; they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The exact type of stone used in masonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this also affected the building style. Across a broad swathe of the Maya area, limestone was immediately available. The local limestone is relatively soft when freshly cut, but hardens with exposure. There was great variety in the quality of limestone, with good-quality stone available in the Usumacinta region; in the northern Yucatán, the limestone used in construction was of relatively poor quality. Volcanic tuff was used at Copán, and nearby Quiriguá employed sandstone. In Comalcalco, where suitable stone was not available locally, fired bricks were employed. Limestone was burned at high temperatures in order to manufacture cement, plaster, and stucco. Lime-based cement was used to seal stonework in place, and stone blocks were fashioned using rope-and-water abrasion, and with obsidian tools. The Maya did not employ a functional wheel, so all loads were transported on litters, barges, or rolled on logs. Heavy loads were lifted with rope, but probably without employing pulleys.
Wood was used for beams, and for lintels, even in masonry structures. Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was also applied; this consisted of mud strengthened with straw and was applied as a coating over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood and thatch, adobe was used throughout Maya history, even after the development of masonry structures. In the southern Maya area, adobe was employed in monumental architecture when no suitable stone was locally available.
Principal construction types
The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, sacbeob (causeways), patios and plazas. Some cities also possessed extensive hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagery. Many buildings were adorned with sculpture or painted stucco reliefs.
Palaces and acropoleis
These complexes were usually located in the site core, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom range structure. The term acropolis, in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite residential compounds. They generally extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof combs. Rooms often had stone benches, used for sleeping, and holes indicate where curtains once hung. Large palaces, such as at Palenque, could be fitted with a water supply, and sweat baths were often found within the complex, or nearby. During the Early Classic, rulers were sometimes buried underneath the acropolis complex. Some rooms in palaces were true throne rooms; in the royal palace of Palenque there were a number of throne rooms that were used for important events, including the inauguration of new kings.
Palaces are usually arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards; some examples are adorned with sculpture. Some palaces possess associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant evidence that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and that a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal receptions, and important rituals.
Pyramids and temples
Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic texts as kʼuh nah, meaning "god's house". Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon low platforms. By the Late Preclassic period, their walls were of stone, and the development of the corbel arch allowed stone roofs to replace thatch. By the Classic period, temple roofs were being topped with roof combs that extended the height of the temple and served as a foundation for monumental art. The temple shrines contained between one and three rooms, and were dedicated to important deities. Such a deity might be one of the patron gods of the city, or a deified ancestor. In general, freestanding pyramids were shrines honouring powerful ancestors.
E-Groups and observatories
The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. The Lost World complex at Tikal started out as an E-Group built towards the end of the Middle Preclassic. Due to its nature, the basic layout of an E-Group was constant. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza; it was usually a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three small temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes. E-Groups were raised across the central and southern Maya area for over a millennium; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their function may have been symbolic.
As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomical bodies, including the planet Venus, and various constellations. The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level edifice, with a conical superstructure. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. At Copán, a pair of stelae were raised to mark the position of the setting sun at the equinoxes.
Triadic pyramids
Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Temple IV, the largest pyramid at Tikal. The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the central plaza on top of the basal platform. No securely established forerunners of Triadic Groups are known, but they may have developed from the eastern range building of E-Group complexes. The triadic form was the predominant architectural form in the Petén region during the Late Preclassic. Examples of triadic pyramids are known from as many as 88 archaeological sites. At Nakbe, there are at least a dozen examples of triadic complexes and the four largest structures in the city are triadic in nature. At El Mirador there are probably as many as 36 triadic structures. Examples of the triadic form are even known from Dzibilchaltun in the far north of the Yucatán Peninsula, and Qʼumarkaj in the Highlands of Guatemala. The triadic pyramid remained a popular architectural form for centuries after the first examples were built; it continued in use into the Classic Period, with later examples being found at Uaxactun, Caracol, Seibal, Nakum, Tikal and Palenque. The Qʼumarkaj example is the only one that has been dated to the Postclassic Period. The triple-temple form of the triadic pyramid appears to be related to Maya mythology.
Ballcourts
The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the Classic period, the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. By the time of Spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Highlands, at cities such as Qʼumarkaj and Iximche. Throughout Maya history, ballcourts maintained a characteristic form consisting of an ɪ shape, with a central playing area terminating in two transverse end zones. The central playing area usually measures between long, and is flanked by two lateral structures that stood up to high. The lateral platforms often supported structures that may have held privileged spectators. The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is the largest in Mesoamerica, measuring long by wide, with walls standing high.
Regional architectural styles
Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style. Such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural styles.
Central Petén
The central Petén style of architecture is modelled after the great city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. One of the finest examples of Central Petén style architecture is Tikal Temple I. Examples of sites in the Central Petén style include Altun Ha, Calakmul, Holmul, Ixkun, Nakum, Naranjo, and Yaxhá.
Puuc
The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened their corbel arches; this allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions of long-nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca, outside the Maya area. In contrast, the lower façades were left undecorated. Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites.
Chenes
The Chenes style is very similar to the Puuc style, but predates the use of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural realm. Some buildings contained interior stairways that accessed different levels. The Chenes style is most commonly encountered in the southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula, although individual buildings in the style can be found elsewhere in the peninsula. Examples of Chenes sites include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Tabasqueño.
Río Bec
The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, and also features elements of the Central Petén style, such as prominent roof combs. Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking interior rooms, with steep, almost vertical, stairways and false doors. These towers were adorned with deity masks, and were built to impress the viewer, rather than serve any practical function. Such false towers are only found in the Río Bec region. Río Bec sites include Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Xpuhil.
Usumacinta
The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal structures. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. Many sites erected stelae, but Palenque instead developed finely sculpted panelling to decorate its buildings.
Language
Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. Proto-Mayan diverged during the Preclassic period to form the major Mayan language groups that make up the family, including Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. These groups diverged further during the pre-Columbian era to form over 30 languages that have survived into modern times. The language of almost all Classic Maya texts over the entire Maya area has been identified as Chʼolan; Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, also appears to be in, or related to, Chʼolan. The use of Chʼolan as the language of Maya text does not necessarily indicate that it was the language commonly used by the local populace – it may have been equivalent to Medieval Latin as a ritual or prestige language. Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige language of the Classic Maya elite, used in inter-polity communication such as diplomacy and trade. By the Postclassic period, Yucatec was also being written in Maya codices alongside Chʼolan.
Writing and literacy
The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. It was the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system of more than a dozen systems that developed in Mesoamerica. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 300–200 BC, in the Petén Basin. However, this is preceded by several other Mesoamerican writing systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts. Early Maya script had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the late 1st century AD, or early 2nd century. Similarities between the Isthmian script and Early Maya script of the Pacific coast suggest that the two systems developed in tandem. By about AD 250, the Maya script had become a more formalised and consistent writing system.
The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity is disputed. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed. In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe stated:
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. Other media include the aforementioned codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a variety of materials, including bone, shell, obsidian, and jade.
Writing system
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing) is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words.Tanaka 2008, pp. 30, 53. Among the writing systems of the Pre-Columbian New World, Maya script most closely represents the spoken language. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) were phonetic.
The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics. The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language name amatl used to produce codices.Tobin 2001. The skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the Spanish conquest. The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society.
The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts, and ongoing work continues to further illuminate the content.Kettunen & Helmke 2014, p. 9.
Logosyllabic script
The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern. For ease of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. Thus, any glyph block in a piece of text can be identified. C4 would be third block counting from the left, and the fourth block counting downwards. If a monument or artefact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, rather they continue in the alphabetic series; if there are more than 26 columns, the labelling continues as A', B', etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of text.
Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left (block A1), continues to the second block in the double-column (B1), then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column (A2), and thus continues in zig-zag fashion. Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top left of the next double column. Where an inscription ends in a single (unpaired) column, this final column is usually read straight downwards.
Individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or phonetic sign. Some main signs are abstract, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are "head variants", personifications of the word they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, usually attached to a main sign, although a block may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of speech elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. Small sections of a main sign could be used to represent the whole main sign, and Maya scribes were highly inventive in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements.
Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from pliable hair. A Classic period sculpture from Copán, Honduras, depicts a scribe with an inkpot fashioned from a conch shell. Excavations at Aguateca uncovered a number of scribal artefacts from the residences of elite status scribes, including palettes and mortars and pestles.
Scribes and literacy
Commoners were illiterate; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the aristocracy could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. Maya scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning "one who writes or paints". There were probably scribal schools where members of the aristocracy were taught to write. Scribal activity is identifiable in the archaeological record; Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I, king of Tikal, was interred with his paint pot. Some junior members of the Copán royal dynasty have also been found buried with their writing implements. A palace at Copán has been identified as that of a noble lineage of scribes; it is decorated with sculpture that includes figures holding ink pots.
Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpture. Usually, only a single scribe signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpture; eight sculptors signed one stela at Piedras Negras. However, most works remained unsigned by their artists.
Mathematics
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide, although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system. The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD. In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish.
The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero; during the Classic period other glyphs were used. The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 used repetitions of these symbols. The value of a numeral was determined by its position; as a numeral shifted upwards, its basic value multiplied by twenty. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and so on. For example, the number 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next level up, and two dots on the next level after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. Simple addition could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column.
Calendar
The Maya calendrical system, in common with other Mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period. However, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with great accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World; for example, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the Julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was central to Maya religious practices. The calendar combined a non-repeating Long Count with three interlocking cycles, each measuring a progressively larger period. These were the 260-day tzolkʼin, the 365-day haabʼ, and the 52-year Calendar Round, resulting from the combination of the tzolkʼin with the haab'. There were also additional calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god Kʼawiil.
The basic unit in the Maya calendar was one day, or kʼin, and 20 kʼin grouped to form a winal. The next unit, instead of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a rough approximation of the solar year (hence producing 360 days). This 360-day year was called a tun. Each succeeding level of multiplication followed the vigesimal system.
The 260-day tzolkʼin provided the basic cycle of Maya ceremony, and the foundations of Maya prophecy. No astronomical basis for this count has been proved, and it may be that the 260-day count is based on the human gestation period. This is reinforced by the use of the tzolkʼin to record dates of birth, and provide corresponding prophecy. The 260-day cycle repeated a series of 20-day-names, with a number from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the cycle a particular day occurred.
The 365-day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named 20-day winals, completed by the addition of a 5-day period called the wayeb. The wayeb was considered to be a dangerous time, when the barriers between the mortal and supernatural realms were broken, allowing malignant deities to cross over and interfere in human concerns. In a similar way to the tzʼolkin, the named winal would be prefixed by a number (from 0 to 19), in the case of the shorter wayeb period, the prefix numbers ran 0 to 4. Since each day in the tzʼolkin had a name and number (e.g. 8 Ajaw), this would interlock with the haab, producing an additional number and name, to give any day a more complete designation, for example 8 Ajaw 13 Keh. Such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round. In most Mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit for measuring time.
As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start point. The Maya set the beginning of their calendar as the end of a previous cycle of bakʼtuns, equivalent to a day in 3114 BC. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the world in its current form. The Maya used the Long Count Calendar to fix any given day of the Calendar Round within their current great Piktun cycle consisting of either 20 bakʼtuns. There was some variation in the calendar, specifically texts in Palenque demonstrate that the piktun cycle that ended in 3114 BC had only 13 bakʼtuns, but others used a cycle of 13 + 20 bakʼtun in the current piktun. Additionally, there may have been some regional variation in how these exceptional cycles were managed.
A full long count date consisted of an introductory glyph followed by five glyphs counting off the number of bakʼtuns, katʼuns, tuns, winals, and kʼins since the start of the current creation. This would be followed by the tzʼolkin portion of the Calendar Round date, and after a number of intervening glyphs, the Long Count date would end with the Haab portion of the Calendar Round date.
Correlation of the Long Count calendar
Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic period. The Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. The most generally accepted correlation is the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation. This equates the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the Gregorian date of 12 November 1539. Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube argue for a two-day shift from the standard GMT correlation. The Spinden Correlation would shift the Long Count dates back by 260 years; it also accords with the documentary evidence, and is better suited to the archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, but presents problems with the rest of the Maya region. The George Vaillant Correlation would shift all Maya dates 260 years later, and would greatly shorten the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dating of dated wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation.
Astronomy
The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was mainly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it also had some practical applications, such as providing aid in crop planting and harvesting. The priesthood refined observations and recorded eclipses of the sun and moon, and movements of Venus and the stars; these were measured against dated events in the past, on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the same astronomical conditions prevailed. Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomical observations using the naked eye, assisted by crossed sticks as a sighting device. Analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that, at the time of European contact, the Maya had recorded eclipse tables, calendars, and astronomical knowledge that was more accurate at that time than comparable knowledge in Europe.
The Maya measured the 584-day Venus cycle with an error of just two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight 365-day haab calendrical cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins. For the Maya, the heliacal rising of Venus was associated with destruction and upheaval. Venus was closely associated with warfare, and the hieroglyph meaning "war" incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet. Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus' path. Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rising of Venus, and would also sacrifice important captives to coincide with such conjunctions.
Solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be especially dangerous events that could bring catastrophe upon the world. In the Dresden Codex, a solar eclipse is represented by a serpent devouring the kʼin ("day") hieroglyph. Eclipses were interpreted as the sun or moon being bitten, and lunar tables were recorded in order that the Maya might be able to predict them, and perform the appropriate ceremonies to ward off disaster.
Religion and mythology
In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural realm inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. At the core of Maya religious practice was the worship of deceased ancestors, who would intercede for their living descendants in dealings with the supernatural realm. The earliest intermediaries between humans and the supernatural were shamans. Maya ritual included the use of hallucinogens for chilan, oracular priests. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water lilies, which are hallucinogenic in high doses. As the Maya civilization developed, the ruling elite codified the Maya world view into religious cults that justified their right to rule. In the Late Preclassic, this process culminated in the institution of the divine king, the kʼuhul ajaw, endowed with ultimate political and religious power.
The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the mortal world in between. Each level had four cardinal directions associated with a different colour; north was white, east was red, south was yellow, and west was black. Major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours.
Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the family. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a prominent male ancestor would be emphasised, often with a household shrine. As Maya society developed, and the elite became more powerful, Maya royalty developed their household shrines into the great pyramids that held the tombs of their ancestors.
Belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and influenced every aspect of it, from the simplest day-to-day activities such as food preparation, to trade, politics, and elite activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. The Maya priesthood was a closed group, drawing its members from the established elite; by the Early Classic they were recording increasingly complex ritual information in their hieroglyphic books, including astronomical observations, calendrical cycles, history and mythology. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feasting, bloodletting, incense burning, music, ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, human sacrifice. During the Classic period, the Maya ruler was the high priest, and the direct conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly likely that, among commoners, shamanism continued in parallel to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious emphasis had changed; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more frequent recourse to human sacrifice.
Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques. One important, though incomplete, resource is physical evidence, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. Maya art, architecture, and writing are another resource, and these can be combined with ethnographic sources, including records of Maya religious practices made by the Spanish during the conquest.
Human sacrifice
Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour.
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, perhaps in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the death gods. In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days later ritually decapitated him. Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled. Another myth associated with decapitation was that of the Hero Twins recounted in the Popol Vuh: playing a ballgame against the gods of the underworld, the heroes achieved victory, but one of each pair of twins was decapitated by their opponents.
During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. In one ritual, the corpse would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet, and the officiating priest would then dress himself in the skin of the sacrificial victim and perform a ritual dance symbolizing the rebirth of life. Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.
Deities
The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad interpretation of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. The Maya interpretation of deities was closely tied to the calendar, astronomy, and their cosmology. The importance of a deity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of celestial bodies. The priestly interpretation of astronomical records and books was therefore crucial, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual propitiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offering. Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. They also had a dual day-night/life-death aspect.
Itzamna was the creator god, but he also embodied the cosmos, and was simultaneously a sun god; Kʼinich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its journey through the underworld. The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the mortal realm; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the same function. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood. The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains. The nine lords of the night each governed one of the underworld realms. Other important deities included the moon goddess, the maize god, and the Hero Twins.
The Popol Vuh was written in the Latin script in early colonial times, and was probably transcribed from a hieroglyphic book by an unknown Kʼicheʼ Maya nobleman. It is one of the most outstanding works of indigenous literature in the Americas. The Popul Vuh recounts the mythical creation of the world, the legend of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ kingdom. Deities recorded in the Popul Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, believed by some to be the Kʼicheʼ maize god, and a triad of deities led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil, and also including the moon goddess Awilix, and the mountain god Jacawitz.
In common with other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered serpent deities. Such worship was rare during the Classic period, but by the Postclassic the feathered serpent had spread to both the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands. In Yucatán, the feathered serpent deity was Kukulkan, among the Kʼicheʼ it was Qʼuqʼumatz. Kukulkan had his origins in the Classic period War Serpent, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan'', and has also been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in these earlier Maya traditions, the worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of central Mexico. Likewise, Qʼuqʼumatz had a composite origin, combining the attributes of Mexican Quetzalcoatl with aspects of the Classic period Itzamna.
Agriculture
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food, but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, intensive gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs. Contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya in areas that were densely populated in pre-Columbian times, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that maize, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide variety of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved a record of foodstuffs stored in Maya homes, among them were chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were in the process of being ground, perhaps to produce cooking oil. In addition to basic foodstuffs, the Maya also cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was especially prized by the elite, who consumed chocolate beverages. Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into valuable textiles in order to be traded.
The Maya had few domestic animals; dogs were domesticated by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck by the Late Postclassic. Ocellated turkeys were unsuitable for domestication, but were rounded up in the wild and penned for fattening. All of these were used as food animals; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is possible that deer were also penned and fattened.
Maya sites
There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum. The Río Bec sites of the base of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, other than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Qʼumarkaj (also known as Utatlán). In the northern Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is generally difficult. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún. Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.
Museum collections
There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections. The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over 250 museums in its Maya Museum database, and the European Association of Mayanists lists just under 50 museums in Europe alone.
See also
Entheogenics and the Maya
Huastec civilization
Index of Mexico-related articles
Songs of Dzitbalche
References
Bibliography
Alt URL
Full list from FAMSI archived from the original on 2015-06-08.
Further reading
External links
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI)
Primary sources of Maya history – part one by Ronald A. Barnett
Mesoweb by Joel Skidmore.
Maya Map – A map of the Maya civilization.
Former monarchies of North America
History of Guatemala
History of Belize
History of Chiapas
History of El Salvador
History of Honduras
2nd-millennium BC establishments
1697 disestablishments in North America
Former countries in North America
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[
"Buğra Mert Alkayalar (5 June 1998, Yozgat), is a Turkish director and screenwriter.\n\nHe completed his elementary education in Tekirdağ, Türkiye and started studying Film and Television at University of Anatolia in 2016. Meanwhile, he completed his voice acting training in 2018 with the leadership of Kadir Özübek. He won an Audience Special Award for his experimental short film \"Disintegration\" at 6th International Antakya Film Festival. He also won a Best Thriller award for his short thriller Why Not? (2019) from IMDb's official Top Shorts Film Festival, and a Best Student Film award from Direct Monthly Online Film Festival.\n\nFilmography \n Be Careful What You Say (short film, 2020)\n Why Not? (short film, 2019)\n Fairy (short film, 2019)\n In The Pink (short film, 2019)\n Visitors at The Door (documentary short, 2018)\n Disintegration (short film, 2018)\n Session (short, 2018/II)\n Separated (short, 2018)\n\nNominations \nFestival Nominations\n 2020: Be Careful What You Say (nominee, best short)\n 2019: Fairy (nominee, best short film)\n 2019: Why Not? (nominee, best short film)\n 2019: Why Not? (nominee, best thriller)\n 2019: Why Not? (nominee, best student short)\n 2019: Why Not? (nominee, film of the month)\n 2019: Why Not? (nominee, best screenplay)\n 2018: Disintegration (nominee, best short experimental film)\n\nAwards \nFestival Awards\n 2019: Why Not? (WON Best Student Short Film of the Month)\n 2019: Why Not (WON Best Thriller)\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\n1998 births\nPeople from Yozgat\nTurkish directors\nTurkish male screenwriters",
"Go and Ask Peggy for the Principal Thing is the fourth album by German rock band Fool's Garden, released in 1997. It contains a cover of the Beatles' song \"Martha My Dear\".\n\nTrack listing\n \"The Principal Thing\"\n \"Emily\"\n \"Why Did She Go?\"\n \"Why Am I Sad Today\"\n \"Martha My Dear\" (Lennon–McCartney)\n \"And You Say\"\n \"Probably\"\n \"Nothing\"\n \"When The Moon Kisses Town\"\n \"Rainy Day\"\n \"Northern Town\"\n \"Good Night\"\n \"Probably\" (reprise) - hidden track\n\nMusicians\nPeter Freudenthaler - vocals\nVolker Hinkel - guitars, mandolin, blues harp, keyboards and backing vocals\nRoland Röhl - keyboards, accordion and backing vocals\nThomas Mangold - bass, double bass and backing vocals\nRalf Wochele - drums and backing vocals\nOliver Frager - trumpet and French horn\nBob Perry - trombone and tuba\nGitte Haus - backing vocals\nJette Schniering - cello\nOliver Maguire - weatherforecast on \"Rainy Day\"\n\nSingles\n\"Why Did She Go?\"\n\"Probably\"\n\"Rainy Day\"\n\n1997 albums\nFools Garden albums\nIntercord albums"
] |
[
"Maya civilization",
"Investigation of Maya civilization",
"Why was the Maya civilization being investigated?",
"The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire.",
"Was there anything bad that caused the investigation as well?",
"Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world.",
"How did people perceive the Maya civilization to be?",
"In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population",
"Why did he say this?",
"These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century,"
] |
C_f3af675fc9294dec9e5f837a1620ba95_0
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Was there anything that happened after that?
| 5 |
What happened after the Mayan script was deciphered in the late 20th century?
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Maya civilization
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The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatan and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs. The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copan and in the Yucatan Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region. In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported. CANNOTANSWER
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decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov.
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The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.
The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period () saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.
Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well as a ruler. Closed patronage systems were the dominant force in Maya politics, although how patronage affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown in size, reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed sophisticated art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.
Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways. Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, and structures specially aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. Theirs was the most advanced writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest known instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice.
Mesoamerica
The Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide. The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems. The set of traits shared by Mesoamerican cultures also included astronomical knowledge, blood and human sacrifice, and a cosmovision that viewed the world as divided into four divisions aligned with the cardinal directions, each with different attributes, and a three-way division of the world into the celestial realm, the earth, and the underworld.
By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the domestication of plants, a process that eventually led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. The diverse climate allowed for wide variation in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of maize, beans, and squashes. All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age technology; after c. 1000 AD copper, silver and gold were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the wheel, and possessed few domesticated animals; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe. Mesoamericans viewed the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities. The ritual Mesoamerican ballgame was widely played. Mesoamerica is linguistically diverse, with most languages falling within a small number of language families—the major families are Mayan, Mixe–Zoquean, Otomanguean, and Uto-Aztecan; there are also a number of smaller families and isolates. The Mesoamerican language area shares a number of important features, including widespread loanwords, and use of a vigesimal number system.
The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica, and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. During the Early Classic period, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that extended beyond the Maya area into the highlands of central Mexico. At around the same time, there was a strong Maya presence at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan. Centuries later, during the 9th century AD, murals at Cacaxtla, another site in the central Mexican highlands, were painted in a Maya style. This may have been either an effort to align itself with the still-powerful Maya area after the collapse of Teotihuacan and ensuing political fragmentation in the Mexican Highlands, or an attempt to express a distant Maya origin of the inhabitants. The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.
Geography
The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Most of the peninsula is formed by a vast plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline.
The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain; a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén. To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and a portion of the south of Yucatán state. Farther north, the vegetation turns to lower forest consisting of dense scrub.
The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-Columbian population centres of the highlands were located in the largest highland valleys, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southern highlands, a belt of volcanic cones runs parallel to the Pacific coast. The highlands extend northwards into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east.
History
The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture emerged. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of Maya chronology, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decline. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello (modern-day Belize) has been carbon dated to around 2600 BC. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period was characterised by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic. By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stelae. A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately . Although not as large, Tikal was already a significant city by around 350 BC.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is unknown.
Classic period (c. 250–900 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites.
During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. This intervention was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal in early 378. The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover. A year later, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ahiin I. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city in the Petén Basin. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other. At various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II of Calakmul captured Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. Yuknoom Chʼeen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal. He thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 695 to 738. His reign ended catastrophically when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and was decapitated in a public ritual. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by 300. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.
Classic Maya collapse
During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased activity. Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.
Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This only served to exacerbate systemic problems. By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of rulership. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities. Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. One by one, cities stopped sculpting dated monuments; the last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.
Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD)
Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, because many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths. Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of Classic Period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.
The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding Classic Period. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years. Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by the natural terrain. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom. The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the other members served him as advisors.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which ended only shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces. During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in internal sociopolitical organization. On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states. The Kʼicheʼ had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ.
Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 AD)
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico; they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. The Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. Good relations did not last, due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months later. This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525. Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546. This left only the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent. In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.
Persistence of Maya culture
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life. The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be practised. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times, the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, despite vigorous efforts by Catholic missionaries. The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas, and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.
Investigation of Maya civilization
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at Christianization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region.
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.
Politics
Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the entire Maya cultural area into a single state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relationships with each other and were engaged in a complex web of rivalries, periods of dominance or submission, vassalage, and alliances. At times, different polities achieved regional dominance, such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal. The first reliably evidenced polities formed in the Maya lowlands in the 9th century BC.
During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical form, where elite ideology justified the ruler's authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. The divine king was the centre of political power, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, judicial, and military functions of the polity. The divine authority invested within the ruler was such that the king was able to mobilize both the aristocracy and commoners in executing huge infrastructure projects, apparently with no police force or standing army. Some polities engaged in a strategy of increasing administration, and filling administrative posts with loyal supporters rather than blood relatives. Within a polity, mid-ranking population centres would have played a key role in managing resources and internal conflict.
The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of dominance over other large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other cases, loose alliance networks were formed around a dominant city. Border settlements, usually located about halfway between neighbouring capitals, often switched allegiance over the course of their history, and at times acted independently. Dominant capitals exacted tribute in the form of luxury items from subjugated population centres. Political power was reinforced by military power, and the capture and humiliation of enemy warriors played an important part in elite culture. An overriding sense of pride and honour among the warrior aristocracy could lead to extended feuds and vendettas, which caused political instability and the fragmentation of polities.
Society
From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, various sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political organization became increasingly complex. By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex web of political hierarchies, the wealthy segment of society multiplied. A middle class may have developed that included artisans, low ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, labourers, and slaves. According to indigenous histories, land was held communally by noble houses or clans. Such clans held that the land was the property of the clan ancestors, and such ties between the land and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds.
King and court
Classic Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god, whose gift of maize was the basis of Mesoamerican civilization. Maya royal succession was patrilineal, and royal power only passed to queens when doing otherwise would result in the extinction of the dynasty. Typically, power was passed to the eldest son. A young prince was called a chʼok ("youth"), although this word later came to refer to nobility in general. The royal heir was called bʼaah chʼok ("head youth"). Various points in the young prince's childhood were marked by ritual; the most important was a bloodletting ceremony at age five or six years. Although being of the royal bloodline was of utmost importance, the heir also had to be a successful war leader, as demonstrated by taking of captives. The enthronement of a new king was a highly elaborate ceremony, involving a series of separate acts that included enthronement upon a jaguar-skin cushion, human sacrifice, and receiving the symbols of royal power, such as a headband bearing a jade representation of the so-called "jester god", an elaborate headdress adorned with quetzal feathers, and a sceptre representing the god Kʼawiil.
Maya political administration, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives. Officials are referred to as being "owned" by their sponsor, and this relationship continued even after the death of the sponsor. The Maya royal court was a vibrant and dynamic political institution. There was no universal structure for the Maya royal court, instead each polity formed a royal court that was suited to its own individual context. A number of royal and noble titles have been identified by epigraphers translating Classic Maya inscriptions. Ajaw is usually translated as "lord" or "king". In the Early Classic, an ajaw was the ruler of a city. Later, with increasing social complexity, the ajaw was a member of the ruling class and a major city could have more than one, each ruling over different districts. Paramount rulers distinguished themselves from the extended nobility by prefixing the word kʼuhul to their ajaw title. A kʼuhul ajaw was "divine lord", originally confined to the kings of the most prestigious and ancient royal lines. Kalomte was a royal title, whose exact meaning is not yet deciphered, but it was held only by the most powerful kings of the strongest dynasties. It indicated an overlord, or high king, and the title was only in use during the Classic period. By the Late Classic, the absolute power of the kʼuhul ajaw had weakened, and the political system had diversified to include a wider aristocracy, that by this time may well have expanded disproportionately.
A sajal was ranked below the ajaw, and indicated a subservient lord. A sajal would be lord of a second- or third-tier site, answering to an ajaw, who may himself have been subservient to a kalomte. A sajal would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the sajal title to warfare; they are often mentioned as the holders of war captives. Sajal meant "feared one". The titles of ah tzʼihb and ah chʼul hun are both related to scribes. The ah tzʼihb was a royal scribe, usually a member of the royal family; the ah chʼul hun was the Keeper of the Holy Books, a title that is closely associated with the ajaw title, indicating that an ajaw always held the ah chʼul hun title simultaneously. Other courtly titles, the functions of which are not well understood, were yajaw kʼahk''' ("Lord of Fire"), tiʼhuun and ti'sakhuun. These last two may be variations on the same title, and Mark Zender has suggested that the holder of this title may have been the spokesman for the ruler. Courtly titles are overwhelmingly male-oriented, and in those relatively rare occasions where they are applied to a woman, they appear to be used as honorifics for female royalty. Titled elites were often associated with particular structures in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Classic period cities, indicating that such office holders either owned that structure, or that the structure was an important focus for their activities. A lakam, or standard-bearer, was possibly the only non-elite post-holder in the royal court. The lakam was only found in larger sites, and they appear to have been responsible for the taxation of local districts.
Different factions may have existed in the royal court. The kʼuhul ahaw and his household would have formed the central power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior aristocracy, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have formed an additional faction. Rivalry between different factions would have led to dynamic political institutions as compromises and disagreements were played out. In such a setting, public performance was vital. Such performances included ritual dances, presentation of war captives, offerings of tribute, human sacrifice, and religious ritual.
Commoners
Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90% of the population, but relatively little is known about them. Their houses were generally constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little trace in the archaeological record. Some commoner dwellings were raised on low platforms, and these can be identified, but an unknown quantity of commoner houses were not. Such low-status dwellings can only be detected by extensive remote-sensing surveys of apparently empty terrain. The range of commoners was broad; it consisted of everyone not of noble birth, and therefore included everyone from the poorest farmers to wealthy craftsmen and commoners appointed to bureaucratic positions. Commoners engaged in essential production activities, including that of products destined for use by the elite, such as cotton and cacao, as well as subsistence crops for their own use, and utilitarian items such as ceramics and stone tools. Commoners took part in warfare, and could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. Commoners paid taxes to the elite in the form of staple goods such as maize, flour and game. It is likely that hard-working commoners who displayed exceptional skills and initiative could become influential members of Maya society.
Warfare
Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. Military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the control of trade routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy state. Little is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or training. Warfare is depicted in Maya art from the Classic period, and wars and victories are mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Unfortunately, the inscriptions do not provide information upon the causes of war, or the form it took. In the 8th–9th centuries, intensive warfare resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén. The rapid abandonment of Aguateca by its inhabitants has provided a rare opportunity to examine the remains of Maya weaponry in situ. Aguateca was stormed by unknown enemies around 810 AD, who overcame its formidable defences and burned the royal palace. The elite inhabitants of the city either fled or were captured, and never returned to collect their abandoned property. The inhabitants of the periphery abandoned the site soon after. This is an example of intensive warfare carried out by an enemy in order to eliminate a Maya state, rather than subjugate it. Research at Aguateca indicated that Classic period warriors were primarily members of the elite.
From as early as the Preclassic period, the ruler of a Maya polity was expected to be a distinguished war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the Classic period, such trophy heads no longer appeared on the king's belt, but Classic period kings are frequently depicted standing over humiliated war captives. Right up to the end of the Postclassic period, Maya kings led as war captains. Maya inscriptions from the Classic show that a defeated king could be captured, tortured, and sacrificed. The Spanish recorded that Maya leaders kept track of troop movements in painted books.
The outcome of a successful military campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The captured nobles and their families could be imprisoned, or sacrificed. At the least severe end of the scale, the defeated polity would be obliged to pay tribute to the victor.
Warriors
During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specialised knowledge inherent in the particular military role was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders. There were also units of full-time mercenaries who followed permanent leaders. Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were primarily farmers; the needs of their crops usually came before warfare. Maya warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder.
There is some evidence from the Classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare ruling queens. By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in battle.
Weapons
The atlatl (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic. This was a stick with a notched end to hold a dart or javelin. The stick was used to launch the missile with more force and accuracy than could be accomplished by simply hurling it with the arm alone. Evidence in the form of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. Commoners used blowguns in war, which also served as their hunting weapon. The bow and arrow is another weapon that was used by the ancient Maya for both war and hunting. Although present in the Maya region during the Classic period, its use as a weapon of war was not favoured; it did not become a common weapon until the Postclassic. The Contact period Maya also used two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl. Maya warriors wore body armour in the form of quilted cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armour compared favourably to the steel armour worn by the Spanish when they conquered the region. Warriors bore wooden or animal hide shields decorated with feathers and animal skins.
Trade
Trade was a key component of Maya society, and in the development of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most important usually controlled access to vital trade goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make the textiles to be traded throughout Mesoamerica. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of salt. In the Postclassic, the Maya engaged in a flourishing slave trade with wider Mesoamerica.
The Maya engaged in long-distance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an Early Classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, trade routes particularly focused on central Mexico and the Gulf coast. In the Early Classic, Chichen Itza was at the hub of an extensive trade network that imported gold discs from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Long-distance trade of both luxury and utilitarian goods was probably controlled by the royal family. Prestige goods obtained by trade were used both for consumption by the city's ruler, and as luxury gifts to consolidate the loyalty of vassals and allies.
Trade routes not only supplied physical goods, they facilitated the movement of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. Shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in the Maya region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Preclassic Maya civilization, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic collapse. Even the Spanish Conquest did not immediately terminate all Maya trading activity; for example, the Contact period Manche Chʼol traded the prestige crops of cacao, annatto and vanilla into colonial Verapaz.
Merchants
Little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trading expeditions. The majority of traders were middle class, but were largely engaged in local and regional trade rather than the prestigious long-distance trading that was the preserve of the elite. The travelling of merchants into dangerous foreign territory was likened to a passage through the underworld; the patron deities of merchants were two underworld gods carrying backpacks. When merchants travelled, they painted themselves black, like their patron gods, and went heavily armed.
The Maya had no pack animals, so all trade goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland; if the trade route followed a river or the coast, then goods were transported in canoes. A substantial Maya trading canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. It was made from a large hollowed-out tree trunk and had a palm-covered canopy. The canoe was broad and was powered by 25 rowers. Trade goods carried included cacao, obsidian, ceramics, textiles, food and drink for the crew, and copper bells and axes. Cacao was used as currency (although not exclusively), and its value was such that counterfeiting occurred by removing the flesh from the pod, and stuffing it with dirt or avocado rind.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces are difficult to identify archaeologically. However, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the region. At some Classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scattered stones as the permanent foundations of market stalls. A 2007 study analysed soils from a modern Guatemalan market and compared the results with those obtained from analysis at a proposed ancient market at Chunchucmil. Unusually high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites indicated similar food production and vegetable sales activity. The calculated density of market stalls at Chunchucmil strongly suggests that a thriving market economy already existed in the Early Classic. Archaeologists have tentatively identified marketplaces at an increasing number of Maya cities by means of a combination of archaeology and soil analysis. When the Spanish arrived, Postclassic cities in the highlands had markets in permanent plazas, with officials on hand to settle disputes, enforce rules, and collect taxes.
Art
Maya art is essentially the art of the royal court. It is almost exclusively concerned with the Maya elite and their world. Maya art was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents only a small proportion of the art that the Maya created, it represents a wider variety of subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. Maya art has many regional styles, and is unique in the ancient Americas in bearing narrative text. The finest surviving Maya art dates to the Late Classic period.
The Maya exhibited a preference for the colour green or blue-green, and used the same word for the colours blue and green. Correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green jade, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tesserae and beads, to carved heads weighing . The Maya nobility practised dental modification, and some lords wore encrusted jade in their teeth. Mosaic funerary masks could also be fashioned from jade, such as that of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque.
Maya stone sculpture emerged into the archaeological record as a fully developed tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. Because of the biodegradability of wood, the corpus of Maya woodwork has almost entirely disappeared. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include three-dimensional sculptures, and hieroglyphic panels. Stone Maya stelae are widespread in city sites, often paired with low, circular stones referred to as altars in the literature. Stone sculpture also took other forms, such as the limestone relief panels at Palenque and Piedras Negras. At Yaxchilan, Dos Pilas, Copán, and other sites, stone stairways were decorated with sculpture. The hieroglyphic stairway at Copán comprises the longest surviving Maya hieroglyphic text, and consists of 2,200 individual glyphs.
The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall, and the three-dimensional form was built up using small stones. Finally, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form; human body forms were first modelled in stucco, with their costumes added afterwards. The final stucco sculpture was then brightly painted. Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic, and such decoration continued into the Classic period.
The Maya had a long tradition of mural painting; rich polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Walls were coated with plaster, and polychrome designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic tombs painted in cream, red, and black have been excavated at Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal. Among the best preserved murals are a full-size series of Late Classic paintings at Bonampak.
Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. They were technically very challenging to produce, requiring considerable skill on the part of the artisan. Large obsidian eccentrics can measure over in length. Their actual form varies considerably but they generally depict human, animal and geometric forms associated with Maya religion. Eccentric flints show a great variety of forms, such as crescents, crosses, snakes, and scorpions. The largest and most elaborate examples display multiple human heads, with minor heads sometimes branching off from larger one.
Maya textiles are very poorly represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean region, it is likely that they were high-value items. A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best evidence for textile art is where they are represented in other media, such as painted murals or ceramics. Such secondary representations show the elite of the Maya court adorned with sumptuous cloths, generally these would have been cotton, but jaguar pelts and deer hides are also shown.
Ceramics are the most commonly surviving type of Maya art. The Maya had no knowledge of the potter's wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desired form. Maya pottery was not glazed, although it often had a fine finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay slips blended with minerals and coloured clays. Ancient Maya firing techniques have yet to be replicated. A quantity of extremely fine ceramic figurines have been excavated from Late Classic tombs on Jaina Island, in northern Yucatán. They stand from high and were hand modelled, with exquisite detail. The Ik-style polychrome ceramic corpus, including finely painted plates and cylindrical vessels, originated in Late Classic Motul de San José. It includes a set of features such as hieroglyphs painted in a pink or pale red colour and scenes with dancers wearing masks. One of the most distinctive features is the realistic representation of subjects as they appeared in life. The subject matter of the vessels includes courtly life from the Petén region in the 8th century AD, such as diplomatic meetings, feasting, bloodletting, scenes of warriors and the sacrifice of prisoners of war.
Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make small objects in gold, silver and copper. The Maya generally hammered sheet metal into objects such as beads, bells, and discs. In the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method to cast small metal pieces.
One poorly studied area of Maya folk art is graffiti. Additional graffiti, not part of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great quantity of graffiti has been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti was often inscribed haphazardly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a mix of crude, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period artistic conventions.
Architecture
The Maya produced a vast array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural legacy. Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences craft specialization in Maya society, centralised organization and the political means to mobilize a large workforce. It is estimated that a large elite residence at Copán required an estimated 10,686 man-days to build, which compares to 67-man-days for a commoner's hut. It is further estimated that 65% of the labour required to build the noble residence was used in the quarrying, transporting, and finishing of the stone used in construction, and 24% of the labour was required for the manufacture and application of limestone-based plaster. Altogether, it is estimated that two to three months were required for the construction of the residence for this single noble at Copán, using between 80 and 130 full-time labourers. A Classic-period city like Tikal was spread over , with an urban core covering . The labour required to build such a city was immense, running into many millions of man-days. The most massive structures ever erected by the Maya were built during the Preclassic period. Craft specialization would have required dedicated stonemasons and plasterers by the Late Preclassic, and would have required planners and architects.
Urban design
Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative centre surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes. The centres of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes separated from nearby residential areas by walls. These precincts contained pyramid temples and other monumental architecture dedicated to elite activities, such as basal platforms that supported administrative or elite residential complexes. Sculpted monuments were raised to record the deeds of the ruling dynasty. City centres also featured plazas, sacred ballcourts and buildings used for marketplaces and schools. Frequently causeways linked the centre to outlying areas of the city. Some of these classes of architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city, which served as sacred centres for non-royal lineages. The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential complexes housing wealthy lineages. The largest and richest of these elite compounds sometimes possessed sculpture and art of craftsmanship equal to that of royal art.
The ceremonial centre of the Maya city was where the ruling elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was also where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city centre, while commoners had their residences dispersed further away from the ceremonial centre. Residential units were built on top of stone platforms to raise them above the level of the rain season floodwaters.
Building materials and methods
The Maya built their cities with Neolithic technology; they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The exact type of stone used in masonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this also affected the building style. Across a broad swathe of the Maya area, limestone was immediately available. The local limestone is relatively soft when freshly cut, but hardens with exposure. There was great variety in the quality of limestone, with good-quality stone available in the Usumacinta region; in the northern Yucatán, the limestone used in construction was of relatively poor quality. Volcanic tuff was used at Copán, and nearby Quiriguá employed sandstone. In Comalcalco, where suitable stone was not available locally, fired bricks were employed. Limestone was burned at high temperatures in order to manufacture cement, plaster, and stucco. Lime-based cement was used to seal stonework in place, and stone blocks were fashioned using rope-and-water abrasion, and with obsidian tools. The Maya did not employ a functional wheel, so all loads were transported on litters, barges, or rolled on logs. Heavy loads were lifted with rope, but probably without employing pulleys.
Wood was used for beams, and for lintels, even in masonry structures. Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was also applied; this consisted of mud strengthened with straw and was applied as a coating over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood and thatch, adobe was used throughout Maya history, even after the development of masonry structures. In the southern Maya area, adobe was employed in monumental architecture when no suitable stone was locally available.
Principal construction types
The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, sacbeob (causeways), patios and plazas. Some cities also possessed extensive hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagery. Many buildings were adorned with sculpture or painted stucco reliefs.
Palaces and acropoleis
These complexes were usually located in the site core, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom range structure. The term acropolis, in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite residential compounds. They generally extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof combs. Rooms often had stone benches, used for sleeping, and holes indicate where curtains once hung. Large palaces, such as at Palenque, could be fitted with a water supply, and sweat baths were often found within the complex, or nearby. During the Early Classic, rulers were sometimes buried underneath the acropolis complex. Some rooms in palaces were true throne rooms; in the royal palace of Palenque there were a number of throne rooms that were used for important events, including the inauguration of new kings.
Palaces are usually arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards; some examples are adorned with sculpture. Some palaces possess associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant evidence that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and that a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal receptions, and important rituals.
Pyramids and temples
Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic texts as kʼuh nah, meaning "god's house". Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon low platforms. By the Late Preclassic period, their walls were of stone, and the development of the corbel arch allowed stone roofs to replace thatch. By the Classic period, temple roofs were being topped with roof combs that extended the height of the temple and served as a foundation for monumental art. The temple shrines contained between one and three rooms, and were dedicated to important deities. Such a deity might be one of the patron gods of the city, or a deified ancestor. In general, freestanding pyramids were shrines honouring powerful ancestors.
E-Groups and observatories
The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. The Lost World complex at Tikal started out as an E-Group built towards the end of the Middle Preclassic. Due to its nature, the basic layout of an E-Group was constant. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza; it was usually a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three small temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes. E-Groups were raised across the central and southern Maya area for over a millennium; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their function may have been symbolic.
As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomical bodies, including the planet Venus, and various constellations. The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level edifice, with a conical superstructure. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. At Copán, a pair of stelae were raised to mark the position of the setting sun at the equinoxes.
Triadic pyramids
Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Temple IV, the largest pyramid at Tikal. The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the central plaza on top of the basal platform. No securely established forerunners of Triadic Groups are known, but they may have developed from the eastern range building of E-Group complexes. The triadic form was the predominant architectural form in the Petén region during the Late Preclassic. Examples of triadic pyramids are known from as many as 88 archaeological sites. At Nakbe, there are at least a dozen examples of triadic complexes and the four largest structures in the city are triadic in nature. At El Mirador there are probably as many as 36 triadic structures. Examples of the triadic form are even known from Dzibilchaltun in the far north of the Yucatán Peninsula, and Qʼumarkaj in the Highlands of Guatemala. The triadic pyramid remained a popular architectural form for centuries after the first examples were built; it continued in use into the Classic Period, with later examples being found at Uaxactun, Caracol, Seibal, Nakum, Tikal and Palenque. The Qʼumarkaj example is the only one that has been dated to the Postclassic Period. The triple-temple form of the triadic pyramid appears to be related to Maya mythology.
Ballcourts
The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the Classic period, the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. By the time of Spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Highlands, at cities such as Qʼumarkaj and Iximche. Throughout Maya history, ballcourts maintained a characteristic form consisting of an ɪ shape, with a central playing area terminating in two transverse end zones. The central playing area usually measures between long, and is flanked by two lateral structures that stood up to high. The lateral platforms often supported structures that may have held privileged spectators. The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is the largest in Mesoamerica, measuring long by wide, with walls standing high.
Regional architectural styles
Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style. Such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural styles.
Central Petén
The central Petén style of architecture is modelled after the great city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. One of the finest examples of Central Petén style architecture is Tikal Temple I. Examples of sites in the Central Petén style include Altun Ha, Calakmul, Holmul, Ixkun, Nakum, Naranjo, and Yaxhá.
Puuc
The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened their corbel arches; this allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions of long-nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca, outside the Maya area. In contrast, the lower façades were left undecorated. Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites.
Chenes
The Chenes style is very similar to the Puuc style, but predates the use of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural realm. Some buildings contained interior stairways that accessed different levels. The Chenes style is most commonly encountered in the southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula, although individual buildings in the style can be found elsewhere in the peninsula. Examples of Chenes sites include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Tabasqueño.
Río Bec
The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, and also features elements of the Central Petén style, such as prominent roof combs. Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking interior rooms, with steep, almost vertical, stairways and false doors. These towers were adorned with deity masks, and were built to impress the viewer, rather than serve any practical function. Such false towers are only found in the Río Bec region. Río Bec sites include Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Xpuhil.
Usumacinta
The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal structures. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. Many sites erected stelae, but Palenque instead developed finely sculpted panelling to decorate its buildings.
Language
Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. Proto-Mayan diverged during the Preclassic period to form the major Mayan language groups that make up the family, including Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. These groups diverged further during the pre-Columbian era to form over 30 languages that have survived into modern times. The language of almost all Classic Maya texts over the entire Maya area has been identified as Chʼolan; Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, also appears to be in, or related to, Chʼolan. The use of Chʼolan as the language of Maya text does not necessarily indicate that it was the language commonly used by the local populace – it may have been equivalent to Medieval Latin as a ritual or prestige language. Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige language of the Classic Maya elite, used in inter-polity communication such as diplomacy and trade. By the Postclassic period, Yucatec was also being written in Maya codices alongside Chʼolan.
Writing and literacy
The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. It was the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system of more than a dozen systems that developed in Mesoamerica. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 300–200 BC, in the Petén Basin. However, this is preceded by several other Mesoamerican writing systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts. Early Maya script had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the late 1st century AD, or early 2nd century. Similarities between the Isthmian script and Early Maya script of the Pacific coast suggest that the two systems developed in tandem. By about AD 250, the Maya script had become a more formalised and consistent writing system.
The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity is disputed. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed. In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe stated:
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. Other media include the aforementioned codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a variety of materials, including bone, shell, obsidian, and jade.
Writing system
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing) is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words.Tanaka 2008, pp. 30, 53. Among the writing systems of the Pre-Columbian New World, Maya script most closely represents the spoken language. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) were phonetic.
The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics. The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language name amatl used to produce codices.Tobin 2001. The skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the Spanish conquest. The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society.
The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts, and ongoing work continues to further illuminate the content.Kettunen & Helmke 2014, p. 9.
Logosyllabic script
The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern. For ease of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. Thus, any glyph block in a piece of text can be identified. C4 would be third block counting from the left, and the fourth block counting downwards. If a monument or artefact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, rather they continue in the alphabetic series; if there are more than 26 columns, the labelling continues as A', B', etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of text.
Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left (block A1), continues to the second block in the double-column (B1), then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column (A2), and thus continues in zig-zag fashion. Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top left of the next double column. Where an inscription ends in a single (unpaired) column, this final column is usually read straight downwards.
Individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or phonetic sign. Some main signs are abstract, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are "head variants", personifications of the word they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, usually attached to a main sign, although a block may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of speech elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. Small sections of a main sign could be used to represent the whole main sign, and Maya scribes were highly inventive in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements.
Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from pliable hair. A Classic period sculpture from Copán, Honduras, depicts a scribe with an inkpot fashioned from a conch shell. Excavations at Aguateca uncovered a number of scribal artefacts from the residences of elite status scribes, including palettes and mortars and pestles.
Scribes and literacy
Commoners were illiterate; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the aristocracy could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. Maya scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning "one who writes or paints". There were probably scribal schools where members of the aristocracy were taught to write. Scribal activity is identifiable in the archaeological record; Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I, king of Tikal, was interred with his paint pot. Some junior members of the Copán royal dynasty have also been found buried with their writing implements. A palace at Copán has been identified as that of a noble lineage of scribes; it is decorated with sculpture that includes figures holding ink pots.
Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpture. Usually, only a single scribe signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpture; eight sculptors signed one stela at Piedras Negras. However, most works remained unsigned by their artists.
Mathematics
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide, although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system. The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD. In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish.
The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero; during the Classic period other glyphs were used. The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 used repetitions of these symbols. The value of a numeral was determined by its position; as a numeral shifted upwards, its basic value multiplied by twenty. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and so on. For example, the number 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next level up, and two dots on the next level after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. Simple addition could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column.
Calendar
The Maya calendrical system, in common with other Mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period. However, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with great accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World; for example, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the Julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was central to Maya religious practices. The calendar combined a non-repeating Long Count with three interlocking cycles, each measuring a progressively larger period. These were the 260-day tzolkʼin, the 365-day haabʼ, and the 52-year Calendar Round, resulting from the combination of the tzolkʼin with the haab'. There were also additional calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god Kʼawiil.
The basic unit in the Maya calendar was one day, or kʼin, and 20 kʼin grouped to form a winal. The next unit, instead of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a rough approximation of the solar year (hence producing 360 days). This 360-day year was called a tun. Each succeeding level of multiplication followed the vigesimal system.
The 260-day tzolkʼin provided the basic cycle of Maya ceremony, and the foundations of Maya prophecy. No astronomical basis for this count has been proved, and it may be that the 260-day count is based on the human gestation period. This is reinforced by the use of the tzolkʼin to record dates of birth, and provide corresponding prophecy. The 260-day cycle repeated a series of 20-day-names, with a number from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the cycle a particular day occurred.
The 365-day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named 20-day winals, completed by the addition of a 5-day period called the wayeb. The wayeb was considered to be a dangerous time, when the barriers between the mortal and supernatural realms were broken, allowing malignant deities to cross over and interfere in human concerns. In a similar way to the tzʼolkin, the named winal would be prefixed by a number (from 0 to 19), in the case of the shorter wayeb period, the prefix numbers ran 0 to 4. Since each day in the tzʼolkin had a name and number (e.g. 8 Ajaw), this would interlock with the haab, producing an additional number and name, to give any day a more complete designation, for example 8 Ajaw 13 Keh. Such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round. In most Mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit for measuring time.
As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start point. The Maya set the beginning of their calendar as the end of a previous cycle of bakʼtuns, equivalent to a day in 3114 BC. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the world in its current form. The Maya used the Long Count Calendar to fix any given day of the Calendar Round within their current great Piktun cycle consisting of either 20 bakʼtuns. There was some variation in the calendar, specifically texts in Palenque demonstrate that the piktun cycle that ended in 3114 BC had only 13 bakʼtuns, but others used a cycle of 13 + 20 bakʼtun in the current piktun. Additionally, there may have been some regional variation in how these exceptional cycles were managed.
A full long count date consisted of an introductory glyph followed by five glyphs counting off the number of bakʼtuns, katʼuns, tuns, winals, and kʼins since the start of the current creation. This would be followed by the tzʼolkin portion of the Calendar Round date, and after a number of intervening glyphs, the Long Count date would end with the Haab portion of the Calendar Round date.
Correlation of the Long Count calendar
Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic period. The Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. The most generally accepted correlation is the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation. This equates the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the Gregorian date of 12 November 1539. Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube argue for a two-day shift from the standard GMT correlation. The Spinden Correlation would shift the Long Count dates back by 260 years; it also accords with the documentary evidence, and is better suited to the archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, but presents problems with the rest of the Maya region. The George Vaillant Correlation would shift all Maya dates 260 years later, and would greatly shorten the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dating of dated wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation.
Astronomy
The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was mainly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it also had some practical applications, such as providing aid in crop planting and harvesting. The priesthood refined observations and recorded eclipses of the sun and moon, and movements of Venus and the stars; these were measured against dated events in the past, on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the same astronomical conditions prevailed. Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomical observations using the naked eye, assisted by crossed sticks as a sighting device. Analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that, at the time of European contact, the Maya had recorded eclipse tables, calendars, and astronomical knowledge that was more accurate at that time than comparable knowledge in Europe.
The Maya measured the 584-day Venus cycle with an error of just two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight 365-day haab calendrical cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins. For the Maya, the heliacal rising of Venus was associated with destruction and upheaval. Venus was closely associated with warfare, and the hieroglyph meaning "war" incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet. Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus' path. Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rising of Venus, and would also sacrifice important captives to coincide with such conjunctions.
Solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be especially dangerous events that could bring catastrophe upon the world. In the Dresden Codex, a solar eclipse is represented by a serpent devouring the kʼin ("day") hieroglyph. Eclipses were interpreted as the sun or moon being bitten, and lunar tables were recorded in order that the Maya might be able to predict them, and perform the appropriate ceremonies to ward off disaster.
Religion and mythology
In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural realm inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. At the core of Maya religious practice was the worship of deceased ancestors, who would intercede for their living descendants in dealings with the supernatural realm. The earliest intermediaries between humans and the supernatural were shamans. Maya ritual included the use of hallucinogens for chilan, oracular priests. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water lilies, which are hallucinogenic in high doses. As the Maya civilization developed, the ruling elite codified the Maya world view into religious cults that justified their right to rule. In the Late Preclassic, this process culminated in the institution of the divine king, the kʼuhul ajaw, endowed with ultimate political and religious power.
The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the mortal world in between. Each level had four cardinal directions associated with a different colour; north was white, east was red, south was yellow, and west was black. Major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours.
Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the family. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a prominent male ancestor would be emphasised, often with a household shrine. As Maya society developed, and the elite became more powerful, Maya royalty developed their household shrines into the great pyramids that held the tombs of their ancestors.
Belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and influenced every aspect of it, from the simplest day-to-day activities such as food preparation, to trade, politics, and elite activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. The Maya priesthood was a closed group, drawing its members from the established elite; by the Early Classic they were recording increasingly complex ritual information in their hieroglyphic books, including astronomical observations, calendrical cycles, history and mythology. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feasting, bloodletting, incense burning, music, ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, human sacrifice. During the Classic period, the Maya ruler was the high priest, and the direct conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly likely that, among commoners, shamanism continued in parallel to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious emphasis had changed; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more frequent recourse to human sacrifice.
Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques. One important, though incomplete, resource is physical evidence, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. Maya art, architecture, and writing are another resource, and these can be combined with ethnographic sources, including records of Maya religious practices made by the Spanish during the conquest.
Human sacrifice
Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour.
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, perhaps in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the death gods. In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days later ritually decapitated him. Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled. Another myth associated with decapitation was that of the Hero Twins recounted in the Popol Vuh: playing a ballgame against the gods of the underworld, the heroes achieved victory, but one of each pair of twins was decapitated by their opponents.
During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. In one ritual, the corpse would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet, and the officiating priest would then dress himself in the skin of the sacrificial victim and perform a ritual dance symbolizing the rebirth of life. Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.
Deities
The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad interpretation of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. The Maya interpretation of deities was closely tied to the calendar, astronomy, and their cosmology. The importance of a deity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of celestial bodies. The priestly interpretation of astronomical records and books was therefore crucial, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual propitiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offering. Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. They also had a dual day-night/life-death aspect.
Itzamna was the creator god, but he also embodied the cosmos, and was simultaneously a sun god; Kʼinich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its journey through the underworld. The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the mortal realm; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the same function. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood. The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains. The nine lords of the night each governed one of the underworld realms. Other important deities included the moon goddess, the maize god, and the Hero Twins.
The Popol Vuh was written in the Latin script in early colonial times, and was probably transcribed from a hieroglyphic book by an unknown Kʼicheʼ Maya nobleman. It is one of the most outstanding works of indigenous literature in the Americas. The Popul Vuh recounts the mythical creation of the world, the legend of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ kingdom. Deities recorded in the Popul Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, believed by some to be the Kʼicheʼ maize god, and a triad of deities led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil, and also including the moon goddess Awilix, and the mountain god Jacawitz.
In common with other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered serpent deities. Such worship was rare during the Classic period, but by the Postclassic the feathered serpent had spread to both the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands. In Yucatán, the feathered serpent deity was Kukulkan, among the Kʼicheʼ it was Qʼuqʼumatz. Kukulkan had his origins in the Classic period War Serpent, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan'', and has also been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in these earlier Maya traditions, the worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of central Mexico. Likewise, Qʼuqʼumatz had a composite origin, combining the attributes of Mexican Quetzalcoatl with aspects of the Classic period Itzamna.
Agriculture
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food, but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, intensive gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs. Contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya in areas that were densely populated in pre-Columbian times, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that maize, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide variety of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved a record of foodstuffs stored in Maya homes, among them were chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were in the process of being ground, perhaps to produce cooking oil. In addition to basic foodstuffs, the Maya also cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was especially prized by the elite, who consumed chocolate beverages. Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into valuable textiles in order to be traded.
The Maya had few domestic animals; dogs were domesticated by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck by the Late Postclassic. Ocellated turkeys were unsuitable for domestication, but were rounded up in the wild and penned for fattening. All of these were used as food animals; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is possible that deer were also penned and fattened.
Maya sites
There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum. The Río Bec sites of the base of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, other than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Qʼumarkaj (also known as Utatlán). In the northern Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is generally difficult. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún. Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.
Museum collections
There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections. The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over 250 museums in its Maya Museum database, and the European Association of Mayanists lists just under 50 museums in Europe alone.
See also
Entheogenics and the Maya
Huastec civilization
Index of Mexico-related articles
Songs of Dzitbalche
References
Bibliography
Alt URL
Full list from FAMSI archived from the original on 2015-06-08.
Further reading
External links
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI)
Primary sources of Maya history – part one by Ronald A. Barnett
Mesoweb by Joel Skidmore.
Maya Map – A map of the Maya civilization.
Former monarchies of North America
History of Guatemala
History of Belize
History of Chiapas
History of El Salvador
History of Honduras
2nd-millennium BC establishments
1697 disestablishments in North America
Former countries in North America
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"Ward v. Tesco Stores Ltd. [1976] 1 WLR 810, is an English tort law case concerning the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur (\"the thing speaks for itself\"). It deals with the law of negligence and it set an important precedent in so called \"trip and slip\" cases which are a common occurrence.\n\nFacts\nThe plaintiff slipped on some pink yoghurt in a Tesco store in Smithdown Road, Liverpool. It was not clear whether or not Tesco staff were to blame for the spillage. It could have been another customer, or the wind, or anything else. Spillages happened roughly 10 times a week and staff had standing orders to clean anything up straight away. As Lawton LJ observed in his judgment,\n\nThe trial judge had held in Mrs Ward's favour and she was awarded £137.50 in damages. Tesco appealed.\n\nJudgment\nIt was held by a majority (Lawton LJ and Megaw LJ) that even though it could not be said exactly what happened, the pink yoghurt being spilled spoke for itself as to who was to blame. Tesco was required to pay compensation. The plaintiff did not need to prove how long the spill had been there, because the burden of proof was on Tesco. Lawton LJ's judgment explained the previous case law, starting with Richards v. WF White & Co. [1957] 1 Lloyd's Rep.\n\nDissent\nOmrod LJ disagreed with Lawton LJ and Megaw LJ on the basis that Tesco did not seem to have been able to do anything to have prevented the accident. He argued that they did not fail to take reasonable care, and in his words, the accident \"could clearly have happened no matter what degree of care these defendants had taken.\"\n\nNotes\n\nEnglish tort case law\nEnglish occupier case law\nCourt of Appeal (England and Wales) cases\n1976 in case law\n1976 in British law\nTesco",
"\"Was There Anything I Could Do?\" is a song by the Australian alternative rock band The Go-Betweens that was issued as the second single from their sixth album 16 Lovers Lane. The song was released 3 October 1988 by Beggars Banquet Records in the UK and Mushroom Records in Australia but failed to chart in either region. It was released as a promotional single in the US by Capitol Records and charted on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks charts in the United States, peaking at No. 16.\n\n\"Was There Anything I Could Do?\" was not necessarily the unanimous choice by all members of the band, with claims by some that they wanted Forster's \"Clouds\" whilst McLennan pushed for the song as it was more driving and anthemic.\n\nCover versions \nThe song was covered by Maxïmo Park and included on a limited edition compilation album, released in July 2008 to celebrate the launch of Independents Day.\n\nIn 2010 a cover of the song by The Buzzards, was included on a Go-Betweens tribute album, Right Here.\n\nFranz Ferdinand in November 2013 covered the song on Triple J's Like a Version programme.\n\nIn 2014 a cover of the song by Missy Higgins was included on her album, Oz.\n\nTrack listing\n\nOriginal 7\" Vinyl release\n \"Was There Anything I Could Do?\" - 3:06\n \"Rock and Roll Friend\" - 3:30\n\nOriginal 12\" Vinyl release\n \"Was There Anything I Can Do?\" - 3:06\n \"Rock and Roll Friend\" - 3:30\n \"Mexican Postcard\" - 2:13\n\nOriginal CD single release\n \"Was There Anything I Can Do?\" - 3:06\n \"Rock and Roll Friend\" - 3:30\n \"Mexican Postcard\" - 2:13\n \"Bye Bye Pride\" - 4:06\n\nRelease history\n\nNotes\nA. :The US release was a 12\" promotional release with \"Was There Anything I Could Do?\" on each side.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n [ \"Was There Anything I Could Do?\"] @ AllMusic\n \"Was There Anything I Could Do?\" @ MusicBrainz\n \"Was There Anything I Could Do?\" @ Discogs\n Video\n Alternate Video\n\n1988 singles\nThe Go-Betweens songs\n1988 songs\nMushroom Records singles\nBeggars Banquet Records singles\nSongs written by Grant McLennan\nSongs written by Robert Forster (musician)"
] |
[
"Maya civilization",
"Investigation of Maya civilization",
"Why was the Maya civilization being investigated?",
"The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire.",
"Was there anything bad that caused the investigation as well?",
"Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world.",
"How did people perceive the Maya civilization to be?",
"In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population",
"Why did he say this?",
"These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century,",
"Was there anything that happened after that?",
"decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov."
] |
C_f3af675fc9294dec9e5f837a1620ba95_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Besides the advancement of script decipherment in the late 20th century, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Maya civilization
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The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at evangelization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatan and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs. The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copan and in the Yucatan Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region. In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported. CANNOTANSWER
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the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.
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The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.
The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period () saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.
Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well as a ruler. Closed patronage systems were the dominant force in Maya politics, although how patronage affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown in size, reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed sophisticated art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.
Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways. Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, and structures specially aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. Theirs was the most advanced writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest known instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice.
Mesoamerica
The Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide. The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems. The set of traits shared by Mesoamerican cultures also included astronomical knowledge, blood and human sacrifice, and a cosmovision that viewed the world as divided into four divisions aligned with the cardinal directions, each with different attributes, and a three-way division of the world into the celestial realm, the earth, and the underworld.
By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the domestication of plants, a process that eventually led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. The diverse climate allowed for wide variation in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of maize, beans, and squashes. All Mesoamerican cultures used Stone Age technology; after c. 1000 AD copper, silver and gold were worked. Mesoamerica lacked draft animals, did not use the wheel, and possessed few domesticated animals; the principal means of transport was on foot or by canoe. Mesoamericans viewed the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities. The ritual Mesoamerican ballgame was widely played. Mesoamerica is linguistically diverse, with most languages falling within a small number of language families—the major families are Mayan, Mixe–Zoquean, Otomanguean, and Uto-Aztecan; there are also a number of smaller families and isolates. The Mesoamerican language area shares a number of important features, including widespread loanwords, and use of a vigesimal number system.
The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica, and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. During the Early Classic period, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that extended beyond the Maya area into the highlands of central Mexico. At around the same time, there was a strong Maya presence at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan. Centuries later, during the 9th century AD, murals at Cacaxtla, another site in the central Mexican highlands, were painted in a Maya style. This may have been either an effort to align itself with the still-powerful Maya area after the collapse of Teotihuacan and ensuing political fragmentation in the Mexican Highlands, or an attempt to express a distant Maya origin of the inhabitants. The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.
Geography
The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Most of the peninsula is formed by a vast plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline.
The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain; a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén. To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and a portion of the south of Yucatán state. Farther north, the vegetation turns to lower forest consisting of dense scrub.
The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-Columbian population centres of the highlands were located in the largest highland valleys, such as the Valley of Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southern highlands, a belt of volcanic cones runs parallel to the Pacific coast. The highlands extend northwards into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east.
History
The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture emerged. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of Maya chronology, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or decline. Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as much as a century, depending on the author.
Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC – 250 AD)
The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello (modern-day Belize) has been carbon dated to around 2600 BC. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, and the Maya were already cultivating the staple crops of maize, beans, squash, and chili pepper. This period was characterised by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.
During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic. By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stelae. A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately . Although not as large, Tikal was already a significant city by around 350 BC.
In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and many of the great Maya cities of the epoch were abandoned; the cause of this collapse is unknown.
Classic period (c. 250–900 AD)
The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites.
During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. This intervention was led by Siyaj Kʼakʼ ("Born of Fire"), who arrived at Tikal in early 378. The king of Tikal, Chak Tok Ichʼaak I, died on the same day, suggesting a violent takeover. A year later, Siyaj Kʼakʼ oversaw the installation of a new king, Yax Nuun Ahiin I. The installation of the new dynasty led to a period of political dominance when Tikal became the most powerful city in the central lowlands.
Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city in the Petén Basin. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of the same network. Tikal and Calakmul engaged in the manoeuvering of their alliance networks against each other. At various points during the Classic period, one or other of these powers would gain a strategic victory over its great rival, resulting in respective periods of florescence and decline.
In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Yuknoom Chʼeen II of Calakmul captured Balaj Chan Kʼawiil. Yuknoom Chʼeen II then reinstated Balaj Chan Kʼawiil upon the throne of Dos Pilas as his vassal. He thereafter served as a loyal ally of Calakmul.
In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 695 to 738. His reign ended catastrophically when he was captured by his vassal, king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá. The captured lord of Copán was taken back to Quiriguá and was decapitated in a public ritual. It is likely that this coup was backed by Calakmul, in order to weaken a powerful ally of Tikal. Palenque and Yaxchilan were the most powerful cities in the Usumacinta region. In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was already a sprawling city by 300. In the north of the Maya area, Coba was the most important capital.
Classic Maya collapse
During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation, and drought. During this period, known as the Terminal Classic, the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased activity. Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern lowlands ceased to raise monuments.
Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare. This only served to exacerbate systemic problems. By the 9th and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of rulership. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms declined; in western Petén and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities. Within a couple of generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but abandoned. Both the capitals and their secondary centres were generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. One by one, cities stopped sculpting dated monuments; the last Long Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces. Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.
Postclassic period (c. 950–1539 AD)
Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly resettled in the Postclassic. Activity shifted to the northern lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved migration from the southern lowlands, because many Postclassic Maya groups had migration myths. Chichen Itza and its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and this may represent the final episode of Classic Period collapse. After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts, and new trade networks were formed.
The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding Classic Period. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years. Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by the natural terrain. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom. The government of Maya states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the other members served him as advisors.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which ended only shortly before Spanish contact in 1511. Even without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces. During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided into a number of independent provinces that shared a common culture but varied in internal sociopolitical organization. On the eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states. The Kʼicheʼ had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ.
Contact period and Spanish conquest (1511–1697 AD)
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors from central Mexico; they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. The Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. Good relations did not last, due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the city was abandoned a few months later. This was followed by the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525. Francisco de Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546. This left only the Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent. In 1697, Martín de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.
Persistence of Maya culture
The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life. The basic Mesoamerican diet of maize and beans continued, although agricultural output was improved by the introduction of steel tools. Traditional crafts such as weaving, ceramics, and basketry continued to be practised. Community markets and trade in local products continued long after the conquest. At times, the colonial administration encouraged the traditional economy in order to extract tribute in the form of ceramics or cotton textiles, although these were usually made to European specifications. Maya beliefs and language proved resistant to change, despite vigorous efforts by Catholic missionaries. The 260-day tzolkʼin ritual calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas, and millions of Mayan-language speakers inhabit the territory in which their ancestors developed their civilization.
Investigation of Maya civilization
The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at Christianization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. In 1839, American traveller and writer John Lloyd Stephens set out to visit a number of Maya sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong popular interest, and brought the Maya to the attention of the world. The later 19th century saw the recording and recovery of ethnohistoric accounts of the Maya, and the first steps in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.
The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20th century, advances were made in deciphering the Maya calendar, and identifying deities, dates, and religious concepts. Since the 1930s, archaeological exploration increased dramatically, with large-scale excavations across the Maya region.
In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the decipherment of the script in the late 20th century, pioneered by Heinrich Berlin, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Yuri Knorozov. With breakthroughs in understanding of Maya script since the 1950s, the texts revealed the warlike activities of the Classic Maya kings, and the view of the Maya as peaceful could no longer be supported.
Politics
Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the entire Maya cultural area into a single state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relationships with each other and were engaged in a complex web of rivalries, periods of dominance or submission, vassalage, and alliances. At times, different polities achieved regional dominance, such as Calakmul, Caracol, Mayapan, and Tikal. The first reliably evidenced polities formed in the Maya lowlands in the 9th century BC.
During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical form, where elite ideology justified the ruler's authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. The divine king was the centre of political power, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, judicial, and military functions of the polity. The divine authority invested within the ruler was such that the king was able to mobilize both the aristocracy and commoners in executing huge infrastructure projects, apparently with no police force or standing army. Some polities engaged in a strategy of increasing administration, and filling administrative posts with loyal supporters rather than blood relatives. Within a polity, mid-ranking population centres would have played a key role in managing resources and internal conflict.
The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of dominance over other large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other cases, loose alliance networks were formed around a dominant city. Border settlements, usually located about halfway between neighbouring capitals, often switched allegiance over the course of their history, and at times acted independently. Dominant capitals exacted tribute in the form of luxury items from subjugated population centres. Political power was reinforced by military power, and the capture and humiliation of enemy warriors played an important part in elite culture. An overriding sense of pride and honour among the warrior aristocracy could lead to extended feuds and vendettas, which caused political instability and the fragmentation of polities.
Society
From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, various sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political organization became increasingly complex. By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of cities were connected in a complex web of political hierarchies, the wealthy segment of society multiplied. A middle class may have developed that included artisans, low ranking priests and officials, merchants, and soldiers. Commoners included farmers, servants, labourers, and slaves. According to indigenous histories, land was held communally by noble houses or clans. Such clans held that the land was the property of the clan ancestors, and such ties between the land and the ancestors were reinforced by the burial of the dead within residential compounds.
King and court
Classic Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god, whose gift of maize was the basis of Mesoamerican civilization. Maya royal succession was patrilineal, and royal power only passed to queens when doing otherwise would result in the extinction of the dynasty. Typically, power was passed to the eldest son. A young prince was called a chʼok ("youth"), although this word later came to refer to nobility in general. The royal heir was called bʼaah chʼok ("head youth"). Various points in the young prince's childhood were marked by ritual; the most important was a bloodletting ceremony at age five or six years. Although being of the royal bloodline was of utmost importance, the heir also had to be a successful war leader, as demonstrated by taking of captives. The enthronement of a new king was a highly elaborate ceremony, involving a series of separate acts that included enthronement upon a jaguar-skin cushion, human sacrifice, and receiving the symbols of royal power, such as a headband bearing a jade representation of the so-called "jester god", an elaborate headdress adorned with quetzal feathers, and a sceptre representing the god Kʼawiil.
Maya political administration, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives. Officials are referred to as being "owned" by their sponsor, and this relationship continued even after the death of the sponsor. The Maya royal court was a vibrant and dynamic political institution. There was no universal structure for the Maya royal court, instead each polity formed a royal court that was suited to its own individual context. A number of royal and noble titles have been identified by epigraphers translating Classic Maya inscriptions. Ajaw is usually translated as "lord" or "king". In the Early Classic, an ajaw was the ruler of a city. Later, with increasing social complexity, the ajaw was a member of the ruling class and a major city could have more than one, each ruling over different districts. Paramount rulers distinguished themselves from the extended nobility by prefixing the word kʼuhul to their ajaw title. A kʼuhul ajaw was "divine lord", originally confined to the kings of the most prestigious and ancient royal lines. Kalomte was a royal title, whose exact meaning is not yet deciphered, but it was held only by the most powerful kings of the strongest dynasties. It indicated an overlord, or high king, and the title was only in use during the Classic period. By the Late Classic, the absolute power of the kʼuhul ajaw had weakened, and the political system had diversified to include a wider aristocracy, that by this time may well have expanded disproportionately.
A sajal was ranked below the ajaw, and indicated a subservient lord. A sajal would be lord of a second- or third-tier site, answering to an ajaw, who may himself have been subservient to a kalomte. A sajal would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the sajal title to warfare; they are often mentioned as the holders of war captives. Sajal meant "feared one". The titles of ah tzʼihb and ah chʼul hun are both related to scribes. The ah tzʼihb was a royal scribe, usually a member of the royal family; the ah chʼul hun was the Keeper of the Holy Books, a title that is closely associated with the ajaw title, indicating that an ajaw always held the ah chʼul hun title simultaneously. Other courtly titles, the functions of which are not well understood, were yajaw kʼahk''' ("Lord of Fire"), tiʼhuun and ti'sakhuun. These last two may be variations on the same title, and Mark Zender has suggested that the holder of this title may have been the spokesman for the ruler. Courtly titles are overwhelmingly male-oriented, and in those relatively rare occasions where they are applied to a woman, they appear to be used as honorifics for female royalty. Titled elites were often associated with particular structures in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Classic period cities, indicating that such office holders either owned that structure, or that the structure was an important focus for their activities. A lakam, or standard-bearer, was possibly the only non-elite post-holder in the royal court. The lakam was only found in larger sites, and they appear to have been responsible for the taxation of local districts.
Different factions may have existed in the royal court. The kʼuhul ahaw and his household would have formed the central power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior aristocracy, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have formed an additional faction. Rivalry between different factions would have led to dynamic political institutions as compromises and disagreements were played out. In such a setting, public performance was vital. Such performances included ritual dances, presentation of war captives, offerings of tribute, human sacrifice, and religious ritual.
Commoners
Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90% of the population, but relatively little is known about them. Their houses were generally constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little trace in the archaeological record. Some commoner dwellings were raised on low platforms, and these can be identified, but an unknown quantity of commoner houses were not. Such low-status dwellings can only be detected by extensive remote-sensing surveys of apparently empty terrain. The range of commoners was broad; it consisted of everyone not of noble birth, and therefore included everyone from the poorest farmers to wealthy craftsmen and commoners appointed to bureaucratic positions. Commoners engaged in essential production activities, including that of products destined for use by the elite, such as cotton and cacao, as well as subsistence crops for their own use, and utilitarian items such as ceramics and stone tools. Commoners took part in warfare, and could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. Commoners paid taxes to the elite in the form of staple goods such as maize, flour and game. It is likely that hard-working commoners who displayed exceptional skills and initiative could become influential members of Maya society.
Warfare
Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. Military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the control of trade routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy state. Little is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or training. Warfare is depicted in Maya art from the Classic period, and wars and victories are mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Unfortunately, the inscriptions do not provide information upon the causes of war, or the form it took. In the 8th–9th centuries, intensive warfare resulted in the collapse of the kingdoms of the Petexbatún region of western Petén. The rapid abandonment of Aguateca by its inhabitants has provided a rare opportunity to examine the remains of Maya weaponry in situ. Aguateca was stormed by unknown enemies around 810 AD, who overcame its formidable defences and burned the royal palace. The elite inhabitants of the city either fled or were captured, and never returned to collect their abandoned property. The inhabitants of the periphery abandoned the site soon after. This is an example of intensive warfare carried out by an enemy in order to eliminate a Maya state, rather than subjugate it. Research at Aguateca indicated that Classic period warriors were primarily members of the elite.
From as early as the Preclassic period, the ruler of a Maya polity was expected to be a distinguished war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the Classic period, such trophy heads no longer appeared on the king's belt, but Classic period kings are frequently depicted standing over humiliated war captives. Right up to the end of the Postclassic period, Maya kings led as war captains. Maya inscriptions from the Classic show that a defeated king could be captured, tortured, and sacrificed. The Spanish recorded that Maya leaders kept track of troop movements in painted books.
The outcome of a successful military campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The captured nobles and their families could be imprisoned, or sacrificed. At the least severe end of the scale, the defeated polity would be obliged to pay tribute to the victor.
Warriors
During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specialised knowledge inherent in the particular military role was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders. There were also units of full-time mercenaries who followed permanent leaders. Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were primarily farmers; the needs of their crops usually came before warfare. Maya warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder.
There is some evidence from the Classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare ruling queens. By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in battle.
Weapons
The atlatl (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic. This was a stick with a notched end to hold a dart or javelin. The stick was used to launch the missile with more force and accuracy than could be accomplished by simply hurling it with the arm alone. Evidence in the form of stone blade points recovered from Aguateca indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the Classic Maya warrior. Commoners used blowguns in war, which also served as their hunting weapon. The bow and arrow is another weapon that was used by the ancient Maya for both war and hunting. Although present in the Maya region during the Classic period, its use as a weapon of war was not favoured; it did not become a common weapon until the Postclassic. The Contact period Maya also used two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl. Maya warriors wore body armour in the form of quilted cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armour compared favourably to the steel armour worn by the Spanish when they conquered the region. Warriors bore wooden or animal hide shields decorated with feathers and animal skins.
Trade
Trade was a key component of Maya society, and in the development of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most important usually controlled access to vital trade goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. The Maya were major producers of cotton, which was used to make the textiles to be traded throughout Mesoamerica. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of salt. In the Postclassic, the Maya engaged in a flourishing slave trade with wider Mesoamerica.
The Maya engaged in long-distance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an Early Classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, trade routes particularly focused on central Mexico and the Gulf coast. In the Early Classic, Chichen Itza was at the hub of an extensive trade network that imported gold discs from Colombia and Panama, and turquoise from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Long-distance trade of both luxury and utilitarian goods was probably controlled by the royal family. Prestige goods obtained by trade were used both for consumption by the city's ruler, and as luxury gifts to consolidate the loyalty of vassals and allies.
Trade routes not only supplied physical goods, they facilitated the movement of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. Shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in the Maya region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Preclassic Maya civilization, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic collapse. Even the Spanish Conquest did not immediately terminate all Maya trading activity; for example, the Contact period Manche Chʼol traded the prestige crops of cacao, annatto and vanilla into colonial Verapaz.
Merchants
Little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trading expeditions. The majority of traders were middle class, but were largely engaged in local and regional trade rather than the prestigious long-distance trading that was the preserve of the elite. The travelling of merchants into dangerous foreign territory was likened to a passage through the underworld; the patron deities of merchants were two underworld gods carrying backpacks. When merchants travelled, they painted themselves black, like their patron gods, and went heavily armed.
The Maya had no pack animals, so all trade goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland; if the trade route followed a river or the coast, then goods were transported in canoes. A substantial Maya trading canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. It was made from a large hollowed-out tree trunk and had a palm-covered canopy. The canoe was broad and was powered by 25 rowers. Trade goods carried included cacao, obsidian, ceramics, textiles, food and drink for the crew, and copper bells and axes. Cacao was used as currency (although not exclusively), and its value was such that counterfeiting occurred by removing the flesh from the pod, and stuffing it with dirt or avocado rind.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces are difficult to identify archaeologically. However, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the region. At some Classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scattered stones as the permanent foundations of market stalls. A 2007 study analysed soils from a modern Guatemalan market and compared the results with those obtained from analysis at a proposed ancient market at Chunchucmil. Unusually high levels of zinc and phosphorus at both sites indicated similar food production and vegetable sales activity. The calculated density of market stalls at Chunchucmil strongly suggests that a thriving market economy already existed in the Early Classic. Archaeologists have tentatively identified marketplaces at an increasing number of Maya cities by means of a combination of archaeology and soil analysis. When the Spanish arrived, Postclassic cities in the highlands had markets in permanent plazas, with officials on hand to settle disputes, enforce rules, and collect taxes.
Art
Maya art is essentially the art of the royal court. It is almost exclusively concerned with the Maya elite and their world. Maya art was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents only a small proportion of the art that the Maya created, it represents a wider variety of subjects than any other art tradition in the Americas. Maya art has many regional styles, and is unique in the ancient Americas in bearing narrative text. The finest surviving Maya art dates to the Late Classic period.
The Maya exhibited a preference for the colour green or blue-green, and used the same word for the colours blue and green. Correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green jade, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tesserae and beads, to carved heads weighing . The Maya nobility practised dental modification, and some lords wore encrusted jade in their teeth. Mosaic funerary masks could also be fashioned from jade, such as that of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, king of Palenque.
Maya stone sculpture emerged into the archaeological record as a fully developed tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. Because of the biodegradability of wood, the corpus of Maya woodwork has almost entirely disappeared. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include three-dimensional sculptures, and hieroglyphic panels. Stone Maya stelae are widespread in city sites, often paired with low, circular stones referred to as altars in the literature. Stone sculpture also took other forms, such as the limestone relief panels at Palenque and Piedras Negras. At Yaxchilan, Dos Pilas, Copán, and other sites, stone stairways were decorated with sculpture. The hieroglyphic stairway at Copán comprises the longest surviving Maya hieroglyphic text, and consists of 2,200 individual glyphs.
The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall, and the three-dimensional form was built up using small stones. Finally, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form; human body forms were first modelled in stucco, with their costumes added afterwards. The final stucco sculpture was then brightly painted. Giant stucco masks were used to adorn temple façades by the Late Preclassic, and such decoration continued into the Classic period.
The Maya had a long tradition of mural painting; rich polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Walls were coated with plaster, and polychrome designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic tombs painted in cream, red, and black have been excavated at Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal. Among the best preserved murals are a full-size series of Late Classic paintings at Bonampak.
Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. They were technically very challenging to produce, requiring considerable skill on the part of the artisan. Large obsidian eccentrics can measure over in length. Their actual form varies considerably but they generally depict human, animal and geometric forms associated with Maya religion. Eccentric flints show a great variety of forms, such as crescents, crosses, snakes, and scorpions. The largest and most elaborate examples display multiple human heads, with minor heads sometimes branching off from larger one.
Maya textiles are very poorly represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean region, it is likely that they were high-value items. A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best evidence for textile art is where they are represented in other media, such as painted murals or ceramics. Such secondary representations show the elite of the Maya court adorned with sumptuous cloths, generally these would have been cotton, but jaguar pelts and deer hides are also shown.
Ceramics are the most commonly surviving type of Maya art. The Maya had no knowledge of the potter's wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desired form. Maya pottery was not glazed, although it often had a fine finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay slips blended with minerals and coloured clays. Ancient Maya firing techniques have yet to be replicated. A quantity of extremely fine ceramic figurines have been excavated from Late Classic tombs on Jaina Island, in northern Yucatán. They stand from high and were hand modelled, with exquisite detail. The Ik-style polychrome ceramic corpus, including finely painted plates and cylindrical vessels, originated in Late Classic Motul de San José. It includes a set of features such as hieroglyphs painted in a pink or pale red colour and scenes with dancers wearing masks. One of the most distinctive features is the realistic representation of subjects as they appeared in life. The subject matter of the vessels includes courtly life from the Petén region in the 8th century AD, such as diplomatic meetings, feasting, bloodletting, scenes of warriors and the sacrifice of prisoners of war.
Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make small objects in gold, silver and copper. The Maya generally hammered sheet metal into objects such as beads, bells, and discs. In the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method to cast small metal pieces.
One poorly studied area of Maya folk art is graffiti. Additional graffiti, not part of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clustered in the Petén Basin and southern Campeche, and the Chenes region of northwestern Yucatán. At Tikal, where a great quantity of graffiti has been recorded, the subject matter includes drawings of temples, people, deities, animals, banners, litters, and thrones. Graffiti was often inscribed haphazardly, with drawings overlapping each other, and display a mix of crude, untrained art, and examples by artists who were familiar with Classic-period artistic conventions.
Architecture
The Maya produced a vast array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural legacy. Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences craft specialization in Maya society, centralised organization and the political means to mobilize a large workforce. It is estimated that a large elite residence at Copán required an estimated 10,686 man-days to build, which compares to 67-man-days for a commoner's hut. It is further estimated that 65% of the labour required to build the noble residence was used in the quarrying, transporting, and finishing of the stone used in construction, and 24% of the labour was required for the manufacture and application of limestone-based plaster. Altogether, it is estimated that two to three months were required for the construction of the residence for this single noble at Copán, using between 80 and 130 full-time labourers. A Classic-period city like Tikal was spread over , with an urban core covering . The labour required to build such a city was immense, running into many millions of man-days. The most massive structures ever erected by the Maya were built during the Preclassic period. Craft specialization would have required dedicated stonemasons and plasterers by the Late Preclassic, and would have required planners and architects.
Urban design
Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative centre surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes. The centres of all Maya cities featured sacred precincts, sometimes separated from nearby residential areas by walls. These precincts contained pyramid temples and other monumental architecture dedicated to elite activities, such as basal platforms that supported administrative or elite residential complexes. Sculpted monuments were raised to record the deeds of the ruling dynasty. City centres also featured plazas, sacred ballcourts and buildings used for marketplaces and schools. Frequently causeways linked the centre to outlying areas of the city. Some of these classes of architecture formed lesser groups in the outlying areas of the city, which served as sacred centres for non-royal lineages. The areas adjacent to these sacred compounds included residential complexes housing wealthy lineages. The largest and richest of these elite compounds sometimes possessed sculpture and art of craftsmanship equal to that of royal art.
The ceremonial centre of the Maya city was where the ruling elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was also where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city centre, while commoners had their residences dispersed further away from the ceremonial centre. Residential units were built on top of stone platforms to raise them above the level of the rain season floodwaters.
Building materials and methods
The Maya built their cities with Neolithic technology; they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The exact type of stone used in masonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this also affected the building style. Across a broad swathe of the Maya area, limestone was immediately available. The local limestone is relatively soft when freshly cut, but hardens with exposure. There was great variety in the quality of limestone, with good-quality stone available in the Usumacinta region; in the northern Yucatán, the limestone used in construction was of relatively poor quality. Volcanic tuff was used at Copán, and nearby Quiriguá employed sandstone. In Comalcalco, where suitable stone was not available locally, fired bricks were employed. Limestone was burned at high temperatures in order to manufacture cement, plaster, and stucco. Lime-based cement was used to seal stonework in place, and stone blocks were fashioned using rope-and-water abrasion, and with obsidian tools. The Maya did not employ a functional wheel, so all loads were transported on litters, barges, or rolled on logs. Heavy loads were lifted with rope, but probably without employing pulleys.
Wood was used for beams, and for lintels, even in masonry structures. Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was also applied; this consisted of mud strengthened with straw and was applied as a coating over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood and thatch, adobe was used throughout Maya history, even after the development of masonry structures. In the southern Maya area, adobe was employed in monumental architecture when no suitable stone was locally available.
Principal construction types
The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, sacbeob (causeways), patios and plazas. Some cities also possessed extensive hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagery. Many buildings were adorned with sculpture or painted stucco reliefs.
Palaces and acropoleis
These complexes were usually located in the site core, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom range structure. The term acropolis, in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite residential compounds. They generally extended horizontally as opposed to the towering Maya pyramids, and often had restricted access. Some structures in Maya acropoleis supported roof combs. Rooms often had stone benches, used for sleeping, and holes indicate where curtains once hung. Large palaces, such as at Palenque, could be fitted with a water supply, and sweat baths were often found within the complex, or nearby. During the Early Classic, rulers were sometimes buried underneath the acropolis complex. Some rooms in palaces were true throne rooms; in the royal palace of Palenque there were a number of throne rooms that were used for important events, including the inauguration of new kings.
Palaces are usually arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards; some examples are adorned with sculpture. Some palaces possess associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant evidence that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and that a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal receptions, and important rituals.
Pyramids and temples
Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic texts as kʼuh nah, meaning "god's house". Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon low platforms. By the Late Preclassic period, their walls were of stone, and the development of the corbel arch allowed stone roofs to replace thatch. By the Classic period, temple roofs were being topped with roof combs that extended the height of the temple and served as a foundation for monumental art. The temple shrines contained between one and three rooms, and were dedicated to important deities. Such a deity might be one of the patron gods of the city, or a deified ancestor. In general, freestanding pyramids were shrines honouring powerful ancestors.
E-Groups and observatories
The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. The Lost World complex at Tikal started out as an E-Group built towards the end of the Middle Preclassic. Due to its nature, the basic layout of an E-Group was constant. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza; it was usually a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three small temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes. E-Groups were raised across the central and southern Maya area for over a millennium; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their function may have been symbolic.
As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomical bodies, including the planet Venus, and various constellations. The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level edifice, with a conical superstructure. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. At Copán, a pair of stelae were raised to mark the position of the setting sun at the equinoxes.
Triadic pyramids
Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Temple IV, the largest pyramid at Tikal. The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the central plaza on top of the basal platform. No securely established forerunners of Triadic Groups are known, but they may have developed from the eastern range building of E-Group complexes. The triadic form was the predominant architectural form in the Petén region during the Late Preclassic. Examples of triadic pyramids are known from as many as 88 archaeological sites. At Nakbe, there are at least a dozen examples of triadic complexes and the four largest structures in the city are triadic in nature. At El Mirador there are probably as many as 36 triadic structures. Examples of the triadic form are even known from Dzibilchaltun in the far north of the Yucatán Peninsula, and Qʼumarkaj in the Highlands of Guatemala. The triadic pyramid remained a popular architectural form for centuries after the first examples were built; it continued in use into the Classic Period, with later examples being found at Uaxactun, Caracol, Seibal, Nakum, Tikal and Palenque. The Qʼumarkaj example is the only one that has been dated to the Postclassic Period. The triple-temple form of the triadic pyramid appears to be related to Maya mythology.
Ballcourts
The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the Classic period, the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. By the time of Spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Highlands, at cities such as Qʼumarkaj and Iximche. Throughout Maya history, ballcourts maintained a characteristic form consisting of an ɪ shape, with a central playing area terminating in two transverse end zones. The central playing area usually measures between long, and is flanked by two lateral structures that stood up to high. The lateral platforms often supported structures that may have held privileged spectators. The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is the largest in Mesoamerica, measuring long by wide, with walls standing high.
Regional architectural styles
Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style. Such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural styles.
Central Petén
The central Petén style of architecture is modelled after the great city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. One of the finest examples of Central Petén style architecture is Tikal Temple I. Examples of sites in the Central Petén style include Altun Ha, Calakmul, Holmul, Ixkun, Nakum, Naranjo, and Yaxhá.
Puuc
The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened their corbel arches; this allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions of long-nosed deities such as the rain god Chaac and the Principal Bird Deity. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca, outside the Maya area. In contrast, the lower façades were left undecorated. Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites.
Chenes
The Chenes style is very similar to the Puuc style, but predates the use of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural realm. Some buildings contained interior stairways that accessed different levels. The Chenes style is most commonly encountered in the southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula, although individual buildings in the style can be found elsewhere in the peninsula. Examples of Chenes sites include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Tabasqueño.
Río Bec
The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, and also features elements of the Central Petén style, such as prominent roof combs. Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking interior rooms, with steep, almost vertical, stairways and false doors. These towers were adorned with deity masks, and were built to impress the viewer, rather than serve any practical function. Such false towers are only found in the Río Bec region. Río Bec sites include Chicanná, Hormiguero, and Xpuhil.
Usumacinta
The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal structures. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. Many sites erected stelae, but Palenque instead developed finely sculpted panelling to decorate its buildings.
Language
Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. Proto-Mayan diverged during the Preclassic period to form the major Mayan language groups that make up the family, including Huastecan, Greater Kʼicheʼan, Greater Qʼanjobalan, Mamean, Tzʼeltalan-Chʼolan, and Yucatecan. These groups diverged further during the pre-Columbian era to form over 30 languages that have survived into modern times. The language of almost all Classic Maya texts over the entire Maya area has been identified as Chʼolan; Late Preclassic text from Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, also appears to be in, or related to, Chʼolan. The use of Chʼolan as the language of Maya text does not necessarily indicate that it was the language commonly used by the local populace – it may have been equivalent to Medieval Latin as a ritual or prestige language. Classic Chʼolan may have been the prestige language of the Classic Maya elite, used in inter-polity communication such as diplomacy and trade. By the Postclassic period, Yucatec was also being written in Maya codices alongside Chʼolan.
Writing and literacy
The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. It was the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system of more than a dozen systems that developed in Mesoamerica. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 300–200 BC, in the Petén Basin. However, this is preceded by several other Mesoamerican writing systems, such as the Epi-Olmec and Zapotec scripts. Early Maya script had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the late 1st century AD, or early 2nd century. Similarities between the Isthmian script and Early Maya script of the Pacific coast suggest that the two systems developed in tandem. By about AD 250, the Maya script had become a more formalised and consistent writing system.
The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity is disputed. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed. In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe stated:
Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. Other media include the aforementioned codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a variety of materials, including bone, shell, obsidian, and jade.
Writing system
The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing) is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words.Tanaka 2008, pp. 30, 53. Among the writing systems of the Pre-Columbian New World, Maya script most closely represents the spoken language. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) were phonetic.
The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics. The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language name amatl used to produce codices.Tobin 2001. The skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the Spanish conquest. The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society.
The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts, and ongoing work continues to further illuminate the content.Kettunen & Helmke 2014, p. 9.
Logosyllabic script
The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern. For ease of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. Thus, any glyph block in a piece of text can be identified. C4 would be third block counting from the left, and the fourth block counting downwards. If a monument or artefact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, rather they continue in the alphabetic series; if there are more than 26 columns, the labelling continues as A', B', etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of text.
Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left (block A1), continues to the second block in the double-column (B1), then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column (A2), and thus continues in zig-zag fashion. Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top left of the next double column. Where an inscription ends in a single (unpaired) column, this final column is usually read straight downwards.
Individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or phonetic sign. Some main signs are abstract, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are "head variants", personifications of the word they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, usually attached to a main sign, although a block may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of speech elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. Small sections of a main sign could be used to represent the whole main sign, and Maya scribes were highly inventive in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements.
Writing tools
Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from pliable hair. A Classic period sculpture from Copán, Honduras, depicts a scribe with an inkpot fashioned from a conch shell. Excavations at Aguateca uncovered a number of scribal artefacts from the residences of elite status scribes, including palettes and mortars and pestles.
Scribes and literacy
Commoners were illiterate; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the aristocracy could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. Maya scribes were called aj tzʼib, meaning "one who writes or paints". There were probably scribal schools where members of the aristocracy were taught to write. Scribal activity is identifiable in the archaeological record; Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I, king of Tikal, was interred with his paint pot. Some junior members of the Copán royal dynasty have also been found buried with their writing implements. A palace at Copán has been identified as that of a noble lineage of scribes; it is decorated with sculpture that includes figures holding ink pots.
Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpture. Usually, only a single scribe signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpture; eight sculptors signed one stela at Piedras Negras. However, most works remained unsigned by their artists.
Mathematics
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide, although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system. The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD. In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish.
The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero; during the Classic period other glyphs were used. The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 used repetitions of these symbols. The value of a numeral was determined by its position; as a numeral shifted upwards, its basic value multiplied by twenty. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and so on. For example, the number 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next level up, and two dots on the next level after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. Simple addition could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column.
Calendar
The Maya calendrical system, in common with other Mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period. However, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with great accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World; for example, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the Julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was central to Maya religious practices. The calendar combined a non-repeating Long Count with three interlocking cycles, each measuring a progressively larger period. These were the 260-day tzolkʼin, the 365-day haabʼ, and the 52-year Calendar Round, resulting from the combination of the tzolkʼin with the haab'. There were also additional calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god Kʼawiil.
The basic unit in the Maya calendar was one day, or kʼin, and 20 kʼin grouped to form a winal. The next unit, instead of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a rough approximation of the solar year (hence producing 360 days). This 360-day year was called a tun. Each succeeding level of multiplication followed the vigesimal system.
The 260-day tzolkʼin provided the basic cycle of Maya ceremony, and the foundations of Maya prophecy. No astronomical basis for this count has been proved, and it may be that the 260-day count is based on the human gestation period. This is reinforced by the use of the tzolkʼin to record dates of birth, and provide corresponding prophecy. The 260-day cycle repeated a series of 20-day-names, with a number from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the cycle a particular day occurred.
The 365-day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named 20-day winals, completed by the addition of a 5-day period called the wayeb. The wayeb was considered to be a dangerous time, when the barriers between the mortal and supernatural realms were broken, allowing malignant deities to cross over and interfere in human concerns. In a similar way to the tzʼolkin, the named winal would be prefixed by a number (from 0 to 19), in the case of the shorter wayeb period, the prefix numbers ran 0 to 4. Since each day in the tzʼolkin had a name and number (e.g. 8 Ajaw), this would interlock with the haab, producing an additional number and name, to give any day a more complete designation, for example 8 Ajaw 13 Keh. Such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round. In most Mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit for measuring time.
As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start point. The Maya set the beginning of their calendar as the end of a previous cycle of bakʼtuns, equivalent to a day in 3114 BC. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the world in its current form. The Maya used the Long Count Calendar to fix any given day of the Calendar Round within their current great Piktun cycle consisting of either 20 bakʼtuns. There was some variation in the calendar, specifically texts in Palenque demonstrate that the piktun cycle that ended in 3114 BC had only 13 bakʼtuns, but others used a cycle of 13 + 20 bakʼtun in the current piktun. Additionally, there may have been some regional variation in how these exceptional cycles were managed.
A full long count date consisted of an introductory glyph followed by five glyphs counting off the number of bakʼtuns, katʼuns, tuns, winals, and kʼins since the start of the current creation. This would be followed by the tzʼolkin portion of the Calendar Round date, and after a number of intervening glyphs, the Long Count date would end with the Haab portion of the Calendar Round date.
Correlation of the Long Count calendar
Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic period. The Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. The most generally accepted correlation is the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation. This equates the Long Count date 11.16.0.0.0 13 Ajaw 8 Xul with the Gregorian date of 12 November 1539. Epigraphers Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube argue for a two-day shift from the standard GMT correlation. The Spinden Correlation would shift the Long Count dates back by 260 years; it also accords with the documentary evidence, and is better suited to the archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, but presents problems with the rest of the Maya region. The George Vaillant Correlation would shift all Maya dates 260 years later, and would greatly shorten the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dating of dated wooden lintels at Tikal supports the GMT correlation.
Astronomy
The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun, moon, Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was mainly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it also had some practical applications, such as providing aid in crop planting and harvesting. The priesthood refined observations and recorded eclipses of the sun and moon, and movements of Venus and the stars; these were measured against dated events in the past, on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the same astronomical conditions prevailed. Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomical observations using the naked eye, assisted by crossed sticks as a sighting device. Analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that, at the time of European contact, the Maya had recorded eclipse tables, calendars, and astronomical knowledge that was more accurate at that time than comparable knowledge in Europe.
The Maya measured the 584-day Venus cycle with an error of just two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight 365-day haab calendrical cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins. For the Maya, the heliacal rising of Venus was associated with destruction and upheaval. Venus was closely associated with warfare, and the hieroglyph meaning "war" incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet. Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus' path. Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rising of Venus, and would also sacrifice important captives to coincide with such conjunctions.
Solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be especially dangerous events that could bring catastrophe upon the world. In the Dresden Codex, a solar eclipse is represented by a serpent devouring the kʼin ("day") hieroglyph. Eclipses were interpreted as the sun or moon being bitten, and lunar tables were recorded in order that the Maya might be able to predict them, and perform the appropriate ceremonies to ward off disaster.
Religion and mythology
In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural realm inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. At the core of Maya religious practice was the worship of deceased ancestors, who would intercede for their living descendants in dealings with the supernatural realm. The earliest intermediaries between humans and the supernatural were shamans. Maya ritual included the use of hallucinogens for chilan, oracular priests. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water lilies, which are hallucinogenic in high doses. As the Maya civilization developed, the ruling elite codified the Maya world view into religious cults that justified their right to rule. In the Late Preclassic, this process culminated in the institution of the divine king, the kʼuhul ajaw, endowed with ultimate political and religious power.
The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the mortal world in between. Each level had four cardinal directions associated with a different colour; north was white, east was red, south was yellow, and west was black. Major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours.
Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the family. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a prominent male ancestor would be emphasised, often with a household shrine. As Maya society developed, and the elite became more powerful, Maya royalty developed their household shrines into the great pyramids that held the tombs of their ancestors.
Belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and influenced every aspect of it, from the simplest day-to-day activities such as food preparation, to trade, politics, and elite activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. The Maya priesthood was a closed group, drawing its members from the established elite; by the Early Classic they were recording increasingly complex ritual information in their hieroglyphic books, including astronomical observations, calendrical cycles, history and mythology. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feasting, bloodletting, incense burning, music, ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, human sacrifice. During the Classic period, the Maya ruler was the high priest, and the direct conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly likely that, among commoners, shamanism continued in parallel to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious emphasis had changed; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more frequent recourse to human sacrifice.
Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques. One important, though incomplete, resource is physical evidence, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. Maya art, architecture, and writing are another resource, and these can be combined with ethnographic sources, including records of Maya religious practices made by the Spanish during the conquest.
Human sacrifice
Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour.
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, perhaps in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the death gods. In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days later ritually decapitated him. Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled. Another myth associated with decapitation was that of the Hero Twins recounted in the Popol Vuh: playing a ballgame against the gods of the underworld, the heroes achieved victory, but one of each pair of twins was decapitated by their opponents.
During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. In one ritual, the corpse would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet, and the officiating priest would then dress himself in the skin of the sacrificial victim and perform a ritual dance symbolizing the rebirth of life. Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.
Deities
The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad interpretation of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. The Maya interpretation of deities was closely tied to the calendar, astronomy, and their cosmology. The importance of a deity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of celestial bodies. The priestly interpretation of astronomical records and books was therefore crucial, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual propitiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offering. Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. They also had a dual day-night/life-death aspect.
Itzamna was the creator god, but he also embodied the cosmos, and was simultaneously a sun god; Kʼinich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with Kʼinich Ahau. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its journey through the underworld. The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the mortal realm; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the same function. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood. The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains. The nine lords of the night each governed one of the underworld realms. Other important deities included the moon goddess, the maize god, and the Hero Twins.
The Popol Vuh was written in the Latin script in early colonial times, and was probably transcribed from a hieroglyphic book by an unknown Kʼicheʼ Maya nobleman. It is one of the most outstanding works of indigenous literature in the Americas. The Popul Vuh recounts the mythical creation of the world, the legend of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ kingdom. Deities recorded in the Popul Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, believed by some to be the Kʼicheʼ maize god, and a triad of deities led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil, and also including the moon goddess Awilix, and the mountain god Jacawitz.
In common with other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered serpent deities. Such worship was rare during the Classic period, but by the Postclassic the feathered serpent had spread to both the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands. In Yucatán, the feathered serpent deity was Kukulkan, among the Kʼicheʼ it was Qʼuqʼumatz. Kukulkan had his origins in the Classic period War Serpent, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan'', and has also been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in these earlier Maya traditions, the worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl cult of central Mexico. Likewise, Qʼuqʼumatz had a composite origin, combining the attributes of Mexican Quetzalcoatl with aspects of the Classic period Itzamna.
Agriculture
The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food, but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, intensive gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different agricultural systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs. Contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya in areas that were densely populated in pre-Columbian times, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that maize, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.
The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide variety of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. At Joya de Cerén, a volcanic eruption preserved a record of foodstuffs stored in Maya homes, among them were chilies and tomatoes. Cotton seeds were in the process of being ground, perhaps to produce cooking oil. In addition to basic foodstuffs, the Maya also cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was especially prized by the elite, who consumed chocolate beverages. Cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into valuable textiles in order to be traded.
The Maya had few domestic animals; dogs were domesticated by 3000 BC, and the Muscovy duck by the Late Postclassic. Ocellated turkeys were unsuitable for domestication, but were rounded up in the wild and penned for fattening. All of these were used as food animals; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is possible that deer were also penned and fattened.
Maya sites
There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum. The Río Bec sites of the base of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, other than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Qʼumarkaj (also known as Utatlán). In the northern Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is generally difficult. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún. Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.
Museum collections
There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections. The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over 250 museums in its Maya Museum database, and the European Association of Mayanists lists just under 50 museums in Europe alone.
See also
Entheogenics and the Maya
Huastec civilization
Index of Mexico-related articles
Songs of Dzitbalche
References
Bibliography
Alt URL
Full list from FAMSI archived from the original on 2015-06-08.
Further reading
External links
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI)
Primary sources of Maya history – part one by Ronald A. Barnett
Mesoweb by Joel Skidmore.
Maya Map – A map of the Maya civilization.
Former monarchies of North America
History of Guatemala
History of Belize
History of Chiapas
History of El Salvador
History of Honduras
2nd-millennium BC establishments
1697 disestablishments in North America
Former countries in North America
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"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
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"Samuel de Champlain",
"Relations and war with natives"
] |
C_47fd9c03dc404f3aa01f69f2660dd953_0
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When did Champlain land at the "point of Quebec"?
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When did Champlain land at the "point of Quebec"?
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Samuel de Champlain
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During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes demanded that Champlain help them in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Riviere des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Iroquois at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives. On July 29, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois. In a battle begun the next day, two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century. The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wyandot people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years. CANNOTANSWER
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During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes.
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Samuel de Champlain (; c. 13 August 1567 – 25 December 1635) was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations, and founded various colonial settlements.
Born into a family of sailors, Champlain began exploring North America in 1603, under the guidance of his uncle, François Gravé Du Pont. After 1603, Champlain's life and career consolidated into the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
From 1604 to 1607, he participated in the exploration and creation of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605).
In 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City.
Champlain was the first European to describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives.
He formed long time relationships with local Montagnais and Innu, and, later, with others farther west—tribes of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, and with Algonquin and Wendat; he also agreed to provide assistance in the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois.
Late in the year of 1615, Champlain returned to the Wendat and stayed with them over the winter, which permitted him to make the first ethnographic observations of this important nation, the events of which form the bulk of his book Voyages et Decouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis l’année 1615 published in 1619.
In 1620, Louis XIII of France ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.
In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.
Champlain established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death, in 1635.
Champlain is memorialized as the "Father of New France", "Father of Acadia", or in French "Père de la Nouvelle-France" with many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bearing his name, most notably Lake Champlain.
Birth year, location and family
Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written "Anthoine Chappelain" in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, in either Hiers-Brouage, or the port city of La Rochelle, in the French province of Aunis.
He was born on or before 13 August 1574, according to a recent baptism record found by Jean-Marie Germe, French genealogist.
Although in 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his Œuvres de Champlain, accepted Pierre-Damien Rainguet's estimate of Champlain's birth in 1567 and tried to justify it, his calculations were based on assumptions now believed or proven, to be incorrect.
Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle) wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimate was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence. The 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain and is widely regarded as accurate.
In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed, choosing 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage, France."
Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).
Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613).
He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children. The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage.
Born into a family of mariners (both his father and uncle-in-law were sailors, or navigators), Samuel Champlain learned to navigate, draw, make nautical charts, and write practical reports. His education did not include Ancient Greek or Latin, so he did not read or learn from any ancient literature.
As each French fleet had to assure its own defense at sea, Champlain sought to learn to fight with the firearms of his time: he acquired this practical knowledge when serving with the army of King Henry IV during the later stages of France's religious wars in Brittany from 1594 or 1595 to 1598, beginning as a quartermaster responsible for the feeding and care of horses.
During this time he claimed to go on a "certain secret voyage" for the king, and saw combat (including maybe the Siege of Fort Crozon, at the end of 1594). By 1597 he was a "capitaine d'une compagnie" serving in a garrison near Quimper.
Early travels
In year 3 his uncle-in-law, a navigator whose ship Saint-Julien was to transport Spanish troops to Cádiz pursuant to the Treaty of Vervins, gave Champlain the opportunity to accompany him.
After a difficult passage, he spent some time in Cádiz before his uncle, whose ship was then chartered to accompany a large Spanish fleet to the West Indies, again offered him a place on the ship. His uncle, who gave command of the ship to Jeronimo de Valaebrera, instructed the young Champlain to watch over the ship.
This journey lasted two years and gave Champlain the opportunity to see or hear about Spanish holdings from the Caribbean to Mexico City. Along the way, he took detailed notes, wrote an illustrated report on what he learned on this trip, and gave this secret report to King Henry, who rewarded Champlain with an annual pension.
This report was published for the first time in 1870, by Laverdière, as Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (and in English as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602).
The authenticity of this account as a work written by Champlain has frequently been questioned, due to inaccuracies and discrepancies with other sources on a number of points; however, recent scholarship indicates that the work probably was authored by Champlain.
On Champlain's return to Cádiz in August 1600, his uncle Guillermo Elena (Guillaume Allene), who had fallen ill, asked him to look after his business affairs. This Champlain did, and when his uncle died in June 1601, Champlain inherited his substantial estate. It included an estate near La Rochelle, commercial properties in Spain, and a 150-ton merchant ship.
This inheritance, combined with the king's annual pension, gave the young explorer a great deal of independence, as he did not need to rely on the financial backing of merchants and other investors.
From 1601 to 1603 Champlain served as a geographer in the court of King Henry IV. As part of his duties, he traveled to French ports and learned much about North America from the fishermen that seasonally traveled to coastal areas from Nantucket to Newfoundland to capitalize on the rich fishing grounds there.
He also made a study of previous French failures at colonization in the area, including that of Pierre de Chauvin at Tadoussac. When Chauvin forfeited his monopoly on the fur trade in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent.
Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm lifelong friendship.
He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and in Acadia after). The Bonne-Renommée (the Good Fame) arrived at Tadoussac on March 15, 1603. Champlain was anxious to see for himself all of the places that Jacques Cartier had seen and described sixty years earlier, and wanted to go even further than Cartier, if possible.
Champlain created a map of the Saint Lawrence on this trip and, after his return to France on 20 September, published an account as Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 ("Concerning the Savages: or travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, made in New France in the year 1603").
Included in his account were meetings with Begourat, chief of the Montagnais at Tadoussac, in which positive relationships were established between the French and the many Montagnais gathered there, with some Algonquin friends.
Promising to King Henry to report on further discoveries, Champlain joined a second expedition to New France in the spring of 1604. This trip, once again an exploratory journey without women and children, lasted several years, and focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence River, in what later became known as Acadia. It was led by Pierre Dugua de Mons, a noble and Protestant merchant who had been given a fur trading monopoly in New France by the king. Dugua asked Champlain to find a site for winter settlement.
After exploring possible sites in the Bay of Fundy, Champlain selected Saint Croix Island in the St. Croix River as the site of the expedition's first winter settlement. After enduring a harsh winter on the island the settlement was relocated across the bay where they established Port Royal. Until 1607, Champlain used that site as his base, while he explored the Atlantic coast. Dugua was forced to leave the settlement for France in September 1605, because he learned that his monopoly was at risk. His monopoly was rescinded by the king in July 1607 under pressure from other merchants and proponents of free trade, leading to the abandonment of the settlement.
In 1605 and 1606, Champlain explored the North American coast as far south as Cape Cod, searching for sites for a permanent settlement. Minor skirmishes with the resident Nausets dissuaded him from the idea of establishing one near present-day Chatham, Massachusetts. He named the area Mallebar ("bad bar").
Founding of Quebec
In the spring of 1608, Dugua wanted Champlain to start a new French colony and fur trading centre on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Dugua equipped, at his own expense, a fleet of three ships with workers, that left the French port of Honfleur. The main ship, called the Don-de-Dieu (French for the Gift of God), was commanded by Champlain. Another ship, the Lévrier (the Hunt Dog), was commanded by his friend Du Pont. The small group of male settlers arrived at Tadoussac on the lower St. Lawrence in June. Because of the dangerous strength of the Saguenay River ending there, they left the ships and continued up the "Big River" in small boats bringing the men and the materials.
Upon arriving in Quebec, Champlain later wrote: "I arrived there on the 3rd of July, when I searched for a place suitable for our settlement; but I could find none more convenient or better suited than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut-trees." Champlain ordered his men to gather lumber by cutting down the nut-trees for use in building habitations.
Some days after Champlain's arrival in Quebec, Jean du Val, a member of Champlain's party, plotted to kill Champlain to the end of securing the settlement for the Basques or Spaniards and making a fortune for himself. Du Val's plot was ultimately foiled when an associate of Du Val confessed his involvement in the plot to Champlain's pilot, who informed Champlain. Champlain had a young man deliver Du Val, along with 3 co-conspirators, two bottles of wine and invite the four worthies to an event on board a boat. Soon after the four conspirators arrived on the boat, Champlain had them arrested. Du Val was strangled and hung in Quebec and his head was displayed in the "most conspicuous place" of Champlain's fort. The other three were sent back to France to be tried.
Relations and war with Native Americans
During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local First Nations tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (derogatorily called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes sought Champlain's help in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Rivière des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Haudenosaunee at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives.
On 29 July, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Haudenosaunee. In a battle that began the next day, two hundred and fifty Haudenosaunee advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Haudenosaunee turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century.
The Battle of Sorel occurred on 19 June 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wendat people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Champlain's forces armed with the arquebus engaged and slaughtered or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years.
Marriage
One route Champlain may have chosen to improve his access to the court of the regent was his decision to enter into marriage with the twelve-year-old Hélène Boullé. She was the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, a man charged with carrying out royal decisions at court. The marriage contract was signed on 27 December 1610 in presence of Dugua, who had dealt with the father, and the couple was married three days later. The terms of the contract called for the marriage to be consummated two years later.
Champlain's marriage was initially quite troubled, as Hélène rallied against joining him in August 1613. Their relationship, while it apparently lacked any physical connection, recovered and was apparently good for many years. Hélène lived in Quebec for several years, but returned to Paris and eventually decided to enter a convent. The couple had no children, and Champlain adopted three Montagnais girls named Faith, Hope, and Charity in the winter of 1627–28.
Exploration of New France
On 29 March 1613, arriving back in New France, he first ensured that his new royal commission be proclaimed. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably Hudson Bay). He travelled the Ottawa River, later giving the first description of this area. Along the way, he apparently dropped or left behind a cache of silver cups, copper kettles, and a brass astrolabe dated 1603 (Champlain's Astrolabe), which was later found by a farm boy named Edward Lee near Cobden, Ontario. It was in June that he met with Tessouat, the Algonquin chief of Allumettes Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids.
By 26 August, Champlain was back in Saint-Malo. There, he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages and published another map of New France. In 1614, he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four Recollects in order to further religious life in the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land, estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the French Crown in New France.
In 1615, Champlain reunited with Étienne Brûlé, his capable interpreter, following separate four-year explorations. There, Brûlé reported North American explorations, including that he had been joined by another French interpreter named Grenolle with whom he had travelled along the north shore of la mer douce (the calm sea), now known as Lake Huron, to the great rapids of Sault Ste. Marie, where Lake Superior enters Lake Huron, some of which was recorded by Champlain.
Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives, promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides, he explored further up the Ottawa River and reached Lake Nipissing. He then followed the French River until he reached Lake Huron.
In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Wendat. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road) and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth.
Military expedition
On 1 September 1615, at Cahiagué (a Wendat community on what is now called Lake Simcoe), he and the northern tribes started a military expedition against the Iroquois. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they arrived at the main Onondaga fort on October 10. The exact location of this place is still a matter of debate. Although the traditional location, Nichols Pond, is regularly disproved by professional and amateur archaeologists, many still claim that Nichols Pond is the location of the battle, south of Canastota, New York. Champlain attacked the stockaded Oneida village. He was accompanied by 10 Frenchmen and 300 Wendat. Pressured by the Huron Wendat to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The conflict ended on October 16 when the French Wendat were forced to flee.
Although he did not want to, the Wendat insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay, he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of First Nations people by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On 22 May 1616, he left the Wendat country and returned to Quebec before heading back to France on 2 July.
Improving administration in New France
Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the territory rather than exploration. Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cape Diamond. By mid-May, he learned that the fur trading monopoly had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the natives and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Iroquois.
Champlain continued to work on the fortifications of what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on 6 May 1624. On 15 August he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue looking for a passage to China, something widely believed to exist at the time. By July 5 he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.
In 1627 the Caen brothers' company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, and Cardinal Richelieu (who had joined the Royal Council in 1624 and rose rapidly to a position of dominance in French politics that he would hold until his death in 1642) formed the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (the Hundred Associates) to manage the fur trade. Champlain was one of the 100 investors, and its first fleet, loaded with colonists and supplies, set sail in April 1628.
Champlain had overwintered in Quebec. Supplies were low, and English merchants sacked Cap Tourmente in early July 1628. A war had broken out between France and England, and Charles I of England had issued letters of marque that authorized the capture of French shipping and its colonies in North America. Champlain received a summons to surrender on July 10 from the Kirke brothers, two Scottish brothers who were working for the English government. Champlain refused to deal with them, misleading them to believe that Quebec's defenses were better than they actually were (Champlain had only 50 pounds of gunpowder to defend the community). Successfully bluffed, they withdrew, but encountered and captured the French supply fleet, cutting off that year's supplies to the colony. By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé and into Indian communities to conserve rations. On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived before Quebec after intercepting Champlain's plea for help, and Champlain was forced to surrender the colony. Many colonists were transported first to England and then to France by the Kirkes, but Champlain remained in London to begin the process of regaining the colony. A peace treaty had been signed in April 1629, three months before the surrender, and, under the terms of that treaty, Quebec and other prizes that were taken by the Kirkes after the treaty were to be returned. It was not until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, however, that Quebec was formally given back to France. (David Kirke was rewarded when Charles I knighted him and gave him a charter for Newfoundland.) Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on 1 March 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu" from 1629 to 1635. In 1632 Champlain published Voyages de la Nouvelle-France, which was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain made more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)
Last return, and last years working in Quebec
Champlain returned to Quebec on 22 May 1633, after an absence of four years. Richelieu gave him a commission as Lieutenant General of New France, along with other titles and responsibilities, but not that of governor. Despite this lack of formal status, many colonists, French merchants, and Indians treated him as if he had the title; writings survive in which he is referred to as "our governor". On 18 August 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, and established two more habitations. One was 15 leagues upstream, and the other was at Trois-Rivières. He also began an offensive against the Iroquois, reporting that he wanted them either wiped out or "brought to reason".
Death and burial
Champlain had a severe stroke in October 1635, and died on 25 December, leaving no immediate heirs. Jesuit records state he died in the care of his friend and confessor Charles Lallemant.
Although his will (drafted on 17 November 1635) gave much of his French property to his wife Hélène Boullé, he made significant bequests to the Catholic missions and to individuals in the colony of Quebec. However, Marie Camaret, a cousin on his mother's side, challenged the will in Paris and had it overturned. It is unclear exactly what happened to his estate.
Samuel de Champlain was temporarily buried in the church while a standalone chapel was built to hold his remains in the upper part of the city. Unfortunately, this small building, along with many others, was destroyed by a large fire in 1640. Though immediately rebuilt, no traces of it exist anymore: his exact burial site is still unknown, despite much research since about 1850, including several archaeological digs in the city. There is general agreement that the previous Champlain chapel site, and the remains of Champlain, should be somewhere near the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral.
The search for Champlain's remains supplies a key plot-line in the crime writer Louise Penny's 2010 novel, Bury Your Dead.
Legacy
Many sites and landmarks have been named to honour Champlain, who was a prominent figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont. Memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Father of Acadia", his historic significance endures in modern times. Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between northern New York and Vermont, extending slightly across the border into Canada, was named by him, in 1609, when he led an expedition along the Richelieu River, exploring a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York. The first European to map and describe it, Champlain claimed the lake as his namesake.
Memorials include:
Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, the Champlain Trail Lakes.
Champlain Sea: a past inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, over the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and the Richelieu rivers, to over Lake Champlain, which inlet disappeared many thousands years before Champlain was born.
Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park – which he first observed in 1604.
A town and village in New York, as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Quebec.
The provincial electoral district of Champlain, Quebec, and several defunct electoral districts elsewhere in Canada.
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, a provincial park in northern Ontario near the town of Mattawa.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the island of Montreal to Brossard, Quebec across the St. Lawrence.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.
Champlain College, one of six colleges at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, is named in his honour.
Fort Champlain, a dormitory at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario; named in his honour in 1965, it houses the 10th cadet squadron.
A French school in Saint John, New Brunswick; École Champlain, an elementary school in Moncton, New Brunswick and one in Brossard; Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont; and Champlain Regional College, a CEGEP with three campuses in Quebec.
Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in Montreal.
Streets named Champlain in numerous cities, including Quebec, Shawinigan, the city of Dieppe in the province of New Brunswick, in Plattsburgh, and no less than eleven communities in northwestern Vermont.
A garden called Jardin Samuel-de-Champlain in Paris, France.
A memorial statue on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain in a park named for Champlain.
A memorial statue in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in Queen Square that commemorates his discovery of the Saint John River.
A memorial statue in Isle La Motte, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.
The lighthouse at Crown Point, New York features a statue of Champlain by Carl Augustus Heber.
A commemorative stamp issue in May 2006 jointly by the United States Postal Service and Canada Post.
A statue in Ticonderoga, New York, unveiled in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of Lake Champlain.
A statue in Orillia, Ontario at Couchiching Beach Park on Lake Couchiching. This statue was removed by Parks Canada, and is not likely to be returned, as it incorporated offensive depictions of First Nations peoples.
HMCS Champlain (1919), a S class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1928 to 1936.
HMCS Champlain, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve division based in Chicoutimi, Quebec since activation in 1985.
Champlain Place, a shopping centre located in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada.
The Champlain Society, a Canadian historical and text publication society, chartered in 1927.
A memorial statue in Ottawa at Nepean Point, by Hamilton MacCarthy. The statue depicts Champlain holding an astrolabe (upside-down, as it happens). It did previously include an "Indian Scout" kneeling at its base. In the 1990s, after lobbying by Indigenous people, it was removed from the statue's base, renamed and placed as "Anishinaabe Scout" in Major's Hill Park.
Bibliography
These are works that were written by Champlain:
Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (first French publication 1870, first English publication 1859 as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602)
Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 (first French publication 1604, first English publication 1625)
Voyages de la Nouvelle-France (first French publication 1632)
Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier (first French publication 1632)
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
Note: Mathieu d'Avignon (Ph.D. in history, Laval University, 2006) is an affiliate researcher into the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi Research Group on History. He is preparing a special new full edition, in modern French, of Champlain's Voyages in New France.
Further reading
Dix, Edwin Asa. (1903). Champlain, the Founder of New France, IndyPublish
Morison, Samuel Eliot, (1972). Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France Little Brown,
External links
From Marcel Trudel: Champlain, Samuel de (at The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Champlain in Acadia
Biography at the Museum of Civilization
Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.
They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, October 31, 2008
Dead Reckoning – Champlain in America, PBS documentary 2009
World Digital Library presentation of Descripsion des costs, pts., rades, illes de la Nouuele France faict selon son vray méridienor Description of the Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France. Library of Congress. Primary source portolan style chart on vellum with summary description, image with enhanced view and zoom features, text to speech capability. French. Links to related content. Content available as TIF. One of the major cartographic resources, this map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod.
A book from 1603 of Champlain's first voyage to New France from the World Digital Library
Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Inquiry
From Samuel de Champlain: Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... (1632) (at Rare Book Room)
Baptismal parish register, August 13, 1574, protestant temple Saint.Yon, La Rochelle
(in French) Digitized copy of Champlain's Des Sauvages from the John Carter Brown Library
French explorers of North America
French explorers
French geographers
Governors of New France
People of New France
17th-century explorers
1574 births
1635 deaths
People from Charente-Maritime
1600s in Canada
1610s in Canada
1620s in Canada
1630s in Canada
17th century in Quebec
Acadia
Acadian history
Colonial United States (French)
Explorers of Canada
Explorers of the United States
Pre-statehood history of Maine
Pre-statehood history of Massachusetts
Pre-Confederation New Brunswick people
Pre-statehood history of New York (state)
Pre-Confederation Nova Scotia people
Pre-Confederation Ontario people
Pre-Confederation Quebec people
Pre-statehood history of Vermont
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Quebec City
17th-century Canadian politicians
Canadian city founders
French city founders
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"Rue du Petit-Champlain (English: Little Champlain Street) is a street in the Canadian city of Quebec City, Quebec. It is located in the Petit Champlain commercial district, at the foot of Cap Diamant, and contains many boutique shops. Quartier du Petit Champlain is claimed to be the oldest commercial district in North America. It is named for Samuel de Champlain, who founded Quebec City in 1608.\n\nRue du Petit-Champlain is around long, and runs from its convergence with Rue Sous-le-Fort in the north to Boulevard Champlain in the south. A popular viewing point of the street, the Breakneck Stairs (or Breakneck Steps), are located at the northern end of the street.\n\nJust beyond the steps is the lower entrance of the Funiculaire du Vieux-Québec, an electric cableway established in 1879. It takes passengers up and down Cap Diamant to and from Dufferin Terrace, beside the Château Frontenac. It climbs at a 45-degree angle, covering a total distance of .\n\nAround halfway along the street, on its western side, is Parc Félix-Leclerc.\n\nThe western side of the street contains frontages of buildings, in the shadow of Cap Diamant to their rears, whereas the rears of the buildings facing Boulevard Champlain occupy the eastern side.\n\nA fresco painted on the side of the building at number 102 is a trompe-l'œil measuring 100m2 (900 ft2). It represents the history of the district, the bombardments of 1759, the landslides, and the fires which have occurred in the district.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nStreets in Quebec City",
"Samuel de Champlain (1574–1635), was a French explorer.\n\nChamplain may also refer to:\n\nPeople\nJacques de Champlain (1938–2009), Canadian scientist, doctor and professor \nMarshall B. Champlain (1822–1879), American lawyer and politician\nChamplain Marcil (1920–2010), Canadian photojournalist\n\nPlaces\nChamplain Sea, temporary inlet of the Atlantic Ocean\nChamplain Valley, region of the United States around Lake Champlain \nLake Champlain, natural freshwater lake in North America\n\nCanada\nChamplain (electoral district), a Canadian federal electoral district in Quebec dissolved in 1982\nChamplain (Province of Canada electoral district), a district in the pre-Confederation Province of Canada\nChamplain (provincial electoral district), a Quebec provincial electoral district\n Champlain (Lower Canada), former district in Canada\nChamplain, Ontario, a township in eastern Ontario\nChamplain, Quebec, a town on north shore of the Saint Lawrence River\nChamplain Heights, a neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada\nChamplain Regional County Municipality, a RCM of Quebec, amalgamated into the expanded city of Longueuil in 2001\nChamplain River, a tributary of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec\nLordship of Champlain, granted in 1664, on the north side of the St. Lawrence River between Trois-Rivières and Quebec City\n Champlain Trail Lakes, a group of lakes on the southern point of Whitewater Region in Ontario\nPetit Champlain, a small commercial zone in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada\n\nUnited States\n Champlain Clay, a geologic formation in Maine\nChamplain, New York\nChamplain (village), New York\n Champlain, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Essex County, Virginia\nChamplain II (wrecksite), a sidewheel steamer shipwreck archaeological site located in Lake Champlain near Westport in Essex County, New York\n\nFacilities and structures\nChamplain Bridge (disambiguation)\nChamplain Arsenal, a 19th-century fortification near Vergennes, Vermont, USA\nChâteau Champlain, a historic hotel located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada\nHotel Champlain, a historic hotel building located in Plattsburgh, New York, USA \nChamplain Apartment Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C., USA\nMail Champlain (), in Brossard, Quebec, Canada\nChamplain Place, a shopping centre located in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada\nChamplain Towers South, Champlain Towers, Surfside, Miami-Dade, Florida, USA; a condominium-apartment building which collapsed in 2021\n\nSchools\nChamplain College (disambiguation), several educational establishments\nÉcole Secondaire Catholique Champlain, French Catholic school in Chelmsford, Ontario\nChamplain School, a historic former school building at 809 Pine Street in the South End of Burlington, Vermont\n\nShips\nLe Champlain, the second ship of the Ponant Explorers-class of cruise ships\nMV Champlain, an Empire F type coaster in service with R & D Desgagnes, Quebec\nSS Champlain, a French cabin class ocean liner built in 1932 \nHMCS Champlain, Several Canadian naval units\nUSS Lake Champlain, one of three ships of the United States Navy\nSS Lake Champlain, 19th century Canadian iron screw-steamer\nChamplain II, a sidewheel steamer wrecked in Lake Champlain near Westport in Essex County, New York, USA; the shipwreck now turned into an NRHP archaeological site\nSamuel de Champlain (tugboat), a US-flagged tugboat.\n\nOther uses\nChamplain Housing Trust, a membership-based nonprofit, non governmental organization \nChamplain Society, Canadian text publication society\nBattle of Lake Champlain (1814) at Plattsburgh\nBattle of Lake Champlain (1776) at Valcour Bay\n\nSee also \n\nFrench-language surnames"
] |
[
"Samuel de Champlain",
"Relations and war with natives",
"When did Champlain land at the \"point of Quebec\"?",
"During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes."
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C_47fd9c03dc404f3aa01f69f2660dd953_0
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What did Champlain name his collection of three buildings?
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What did Champlain name his collection of three buildings?
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Samuel de Champlain
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During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes demanded that Champlain help them in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Riviere des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Iroquois at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives. On July 29, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois. In a battle begun the next day, two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century. The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wyandot people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years. CANNOTANSWER
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Samuel de Champlain (; c. 13 August 1567 – 25 December 1635) was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations, and founded various colonial settlements.
Born into a family of sailors, Champlain began exploring North America in 1603, under the guidance of his uncle, François Gravé Du Pont. After 1603, Champlain's life and career consolidated into the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
From 1604 to 1607, he participated in the exploration and creation of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605).
In 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City.
Champlain was the first European to describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives.
He formed long time relationships with local Montagnais and Innu, and, later, with others farther west—tribes of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, and with Algonquin and Wendat; he also agreed to provide assistance in the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois.
Late in the year of 1615, Champlain returned to the Wendat and stayed with them over the winter, which permitted him to make the first ethnographic observations of this important nation, the events of which form the bulk of his book Voyages et Decouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis l’année 1615 published in 1619.
In 1620, Louis XIII of France ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.
In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.
Champlain established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death, in 1635.
Champlain is memorialized as the "Father of New France", "Father of Acadia", or in French "Père de la Nouvelle-France" with many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bearing his name, most notably Lake Champlain.
Birth year, location and family
Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written "Anthoine Chappelain" in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, in either Hiers-Brouage, or the port city of La Rochelle, in the French province of Aunis.
He was born on or before 13 August 1574, according to a recent baptism record found by Jean-Marie Germe, French genealogist.
Although in 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his Œuvres de Champlain, accepted Pierre-Damien Rainguet's estimate of Champlain's birth in 1567 and tried to justify it, his calculations were based on assumptions now believed or proven, to be incorrect.
Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle) wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimate was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence. The 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain and is widely regarded as accurate.
In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed, choosing 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage, France."
Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).
Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613).
He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children. The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage.
Born into a family of mariners (both his father and uncle-in-law were sailors, or navigators), Samuel Champlain learned to navigate, draw, make nautical charts, and write practical reports. His education did not include Ancient Greek or Latin, so he did not read or learn from any ancient literature.
As each French fleet had to assure its own defense at sea, Champlain sought to learn to fight with the firearms of his time: he acquired this practical knowledge when serving with the army of King Henry IV during the later stages of France's religious wars in Brittany from 1594 or 1595 to 1598, beginning as a quartermaster responsible for the feeding and care of horses.
During this time he claimed to go on a "certain secret voyage" for the king, and saw combat (including maybe the Siege of Fort Crozon, at the end of 1594). By 1597 he was a "capitaine d'une compagnie" serving in a garrison near Quimper.
Early travels
In year 3 his uncle-in-law, a navigator whose ship Saint-Julien was to transport Spanish troops to Cádiz pursuant to the Treaty of Vervins, gave Champlain the opportunity to accompany him.
After a difficult passage, he spent some time in Cádiz before his uncle, whose ship was then chartered to accompany a large Spanish fleet to the West Indies, again offered him a place on the ship. His uncle, who gave command of the ship to Jeronimo de Valaebrera, instructed the young Champlain to watch over the ship.
This journey lasted two years and gave Champlain the opportunity to see or hear about Spanish holdings from the Caribbean to Mexico City. Along the way, he took detailed notes, wrote an illustrated report on what he learned on this trip, and gave this secret report to King Henry, who rewarded Champlain with an annual pension.
This report was published for the first time in 1870, by Laverdière, as Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (and in English as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602).
The authenticity of this account as a work written by Champlain has frequently been questioned, due to inaccuracies and discrepancies with other sources on a number of points; however, recent scholarship indicates that the work probably was authored by Champlain.
On Champlain's return to Cádiz in August 1600, his uncle Guillermo Elena (Guillaume Allene), who had fallen ill, asked him to look after his business affairs. This Champlain did, and when his uncle died in June 1601, Champlain inherited his substantial estate. It included an estate near La Rochelle, commercial properties in Spain, and a 150-ton merchant ship.
This inheritance, combined with the king's annual pension, gave the young explorer a great deal of independence, as he did not need to rely on the financial backing of merchants and other investors.
From 1601 to 1603 Champlain served as a geographer in the court of King Henry IV. As part of his duties, he traveled to French ports and learned much about North America from the fishermen that seasonally traveled to coastal areas from Nantucket to Newfoundland to capitalize on the rich fishing grounds there.
He also made a study of previous French failures at colonization in the area, including that of Pierre de Chauvin at Tadoussac. When Chauvin forfeited his monopoly on the fur trade in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent.
Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm lifelong friendship.
He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and in Acadia after). The Bonne-Renommée (the Good Fame) arrived at Tadoussac on March 15, 1603. Champlain was anxious to see for himself all of the places that Jacques Cartier had seen and described sixty years earlier, and wanted to go even further than Cartier, if possible.
Champlain created a map of the Saint Lawrence on this trip and, after his return to France on 20 September, published an account as Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 ("Concerning the Savages: or travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, made in New France in the year 1603").
Included in his account were meetings with Begourat, chief of the Montagnais at Tadoussac, in which positive relationships were established between the French and the many Montagnais gathered there, with some Algonquin friends.
Promising to King Henry to report on further discoveries, Champlain joined a second expedition to New France in the spring of 1604. This trip, once again an exploratory journey without women and children, lasted several years, and focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence River, in what later became known as Acadia. It was led by Pierre Dugua de Mons, a noble and Protestant merchant who had been given a fur trading monopoly in New France by the king. Dugua asked Champlain to find a site for winter settlement.
After exploring possible sites in the Bay of Fundy, Champlain selected Saint Croix Island in the St. Croix River as the site of the expedition's first winter settlement. After enduring a harsh winter on the island the settlement was relocated across the bay where they established Port Royal. Until 1607, Champlain used that site as his base, while he explored the Atlantic coast. Dugua was forced to leave the settlement for France in September 1605, because he learned that his monopoly was at risk. His monopoly was rescinded by the king in July 1607 under pressure from other merchants and proponents of free trade, leading to the abandonment of the settlement.
In 1605 and 1606, Champlain explored the North American coast as far south as Cape Cod, searching for sites for a permanent settlement. Minor skirmishes with the resident Nausets dissuaded him from the idea of establishing one near present-day Chatham, Massachusetts. He named the area Mallebar ("bad bar").
Founding of Quebec
In the spring of 1608, Dugua wanted Champlain to start a new French colony and fur trading centre on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Dugua equipped, at his own expense, a fleet of three ships with workers, that left the French port of Honfleur. The main ship, called the Don-de-Dieu (French for the Gift of God), was commanded by Champlain. Another ship, the Lévrier (the Hunt Dog), was commanded by his friend Du Pont. The small group of male settlers arrived at Tadoussac on the lower St. Lawrence in June. Because of the dangerous strength of the Saguenay River ending there, they left the ships and continued up the "Big River" in small boats bringing the men and the materials.
Upon arriving in Quebec, Champlain later wrote: "I arrived there on the 3rd of July, when I searched for a place suitable for our settlement; but I could find none more convenient or better suited than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut-trees." Champlain ordered his men to gather lumber by cutting down the nut-trees for use in building habitations.
Some days after Champlain's arrival in Quebec, Jean du Val, a member of Champlain's party, plotted to kill Champlain to the end of securing the settlement for the Basques or Spaniards and making a fortune for himself. Du Val's plot was ultimately foiled when an associate of Du Val confessed his involvement in the plot to Champlain's pilot, who informed Champlain. Champlain had a young man deliver Du Val, along with 3 co-conspirators, two bottles of wine and invite the four worthies to an event on board a boat. Soon after the four conspirators arrived on the boat, Champlain had them arrested. Du Val was strangled and hung in Quebec and his head was displayed in the "most conspicuous place" of Champlain's fort. The other three were sent back to France to be tried.
Relations and war with Native Americans
During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local First Nations tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (derogatorily called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes sought Champlain's help in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Rivière des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Haudenosaunee at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives.
On 29 July, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Haudenosaunee. In a battle that began the next day, two hundred and fifty Haudenosaunee advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Haudenosaunee turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century.
The Battle of Sorel occurred on 19 June 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wendat people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Champlain's forces armed with the arquebus engaged and slaughtered or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years.
Marriage
One route Champlain may have chosen to improve his access to the court of the regent was his decision to enter into marriage with the twelve-year-old Hélène Boullé. She was the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, a man charged with carrying out royal decisions at court. The marriage contract was signed on 27 December 1610 in presence of Dugua, who had dealt with the father, and the couple was married three days later. The terms of the contract called for the marriage to be consummated two years later.
Champlain's marriage was initially quite troubled, as Hélène rallied against joining him in August 1613. Their relationship, while it apparently lacked any physical connection, recovered and was apparently good for many years. Hélène lived in Quebec for several years, but returned to Paris and eventually decided to enter a convent. The couple had no children, and Champlain adopted three Montagnais girls named Faith, Hope, and Charity in the winter of 1627–28.
Exploration of New France
On 29 March 1613, arriving back in New France, he first ensured that his new royal commission be proclaimed. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably Hudson Bay). He travelled the Ottawa River, later giving the first description of this area. Along the way, he apparently dropped or left behind a cache of silver cups, copper kettles, and a brass astrolabe dated 1603 (Champlain's Astrolabe), which was later found by a farm boy named Edward Lee near Cobden, Ontario. It was in June that he met with Tessouat, the Algonquin chief of Allumettes Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids.
By 26 August, Champlain was back in Saint-Malo. There, he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages and published another map of New France. In 1614, he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four Recollects in order to further religious life in the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land, estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the French Crown in New France.
In 1615, Champlain reunited with Étienne Brûlé, his capable interpreter, following separate four-year explorations. There, Brûlé reported North American explorations, including that he had been joined by another French interpreter named Grenolle with whom he had travelled along the north shore of la mer douce (the calm sea), now known as Lake Huron, to the great rapids of Sault Ste. Marie, where Lake Superior enters Lake Huron, some of which was recorded by Champlain.
Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives, promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides, he explored further up the Ottawa River and reached Lake Nipissing. He then followed the French River until he reached Lake Huron.
In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Wendat. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road) and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth.
Military expedition
On 1 September 1615, at Cahiagué (a Wendat community on what is now called Lake Simcoe), he and the northern tribes started a military expedition against the Iroquois. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they arrived at the main Onondaga fort on October 10. The exact location of this place is still a matter of debate. Although the traditional location, Nichols Pond, is regularly disproved by professional and amateur archaeologists, many still claim that Nichols Pond is the location of the battle, south of Canastota, New York. Champlain attacked the stockaded Oneida village. He was accompanied by 10 Frenchmen and 300 Wendat. Pressured by the Huron Wendat to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The conflict ended on October 16 when the French Wendat were forced to flee.
Although he did not want to, the Wendat insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay, he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of First Nations people by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On 22 May 1616, he left the Wendat country and returned to Quebec before heading back to France on 2 July.
Improving administration in New France
Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the territory rather than exploration. Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cape Diamond. By mid-May, he learned that the fur trading monopoly had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the natives and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Iroquois.
Champlain continued to work on the fortifications of what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on 6 May 1624. On 15 August he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue looking for a passage to China, something widely believed to exist at the time. By July 5 he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.
In 1627 the Caen brothers' company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, and Cardinal Richelieu (who had joined the Royal Council in 1624 and rose rapidly to a position of dominance in French politics that he would hold until his death in 1642) formed the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (the Hundred Associates) to manage the fur trade. Champlain was one of the 100 investors, and its first fleet, loaded with colonists and supplies, set sail in April 1628.
Champlain had overwintered in Quebec. Supplies were low, and English merchants sacked Cap Tourmente in early July 1628. A war had broken out between France and England, and Charles I of England had issued letters of marque that authorized the capture of French shipping and its colonies in North America. Champlain received a summons to surrender on July 10 from the Kirke brothers, two Scottish brothers who were working for the English government. Champlain refused to deal with them, misleading them to believe that Quebec's defenses were better than they actually were (Champlain had only 50 pounds of gunpowder to defend the community). Successfully bluffed, they withdrew, but encountered and captured the French supply fleet, cutting off that year's supplies to the colony. By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé and into Indian communities to conserve rations. On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived before Quebec after intercepting Champlain's plea for help, and Champlain was forced to surrender the colony. Many colonists were transported first to England and then to France by the Kirkes, but Champlain remained in London to begin the process of regaining the colony. A peace treaty had been signed in April 1629, three months before the surrender, and, under the terms of that treaty, Quebec and other prizes that were taken by the Kirkes after the treaty were to be returned. It was not until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, however, that Quebec was formally given back to France. (David Kirke was rewarded when Charles I knighted him and gave him a charter for Newfoundland.) Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on 1 March 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu" from 1629 to 1635. In 1632 Champlain published Voyages de la Nouvelle-France, which was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain made more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)
Last return, and last years working in Quebec
Champlain returned to Quebec on 22 May 1633, after an absence of four years. Richelieu gave him a commission as Lieutenant General of New France, along with other titles and responsibilities, but not that of governor. Despite this lack of formal status, many colonists, French merchants, and Indians treated him as if he had the title; writings survive in which he is referred to as "our governor". On 18 August 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, and established two more habitations. One was 15 leagues upstream, and the other was at Trois-Rivières. He also began an offensive against the Iroquois, reporting that he wanted them either wiped out or "brought to reason".
Death and burial
Champlain had a severe stroke in October 1635, and died on 25 December, leaving no immediate heirs. Jesuit records state he died in the care of his friend and confessor Charles Lallemant.
Although his will (drafted on 17 November 1635) gave much of his French property to his wife Hélène Boullé, he made significant bequests to the Catholic missions and to individuals in the colony of Quebec. However, Marie Camaret, a cousin on his mother's side, challenged the will in Paris and had it overturned. It is unclear exactly what happened to his estate.
Samuel de Champlain was temporarily buried in the church while a standalone chapel was built to hold his remains in the upper part of the city. Unfortunately, this small building, along with many others, was destroyed by a large fire in 1640. Though immediately rebuilt, no traces of it exist anymore: his exact burial site is still unknown, despite much research since about 1850, including several archaeological digs in the city. There is general agreement that the previous Champlain chapel site, and the remains of Champlain, should be somewhere near the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral.
The search for Champlain's remains supplies a key plot-line in the crime writer Louise Penny's 2010 novel, Bury Your Dead.
Legacy
Many sites and landmarks have been named to honour Champlain, who was a prominent figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont. Memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Father of Acadia", his historic significance endures in modern times. Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between northern New York and Vermont, extending slightly across the border into Canada, was named by him, in 1609, when he led an expedition along the Richelieu River, exploring a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York. The first European to map and describe it, Champlain claimed the lake as his namesake.
Memorials include:
Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, the Champlain Trail Lakes.
Champlain Sea: a past inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, over the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and the Richelieu rivers, to over Lake Champlain, which inlet disappeared many thousands years before Champlain was born.
Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park – which he first observed in 1604.
A town and village in New York, as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Quebec.
The provincial electoral district of Champlain, Quebec, and several defunct electoral districts elsewhere in Canada.
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, a provincial park in northern Ontario near the town of Mattawa.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the island of Montreal to Brossard, Quebec across the St. Lawrence.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.
Champlain College, one of six colleges at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, is named in his honour.
Fort Champlain, a dormitory at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario; named in his honour in 1965, it houses the 10th cadet squadron.
A French school in Saint John, New Brunswick; École Champlain, an elementary school in Moncton, New Brunswick and one in Brossard; Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont; and Champlain Regional College, a CEGEP with three campuses in Quebec.
Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in Montreal.
Streets named Champlain in numerous cities, including Quebec, Shawinigan, the city of Dieppe in the province of New Brunswick, in Plattsburgh, and no less than eleven communities in northwestern Vermont.
A garden called Jardin Samuel-de-Champlain in Paris, France.
A memorial statue on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain in a park named for Champlain.
A memorial statue in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in Queen Square that commemorates his discovery of the Saint John River.
A memorial statue in Isle La Motte, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.
The lighthouse at Crown Point, New York features a statue of Champlain by Carl Augustus Heber.
A commemorative stamp issue in May 2006 jointly by the United States Postal Service and Canada Post.
A statue in Ticonderoga, New York, unveiled in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of Lake Champlain.
A statue in Orillia, Ontario at Couchiching Beach Park on Lake Couchiching. This statue was removed by Parks Canada, and is not likely to be returned, as it incorporated offensive depictions of First Nations peoples.
HMCS Champlain (1919), a S class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1928 to 1936.
HMCS Champlain, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve division based in Chicoutimi, Quebec since activation in 1985.
Champlain Place, a shopping centre located in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada.
The Champlain Society, a Canadian historical and text publication society, chartered in 1927.
A memorial statue in Ottawa at Nepean Point, by Hamilton MacCarthy. The statue depicts Champlain holding an astrolabe (upside-down, as it happens). It did previously include an "Indian Scout" kneeling at its base. In the 1990s, after lobbying by Indigenous people, it was removed from the statue's base, renamed and placed as "Anishinaabe Scout" in Major's Hill Park.
Bibliography
These are works that were written by Champlain:
Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (first French publication 1870, first English publication 1859 as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602)
Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 (first French publication 1604, first English publication 1625)
Voyages de la Nouvelle-France (first French publication 1632)
Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier (first French publication 1632)
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
Note: Mathieu d'Avignon (Ph.D. in history, Laval University, 2006) is an affiliate researcher into the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi Research Group on History. He is preparing a special new full edition, in modern French, of Champlain's Voyages in New France.
Further reading
Dix, Edwin Asa. (1903). Champlain, the Founder of New France, IndyPublish
Morison, Samuel Eliot, (1972). Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France Little Brown,
External links
From Marcel Trudel: Champlain, Samuel de (at The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Champlain in Acadia
Biography at the Museum of Civilization
Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.
They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, October 31, 2008
Dead Reckoning – Champlain in America, PBS documentary 2009
World Digital Library presentation of Descripsion des costs, pts., rades, illes de la Nouuele France faict selon son vray méridienor Description of the Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France. Library of Congress. Primary source portolan style chart on vellum with summary description, image with enhanced view and zoom features, text to speech capability. French. Links to related content. Content available as TIF. One of the major cartographic resources, this map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod.
A book from 1603 of Champlain's first voyage to New France from the World Digital Library
Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Inquiry
From Samuel de Champlain: Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... (1632) (at Rare Book Room)
Baptismal parish register, August 13, 1574, protestant temple Saint.Yon, La Rochelle
(in French) Digitized copy of Champlain's Des Sauvages from the John Carter Brown Library
French explorers of North America
French explorers
French geographers
Governors of New France
People of New France
17th-century explorers
1574 births
1635 deaths
People from Charente-Maritime
1600s in Canada
1610s in Canada
1620s in Canada
1630s in Canada
17th century in Quebec
Acadia
Acadian history
Colonial United States (French)
Explorers of Canada
Explorers of the United States
Pre-statehood history of Maine
Pre-statehood history of Massachusetts
Pre-Confederation New Brunswick people
Pre-statehood history of New York (state)
Pre-Confederation Nova Scotia people
Pre-Confederation Ontario people
Pre-Confederation Quebec people
Pre-statehood history of Vermont
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Quebec City
17th-century Canadian politicians
Canadian city founders
French city founders
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[
"Champlain is a municipality in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is located in Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality and the administrative region the Mauricie, on the north shore of St. Lawrence River. Champlain is also part of the metropolitan area of Trois-Rivières.\n\nChamplain is a member of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec.\n\nOrigin of the place name \n\nIn 1632, Samuel de Champlain, founder of New France, gave his name to the Champlain River. The Commission de toponymie du Québec has noted a \"popular version\" of the origin of the name, which suggests that Champlain gave the area its name because, \"amazed by the beauty of the place, [he] exclaimed to himself, 'What a beautiful flat plain', from the Latin campus planus, 'flat field'.\" However, the Commission concludes that it is certain that Champlain named the area after himself, as his contemporary record indicates that he named the river the \"Rivière de Champlain\".\n\nThe deed of the seigniory of Champlain, dated April 8, 1664, does not name the seigniory. The deed only mentions that the granted land extended \"from the Champlain River following the said river [Saint Lawrence] to the said Trois-Rivières\". It appears that it was the first seigneur, Étienne Pézard de la Touche, who gave the name of \"Champlain\" to the seigniory, then to the parish.\n\nBy 1668, the documents relating to the residents of Champlain mention they live in \"La Touche-Champlain\", or simply \"Champlain\" from 1669 onwards. In 1684, the area was already well known as Champlain, demonstrated when Bishop Laval, finally giving the official titles of the parish twenty years after its foundation, referred to: \"the place commonly called Champlain\".\n\nAs for the family name of the seigneurs, by 1680 the first seigneur referred to himself as La Touche-Champlain, and Pézard Champlain by 1693. His successor referred to himself as Pézard Latouche-Champlain by 1702.\n\nIn 1829 the name was used for the electoral district for the area in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, and in 1841, the electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. The name was given to the municipality in 1845, and then to the federal and provincial electoral districts in 1867.\n\nHistory\n\nBeginnings of French settlement \n\nThe Champlain municipality lies on the territory of the former seigniories of Marsolet and l'Arbre-à-la-Croix, both granted on April 5, 1644, and the seigniory of Champlain, granted on August 8, 1664.\n\nThe first French occupants of Champlain settled in 1664 or 1665. There had been a first attempt to settle on land granted August 16, 1643, but the distance from other settlements and the Iroquois threat discouraged settlement. In 1664 or 1665, the first settlers established settlements in the land of the seigniory of Champlain. The following year, in 1666, concessions were granted in the seigniory of Hertel, and in 1667 in the seigniory of Marsolet. Some of the first families came from Trois-Rivières, such as the families of Antoine Desrosiers, François Chorel and Pierre Dandonneau.\n\nChronology \n\n April 5, 1644: Grants of the Marsolet and Arbre-à-la-Croix seigniories.\n August 8, 1664: Grant of the seigniory of Champlain. This date is considered the founding of the town of Champlain, the eighth oldest town of New France.\n 1664: Construction of Fort Champlain.\n 1830-1850: Emergence of the present village in the centre of the area. \n 1845: Creation of the parish municipality of Champlain effective July 1, pursuant to a new provincial statute, the first formal municipal government for the area.\n 1847: Parish municipality of Champlain is merged with other local municipalities to form the County of Champlain, effective September 1, pursuant to a provincial statute re-organising municipal government.\n 1855: Parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain re-created from the County of Champlain, effective July 1, pursuant to a provincial statute re-organising municipal government.\n 1860: Twenty buildings in the village.\n 1879: Construction of the present church\n 1882: Construction of the present monastery\n 1886: The streets Sainte-Anne and Saint-Joseph are authenticated by the municipal council.\n 1917: The village municipality of Champlain is created by a division of the parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain.\n 1933: 150 buildings in the village.\n 1979 : Celebration of the tricentennial of Champlain. The 300th anniversary was based on an erroneous understanding of the date of the foundation of the village, assumed from the oldest surviving parish records of baptisms, marriages and burials. It was not known that the parish registers from 1665 to 1679 had been lost.\n 1982: Champlain municipalities are included in the Francheville Regional County Municipality.\n 1982: The parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain and the village municipality of Champlain are merged to create the municipality of Champlain.\n 1984: 10: Pope John Paul II passes though Champlain on September 10, travelling by train from Quebec City to Trois-Rivières.\n 1986: On April 7, the municipal council passes a resolution formalizing the term \"Champlainois-Champlainoise\" to designate inhabitants of Champlain.\n 2002: The regional county municipality of Francheville is dissolved, and the municipality of Champlain is included in the new regional county municipality, Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality.\n 2004: On October 13, the Astronomical Observatory of Champlain discovers an asteroid from the Astronomical Observatory Champlain. It is given the number 157329 and is provisionally named 2004 TM16.\n 2006: On November 24, the Astronomical Observatory discovers a second asteroid, given the number 161815 and the temporary name of 2006 WK30.\n 2014: Celebration of the 350th anniversary of Champlain. This time, the celebration is based on the grant of the seigniory of Champlain in 1664.\n\nDemographics\n\nPopulation trend:\n Population in 2011: 1664 (2006 to 2011 population change: 6.3%)\n Population in 2006: 1566\n Population in 2001: 1623\n Population in 1996: 1608\n Population in 1991: 1610\n\nPrivate dwellings occupied by usual residents: 766 (total dwellings: 861)\n\nMother tongue:\n English as first language: 0.7%\n French as first language: 97.9%\n English and French as first language: 0.7%\n Other as first language: 0.7%\n\nPopulation\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nIncorporated places in Mauricie\nMunicipalities in Quebec\nLes Chenaux Regional County Municipality\n1982 establishments in Quebec",
"The Lordship of Champlain was granted in 1664, on the north side of the St. Lawrence River between Trois-Rivières and Quebec City, under the feudal system of New France. Today, the territory of the former manor of Champlain is located in the administrative region of Mauricie in Quebec, Canada. The capital was the town of Champlain.\n\nThe Lordship of Champlain stretched from the north shore of the St. Lawrence River (west of the mouth of the Champlain River) up towards the north, parallel to the Lordship of Batiscan on the east side. The north-south dividing line between the two domains also divides the municipalities of Saint-Narcisse and Hérouxville.\n\nToponymy\nDuring an exploration trip in 1632, Samuel de Champlain, the acknowledged founder of New France, gave his name to the Champlain River. Subsequently, the first lord, Étienne Pézard de la Touche, adopted the place name of Champlain to describe his lordship. The same place name was used by the Catholic parish at Champlain, to describe the town of Champlain in 1845, and the federal electoral district in 1867.\n\nHistory of the Lordship\nMany people used the St. Lawrence River before the creation of the Lordship of Champlain. The indigenous peoples were present along the river for more than 5,000 to 7,000 years. The Vikings sailed along the east coast of Canada and in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 11th century, and French fishermen frequented the Gaspé Peninsula before Jacques Cartier first arrived in Canada in 1534.\n\nIn 1535, during his second voyage of discovery on the St. Lawrence River, Cartier passed the site of the future town of Champlain. In 1580, the Basque people made several fishing trips to the St. Lawrence River. In 1603, Samuel de Champlain went to Champlain, Quebec. He erected the first permanent post which became Quebec City in 1608. The town of Trois-Rivières was founded in 1634.\n\nOn August 16, 1643, Jacques Aubuchon of Trois-Rivières was granted permission to settle on land of the future Lordship of Champlain. However, he did not do so, mainly because of the property's remoteness and the threat of attacks by the Iroquois. He sold his share in 1645.\n\nThe Marsolet and Hertel land grants, of April 5, 1644, were located in the area of the upper Champlain, in the western part of the municipality. Beginning in 1645, Jacques Hertel built a house on his land while continuing to live in Trois-Rivières. Both of these land grants were divided into lots, beginning in 1666.\n\nGrant of the Lordship of Champlain\nAccording to a deed dated August 8, 1664, the Lordship of Champlain was granted to Étienne Pézard de la Tousche, Governor Augustine Saffray Mézy and Bishop François de Montmorency-Laval. Its scope covered 1.5 lieue of frontage and one lieue deep, on both sides of the Champlain River. The lease did not mention a name given to the lordship. The act of ratification was issued by His Majesty on May 24, 1689.\n\nIn 1665, the first land grants were contracted in the Lordship of Champlain. From 1668, manor residents said they lived in \"La Touche-Champlain\" which was simplified to \"Champlain\" in 1669. Twenty years after the creation of the Lordship of Champlain, in 1684, Monsignor François de Montmorency-Laval gave the official name to the Catholic parish as \"Champlain\", pointing out that this was the name in common use. The first lord was called \"De la Touche-Champlain\" in 1680, or \"Pézard Champlain\" in 1693 or \"Pézard Latouche-Champlain\" in 1702. A fort and a chapel were built between 1664 and 1665.\n\nThe first acts were registered in 1665 in the parish registry. The first church was built between 1666 and 1671, to replace the chapel of Fort La Touche. In 1671, a flour mill was put into operation. In 1679, the town of Champlain had forty families with 250 people, some who had been established there ever since the founding of the lordship. The Lord was able to grant all the lots along the river's shore.\n\nThe first increase in the territory of the lordship seems to have been granted before 1721 by the Jesuits, to Étienne Pézard de la Tousche according to Jean Bouffard. Another increase, with a range of three \"lieues\" deep, was granted on April 28, 1697, to Madame De la Tousche by the Governor, Louis Frontenac Buade, and the steward, Jean Bochart de Champigny. The ratification act was by His Majesty on May 28, 1700.\n\nÉtienne Pézard de la Tousch\nÉtienne Pézard de la Tousche, a military man, was born in Blois, Orleans, France, the son of Claude Pézard and Marie Masson. He left France for Canada in 1661, and was immediately appointed a lieutenant, then captain, of the garrison at Trois-Rivières. During this assignment, Pézard gave assistance to Pierre Boucher in the drafting of the document \"Histoire véritable et, naturelle…\" (real history and natural ...) (Paris, 1664).\n\nIn June 1664, Pézard left Trois-Rivières to command the garrison at Montreal. He married Madeleine Mullois de La Borde on June 20, 1664, at Notre Dame Church in Montreal; they had five children. Although Pézard was appointed governor of Montreal by Augustine Saffray Mézy (on the same day as his marriage), this appointment never came into effect. The lords of Montreal opposed, alleging their right to appoint the Governor.\n\nFollowing this setback, Mézy granted Pézard a manor on the north shore of St. Lawrence river on August 8, 1664. Pézard immediately began to operate the Lordship, unlike the majority of the lords of his time. He immediately began construction of a mansion near the mouth of the Champlain River, on the edge of a rock and a church in 1665. This stately new concession exacerbated the Jesuits who believed their manorial fully vested on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River between the Saint-Maurice River and the Batiscan River. Meanwhile, the Jesuits actively pursued the settlement of Cap-de-la-Madeleine.\n\nThrough his contacts with the authorities of Trois-Rivières, as well as efforts among captains, established families, soldiers and immigrants, Pézard attracted pioneers, and the first families come from Trois-Rivières, such as those of Antoine Desrosiers, François Chorel and Pierre Dandonneau, among 22 land grants in 1665. To thank Pézard for his efforts in encouraging colonization, the steward gave him a \"flight\" from the royal stables.\n\nThe date of Pézard's death is unknown, and is not recorded in religious or civil records of New France. Historians conclude he died in 1696, based on documents that highlight his name in 1695. In addition, according to historian Jean Hamelin, documents written in November 1696 refer to the widow Mary Magdalene Mullois, who died in 1704.\n\nOther important dates\n• April 5, 1644: concession of the fief Marsolet and fief Tree to the Cross, located in the present territory of the Municipality of Champlain.\n\n• August 8, 1664: grant of the lordship of Champlain. This date proves the founding of the town of Champlain, Quebec, the eighth oldest town in New France.\n\n• 1664: Construction of Fort La Touche-Champlain, in Champlain, at the mouth of the Champlain River.\n\n• 1664-1665: The first settlers moved to the side of the lordship of Champlain. One of 34 lots granted in 1664-65 by Pézard. Some of the first families come from Trois-Rivières, such as those of Antoine Desrosiers, François Chorel and Pierre Dandonneau.\n\n• In 1666: concessions of the fief Hertel begin to be granted.\n\n• 1667: concessions on fief Marsolet begin to be granted to tenants.\n\n• 1789: acquisition of the manor of Champlain by Joseph Drapeau (April 13, 1752 - November 3, 1810). He is a lord, a merchant and politician in Lower Canada. In 1809 and 1810, he was elected to Northumberland to House of Assembly of Lower Canada.\n\n• 1797: sale of the manor of Champlain by Joseph Drapeau to buy half of the Isle of Orleans.\n\n• 1830-1850: emergence of the present village in the center of town. In 1860, there were 20 locations in the village. In 1933, there were 150.\n\n• 1854: the end of the feudal regime in New France.\n\n• 1855: Creation of the Municipality of parish of La Visitation-de-Champlain in the first municipal boundaries of the Quebec.\n\nSee also \n\n Government of Trois-Rivières\n Lordship of Batiscan\n Champlain (homonymy)\n Champlain (municipalité)\n Saint-Luc-de-Vincennes\n Saint-Narcisse\n Hérouxville\n Champlain (electoral district)\n Champlain (provincial electoral district)\n\nNotes and references \n\nLes Chenaux Regional County Municipality\nMékinac Regional County Municipality\n1664 establishments in the French colonial empire"
] |
[
"Samuel de Champlain",
"Relations and war with natives",
"When did Champlain land at the \"point of Quebec\"?",
"During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes.",
"What did Champlain name his collection of three buildings?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_47fd9c03dc404f3aa01f69f2660dd953_0
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What was the name of the boat Champlain commanded?
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What was the name of the boat Champlain commanded?
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Samuel de Champlain
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During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes demanded that Champlain help them in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Riviere des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Iroquois at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives. On July 29, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois. In a battle begun the next day, two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century. The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wyandot people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years. CANNOTANSWER
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but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois.
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Samuel de Champlain (; c. 13 August 1567 – 25 December 1635) was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations, and founded various colonial settlements.
Born into a family of sailors, Champlain began exploring North America in 1603, under the guidance of his uncle, François Gravé Du Pont. After 1603, Champlain's life and career consolidated into the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
From 1604 to 1607, he participated in the exploration and creation of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605).
In 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City.
Champlain was the first European to describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives.
He formed long time relationships with local Montagnais and Innu, and, later, with others farther west—tribes of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, and with Algonquin and Wendat; he also agreed to provide assistance in the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois.
Late in the year of 1615, Champlain returned to the Wendat and stayed with them over the winter, which permitted him to make the first ethnographic observations of this important nation, the events of which form the bulk of his book Voyages et Decouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis l’année 1615 published in 1619.
In 1620, Louis XIII of France ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.
In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.
Champlain established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death, in 1635.
Champlain is memorialized as the "Father of New France", "Father of Acadia", or in French "Père de la Nouvelle-France" with many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bearing his name, most notably Lake Champlain.
Birth year, location and family
Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written "Anthoine Chappelain" in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, in either Hiers-Brouage, or the port city of La Rochelle, in the French province of Aunis.
He was born on or before 13 August 1574, according to a recent baptism record found by Jean-Marie Germe, French genealogist.
Although in 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his Œuvres de Champlain, accepted Pierre-Damien Rainguet's estimate of Champlain's birth in 1567 and tried to justify it, his calculations were based on assumptions now believed or proven, to be incorrect.
Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle) wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimate was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence. The 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain and is widely regarded as accurate.
In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed, choosing 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage, France."
Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).
Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613).
He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children. The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage.
Born into a family of mariners (both his father and uncle-in-law were sailors, or navigators), Samuel Champlain learned to navigate, draw, make nautical charts, and write practical reports. His education did not include Ancient Greek or Latin, so he did not read or learn from any ancient literature.
As each French fleet had to assure its own defense at sea, Champlain sought to learn to fight with the firearms of his time: he acquired this practical knowledge when serving with the army of King Henry IV during the later stages of France's religious wars in Brittany from 1594 or 1595 to 1598, beginning as a quartermaster responsible for the feeding and care of horses.
During this time he claimed to go on a "certain secret voyage" for the king, and saw combat (including maybe the Siege of Fort Crozon, at the end of 1594). By 1597 he was a "capitaine d'une compagnie" serving in a garrison near Quimper.
Early travels
In year 3 his uncle-in-law, a navigator whose ship Saint-Julien was to transport Spanish troops to Cádiz pursuant to the Treaty of Vervins, gave Champlain the opportunity to accompany him.
After a difficult passage, he spent some time in Cádiz before his uncle, whose ship was then chartered to accompany a large Spanish fleet to the West Indies, again offered him a place on the ship. His uncle, who gave command of the ship to Jeronimo de Valaebrera, instructed the young Champlain to watch over the ship.
This journey lasted two years and gave Champlain the opportunity to see or hear about Spanish holdings from the Caribbean to Mexico City. Along the way, he took detailed notes, wrote an illustrated report on what he learned on this trip, and gave this secret report to King Henry, who rewarded Champlain with an annual pension.
This report was published for the first time in 1870, by Laverdière, as Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (and in English as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602).
The authenticity of this account as a work written by Champlain has frequently been questioned, due to inaccuracies and discrepancies with other sources on a number of points; however, recent scholarship indicates that the work probably was authored by Champlain.
On Champlain's return to Cádiz in August 1600, his uncle Guillermo Elena (Guillaume Allene), who had fallen ill, asked him to look after his business affairs. This Champlain did, and when his uncle died in June 1601, Champlain inherited his substantial estate. It included an estate near La Rochelle, commercial properties in Spain, and a 150-ton merchant ship.
This inheritance, combined with the king's annual pension, gave the young explorer a great deal of independence, as he did not need to rely on the financial backing of merchants and other investors.
From 1601 to 1603 Champlain served as a geographer in the court of King Henry IV. As part of his duties, he traveled to French ports and learned much about North America from the fishermen that seasonally traveled to coastal areas from Nantucket to Newfoundland to capitalize on the rich fishing grounds there.
He also made a study of previous French failures at colonization in the area, including that of Pierre de Chauvin at Tadoussac. When Chauvin forfeited his monopoly on the fur trade in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent.
Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm lifelong friendship.
He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and in Acadia after). The Bonne-Renommée (the Good Fame) arrived at Tadoussac on March 15, 1603. Champlain was anxious to see for himself all of the places that Jacques Cartier had seen and described sixty years earlier, and wanted to go even further than Cartier, if possible.
Champlain created a map of the Saint Lawrence on this trip and, after his return to France on 20 September, published an account as Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 ("Concerning the Savages: or travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, made in New France in the year 1603").
Included in his account were meetings with Begourat, chief of the Montagnais at Tadoussac, in which positive relationships were established between the French and the many Montagnais gathered there, with some Algonquin friends.
Promising to King Henry to report on further discoveries, Champlain joined a second expedition to New France in the spring of 1604. This trip, once again an exploratory journey without women and children, lasted several years, and focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence River, in what later became known as Acadia. It was led by Pierre Dugua de Mons, a noble and Protestant merchant who had been given a fur trading monopoly in New France by the king. Dugua asked Champlain to find a site for winter settlement.
After exploring possible sites in the Bay of Fundy, Champlain selected Saint Croix Island in the St. Croix River as the site of the expedition's first winter settlement. After enduring a harsh winter on the island the settlement was relocated across the bay where they established Port Royal. Until 1607, Champlain used that site as his base, while he explored the Atlantic coast. Dugua was forced to leave the settlement for France in September 1605, because he learned that his monopoly was at risk. His monopoly was rescinded by the king in July 1607 under pressure from other merchants and proponents of free trade, leading to the abandonment of the settlement.
In 1605 and 1606, Champlain explored the North American coast as far south as Cape Cod, searching for sites for a permanent settlement. Minor skirmishes with the resident Nausets dissuaded him from the idea of establishing one near present-day Chatham, Massachusetts. He named the area Mallebar ("bad bar").
Founding of Quebec
In the spring of 1608, Dugua wanted Champlain to start a new French colony and fur trading centre on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Dugua equipped, at his own expense, a fleet of three ships with workers, that left the French port of Honfleur. The main ship, called the Don-de-Dieu (French for the Gift of God), was commanded by Champlain. Another ship, the Lévrier (the Hunt Dog), was commanded by his friend Du Pont. The small group of male settlers arrived at Tadoussac on the lower St. Lawrence in June. Because of the dangerous strength of the Saguenay River ending there, they left the ships and continued up the "Big River" in small boats bringing the men and the materials.
Upon arriving in Quebec, Champlain later wrote: "I arrived there on the 3rd of July, when I searched for a place suitable for our settlement; but I could find none more convenient or better suited than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut-trees." Champlain ordered his men to gather lumber by cutting down the nut-trees for use in building habitations.
Some days after Champlain's arrival in Quebec, Jean du Val, a member of Champlain's party, plotted to kill Champlain to the end of securing the settlement for the Basques or Spaniards and making a fortune for himself. Du Val's plot was ultimately foiled when an associate of Du Val confessed his involvement in the plot to Champlain's pilot, who informed Champlain. Champlain had a young man deliver Du Val, along with 3 co-conspirators, two bottles of wine and invite the four worthies to an event on board a boat. Soon after the four conspirators arrived on the boat, Champlain had them arrested. Du Val was strangled and hung in Quebec and his head was displayed in the "most conspicuous place" of Champlain's fort. The other three were sent back to France to be tried.
Relations and war with Native Americans
During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local First Nations tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (derogatorily called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes sought Champlain's help in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Rivière des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Haudenosaunee at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives.
On 29 July, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Haudenosaunee. In a battle that began the next day, two hundred and fifty Haudenosaunee advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Haudenosaunee turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century.
The Battle of Sorel occurred on 19 June 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wendat people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Champlain's forces armed with the arquebus engaged and slaughtered or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years.
Marriage
One route Champlain may have chosen to improve his access to the court of the regent was his decision to enter into marriage with the twelve-year-old Hélène Boullé. She was the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, a man charged with carrying out royal decisions at court. The marriage contract was signed on 27 December 1610 in presence of Dugua, who had dealt with the father, and the couple was married three days later. The terms of the contract called for the marriage to be consummated two years later.
Champlain's marriage was initially quite troubled, as Hélène rallied against joining him in August 1613. Their relationship, while it apparently lacked any physical connection, recovered and was apparently good for many years. Hélène lived in Quebec for several years, but returned to Paris and eventually decided to enter a convent. The couple had no children, and Champlain adopted three Montagnais girls named Faith, Hope, and Charity in the winter of 1627–28.
Exploration of New France
On 29 March 1613, arriving back in New France, he first ensured that his new royal commission be proclaimed. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably Hudson Bay). He travelled the Ottawa River, later giving the first description of this area. Along the way, he apparently dropped or left behind a cache of silver cups, copper kettles, and a brass astrolabe dated 1603 (Champlain's Astrolabe), which was later found by a farm boy named Edward Lee near Cobden, Ontario. It was in June that he met with Tessouat, the Algonquin chief of Allumettes Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids.
By 26 August, Champlain was back in Saint-Malo. There, he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages and published another map of New France. In 1614, he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four Recollects in order to further religious life in the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land, estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the French Crown in New France.
In 1615, Champlain reunited with Étienne Brûlé, his capable interpreter, following separate four-year explorations. There, Brûlé reported North American explorations, including that he had been joined by another French interpreter named Grenolle with whom he had travelled along the north shore of la mer douce (the calm sea), now known as Lake Huron, to the great rapids of Sault Ste. Marie, where Lake Superior enters Lake Huron, some of which was recorded by Champlain.
Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives, promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides, he explored further up the Ottawa River and reached Lake Nipissing. He then followed the French River until he reached Lake Huron.
In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Wendat. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road) and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth.
Military expedition
On 1 September 1615, at Cahiagué (a Wendat community on what is now called Lake Simcoe), he and the northern tribes started a military expedition against the Iroquois. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they arrived at the main Onondaga fort on October 10. The exact location of this place is still a matter of debate. Although the traditional location, Nichols Pond, is regularly disproved by professional and amateur archaeologists, many still claim that Nichols Pond is the location of the battle, south of Canastota, New York. Champlain attacked the stockaded Oneida village. He was accompanied by 10 Frenchmen and 300 Wendat. Pressured by the Huron Wendat to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The conflict ended on October 16 when the French Wendat were forced to flee.
Although he did not want to, the Wendat insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay, he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of First Nations people by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On 22 May 1616, he left the Wendat country and returned to Quebec before heading back to France on 2 July.
Improving administration in New France
Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the territory rather than exploration. Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cape Diamond. By mid-May, he learned that the fur trading monopoly had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the natives and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Iroquois.
Champlain continued to work on the fortifications of what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on 6 May 1624. On 15 August he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue looking for a passage to China, something widely believed to exist at the time. By July 5 he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.
In 1627 the Caen brothers' company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, and Cardinal Richelieu (who had joined the Royal Council in 1624 and rose rapidly to a position of dominance in French politics that he would hold until his death in 1642) formed the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (the Hundred Associates) to manage the fur trade. Champlain was one of the 100 investors, and its first fleet, loaded with colonists and supplies, set sail in April 1628.
Champlain had overwintered in Quebec. Supplies were low, and English merchants sacked Cap Tourmente in early July 1628. A war had broken out between France and England, and Charles I of England had issued letters of marque that authorized the capture of French shipping and its colonies in North America. Champlain received a summons to surrender on July 10 from the Kirke brothers, two Scottish brothers who were working for the English government. Champlain refused to deal with them, misleading them to believe that Quebec's defenses were better than they actually were (Champlain had only 50 pounds of gunpowder to defend the community). Successfully bluffed, they withdrew, but encountered and captured the French supply fleet, cutting off that year's supplies to the colony. By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé and into Indian communities to conserve rations. On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived before Quebec after intercepting Champlain's plea for help, and Champlain was forced to surrender the colony. Many colonists were transported first to England and then to France by the Kirkes, but Champlain remained in London to begin the process of regaining the colony. A peace treaty had been signed in April 1629, three months before the surrender, and, under the terms of that treaty, Quebec and other prizes that were taken by the Kirkes after the treaty were to be returned. It was not until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, however, that Quebec was formally given back to France. (David Kirke was rewarded when Charles I knighted him and gave him a charter for Newfoundland.) Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on 1 March 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu" from 1629 to 1635. In 1632 Champlain published Voyages de la Nouvelle-France, which was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain made more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)
Last return, and last years working in Quebec
Champlain returned to Quebec on 22 May 1633, after an absence of four years. Richelieu gave him a commission as Lieutenant General of New France, along with other titles and responsibilities, but not that of governor. Despite this lack of formal status, many colonists, French merchants, and Indians treated him as if he had the title; writings survive in which he is referred to as "our governor". On 18 August 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, and established two more habitations. One was 15 leagues upstream, and the other was at Trois-Rivières. He also began an offensive against the Iroquois, reporting that he wanted them either wiped out or "brought to reason".
Death and burial
Champlain had a severe stroke in October 1635, and died on 25 December, leaving no immediate heirs. Jesuit records state he died in the care of his friend and confessor Charles Lallemant.
Although his will (drafted on 17 November 1635) gave much of his French property to his wife Hélène Boullé, he made significant bequests to the Catholic missions and to individuals in the colony of Quebec. However, Marie Camaret, a cousin on his mother's side, challenged the will in Paris and had it overturned. It is unclear exactly what happened to his estate.
Samuel de Champlain was temporarily buried in the church while a standalone chapel was built to hold his remains in the upper part of the city. Unfortunately, this small building, along with many others, was destroyed by a large fire in 1640. Though immediately rebuilt, no traces of it exist anymore: his exact burial site is still unknown, despite much research since about 1850, including several archaeological digs in the city. There is general agreement that the previous Champlain chapel site, and the remains of Champlain, should be somewhere near the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral.
The search for Champlain's remains supplies a key plot-line in the crime writer Louise Penny's 2010 novel, Bury Your Dead.
Legacy
Many sites and landmarks have been named to honour Champlain, who was a prominent figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont. Memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Father of Acadia", his historic significance endures in modern times. Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between northern New York and Vermont, extending slightly across the border into Canada, was named by him, in 1609, when he led an expedition along the Richelieu River, exploring a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York. The first European to map and describe it, Champlain claimed the lake as his namesake.
Memorials include:
Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, the Champlain Trail Lakes.
Champlain Sea: a past inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, over the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and the Richelieu rivers, to over Lake Champlain, which inlet disappeared many thousands years before Champlain was born.
Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park – which he first observed in 1604.
A town and village in New York, as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Quebec.
The provincial electoral district of Champlain, Quebec, and several defunct electoral districts elsewhere in Canada.
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, a provincial park in northern Ontario near the town of Mattawa.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the island of Montreal to Brossard, Quebec across the St. Lawrence.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.
Champlain College, one of six colleges at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, is named in his honour.
Fort Champlain, a dormitory at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario; named in his honour in 1965, it houses the 10th cadet squadron.
A French school in Saint John, New Brunswick; École Champlain, an elementary school in Moncton, New Brunswick and one in Brossard; Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont; and Champlain Regional College, a CEGEP with three campuses in Quebec.
Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in Montreal.
Streets named Champlain in numerous cities, including Quebec, Shawinigan, the city of Dieppe in the province of New Brunswick, in Plattsburgh, and no less than eleven communities in northwestern Vermont.
A garden called Jardin Samuel-de-Champlain in Paris, France.
A memorial statue on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain in a park named for Champlain.
A memorial statue in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in Queen Square that commemorates his discovery of the Saint John River.
A memorial statue in Isle La Motte, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.
The lighthouse at Crown Point, New York features a statue of Champlain by Carl Augustus Heber.
A commemorative stamp issue in May 2006 jointly by the United States Postal Service and Canada Post.
A statue in Ticonderoga, New York, unveiled in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of Lake Champlain.
A statue in Orillia, Ontario at Couchiching Beach Park on Lake Couchiching. This statue was removed by Parks Canada, and is not likely to be returned, as it incorporated offensive depictions of First Nations peoples.
HMCS Champlain (1919), a S class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1928 to 1936.
HMCS Champlain, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve division based in Chicoutimi, Quebec since activation in 1985.
Champlain Place, a shopping centre located in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada.
The Champlain Society, a Canadian historical and text publication society, chartered in 1927.
A memorial statue in Ottawa at Nepean Point, by Hamilton MacCarthy. The statue depicts Champlain holding an astrolabe (upside-down, as it happens). It did previously include an "Indian Scout" kneeling at its base. In the 1990s, after lobbying by Indigenous people, it was removed from the statue's base, renamed and placed as "Anishinaabe Scout" in Major's Hill Park.
Bibliography
These are works that were written by Champlain:
Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (first French publication 1870, first English publication 1859 as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602)
Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 (first French publication 1604, first English publication 1625)
Voyages de la Nouvelle-France (first French publication 1632)
Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier (first French publication 1632)
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
Note: Mathieu d'Avignon (Ph.D. in history, Laval University, 2006) is an affiliate researcher into the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi Research Group on History. He is preparing a special new full edition, in modern French, of Champlain's Voyages in New France.
Further reading
Dix, Edwin Asa. (1903). Champlain, the Founder of New France, IndyPublish
Morison, Samuel Eliot, (1972). Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France Little Brown,
External links
From Marcel Trudel: Champlain, Samuel de (at The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Champlain in Acadia
Biography at the Museum of Civilization
Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.
They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, October 31, 2008
Dead Reckoning – Champlain in America, PBS documentary 2009
World Digital Library presentation of Descripsion des costs, pts., rades, illes de la Nouuele France faict selon son vray méridienor Description of the Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France. Library of Congress. Primary source portolan style chart on vellum with summary description, image with enhanced view and zoom features, text to speech capability. French. Links to related content. Content available as TIF. One of the major cartographic resources, this map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod.
A book from 1603 of Champlain's first voyage to New France from the World Digital Library
Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Inquiry
From Samuel de Champlain: Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... (1632) (at Rare Book Room)
Baptismal parish register, August 13, 1574, protestant temple Saint.Yon, La Rochelle
(in French) Digitized copy of Champlain's Des Sauvages from the John Carter Brown Library
French explorers of North America
French explorers
French geographers
Governors of New France
People of New France
17th-century explorers
1574 births
1635 deaths
People from Charente-Maritime
1600s in Canada
1610s in Canada
1620s in Canada
1630s in Canada
17th century in Quebec
Acadia
Acadian history
Colonial United States (French)
Explorers of Canada
Explorers of the United States
Pre-statehood history of Maine
Pre-statehood history of Massachusetts
Pre-Confederation New Brunswick people
Pre-statehood history of New York (state)
Pre-Confederation Nova Scotia people
Pre-Confederation Ontario people
Pre-Confederation Quebec people
Pre-statehood history of Vermont
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Quebec City
17th-century Canadian politicians
Canadian city founders
French city founders
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[
"Notre-Dame-des-Victoires is a small Roman Catholic stone church on Place Royale in the lower town of Old Quebec City. Construction was started in 1687 on the site of Champlain's habitation and was completed in 1723. The church is one of the oldest in North America.\n\nHistory\nNotre-Dame-des-Victoires was built atop the ruins of Champlain's first outpost. Architect Hilaire Bernard de La Rivière was the builder. Originally dedicated to l'Enfant Jésus, it received the name Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire following the Battle of Quebec of 1690, in which an English expedition commanded by William Phips was forced to retreat. In 1711, its name was changed again, to Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, after bad weather had sunk a British fleet commanded by Hovenden Walker.\n\nThe church was largely destroyed by the British bombardment that preceded the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759. A complete restoration of the church was finished in 1816. Architect François Baillairgé led the restoration work.\n\nThe church, which was listed as a historic monument in 1929, remains a popular tourist attraction within the city, as well as a place of worship. It has undergone extensive restoration in recent decades, to restore its colonial French character. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988 and plaqued in 1992.\n\nIn 2002, the church served as a filming location for Catch Me If You Can.\n\nInterior\nA model of the Brézé, the ship commanded by the marquis of Tracy, can be seen inside the church.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences\n\nRoman Catholic churches completed in 1723\nRoman Catholic churches in Quebec City\n1723 in Canada\n18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Canada\nHeritage immovables of Quebec\nRoman Catholic churches on the National Historic Sites of Canada register\nOld Quebec\n1723 establishments in New France",
"USS Eagle may refer to the following ships of the United States Navy:\n\n , was a 14-gun schooner in service from 1798 to 1801\n , was an 11-gun sloop in service on Lake Champlain during the War of 1812\n , was a 20-gun brig also on Lake Champlain, launched and named while the 1812 Eagle was in British hands\n was a 12-gun schooner of the New Orleans Squadron\n , was a yacht purchased in 1898 and in service until 1919\n , later renamed USS SP-145, was a patrol boat in commission from 1917 to 1919\n , was a Q-ship renamed Captor (PYc-40) shortly after commissioning in 1942\n , later USS PE-56, in commission from 1919 to 1945\n\nSee also\n , also known as \"Eagle boats,\" commissioned in 1918 and 1919\n for several United States Coast Guard cutters\n \n Eagle was the name of the Lunar Module on Apollo 11\n\nUnited States Navy ship names"
] |
[
"Samuel de Champlain",
"Relations and war with natives",
"When did Champlain land at the \"point of Quebec\"?",
"During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes.",
"What did Champlain name his collection of three buildings?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the name of the boat Champlain commanded?",
"but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois."
] |
C_47fd9c03dc404f3aa01f69f2660dd953_0
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What was the name of the house that Champlain lived in?
| 4 |
What was the name of the house that Champlain lived in?
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Samuel de Champlain
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During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes demanded that Champlain help them in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Riviere des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Iroquois at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives. On July 29, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois. In a battle begun the next day, two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century. The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wyandot people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years. CANNOTANSWER
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The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies,
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Samuel de Champlain (; c. 13 August 1567 – 25 December 1635) was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations, and founded various colonial settlements.
Born into a family of sailors, Champlain began exploring North America in 1603, under the guidance of his uncle, François Gravé Du Pont. After 1603, Champlain's life and career consolidated into the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
From 1604 to 1607, he participated in the exploration and creation of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605).
In 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City.
Champlain was the first European to describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives.
He formed long time relationships with local Montagnais and Innu, and, later, with others farther west—tribes of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, and with Algonquin and Wendat; he also agreed to provide assistance in the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois.
Late in the year of 1615, Champlain returned to the Wendat and stayed with them over the winter, which permitted him to make the first ethnographic observations of this important nation, the events of which form the bulk of his book Voyages et Decouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis l’année 1615 published in 1619.
In 1620, Louis XIII of France ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.
In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.
Champlain established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death, in 1635.
Champlain is memorialized as the "Father of New France", "Father of Acadia", or in French "Père de la Nouvelle-France" with many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bearing his name, most notably Lake Champlain.
Birth year, location and family
Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written "Anthoine Chappelain" in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, in either Hiers-Brouage, or the port city of La Rochelle, in the French province of Aunis.
He was born on or before 13 August 1574, according to a recent baptism record found by Jean-Marie Germe, French genealogist.
Although in 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his Œuvres de Champlain, accepted Pierre-Damien Rainguet's estimate of Champlain's birth in 1567 and tried to justify it, his calculations were based on assumptions now believed or proven, to be incorrect.
Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle) wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimate was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence. The 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain and is widely regarded as accurate.
In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed, choosing 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage, France."
Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).
Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613).
He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children. The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage.
Born into a family of mariners (both his father and uncle-in-law were sailors, or navigators), Samuel Champlain learned to navigate, draw, make nautical charts, and write practical reports. His education did not include Ancient Greek or Latin, so he did not read or learn from any ancient literature.
As each French fleet had to assure its own defense at sea, Champlain sought to learn to fight with the firearms of his time: he acquired this practical knowledge when serving with the army of King Henry IV during the later stages of France's religious wars in Brittany from 1594 or 1595 to 1598, beginning as a quartermaster responsible for the feeding and care of horses.
During this time he claimed to go on a "certain secret voyage" for the king, and saw combat (including maybe the Siege of Fort Crozon, at the end of 1594). By 1597 he was a "capitaine d'une compagnie" serving in a garrison near Quimper.
Early travels
In year 3 his uncle-in-law, a navigator whose ship Saint-Julien was to transport Spanish troops to Cádiz pursuant to the Treaty of Vervins, gave Champlain the opportunity to accompany him.
After a difficult passage, he spent some time in Cádiz before his uncle, whose ship was then chartered to accompany a large Spanish fleet to the West Indies, again offered him a place on the ship. His uncle, who gave command of the ship to Jeronimo de Valaebrera, instructed the young Champlain to watch over the ship.
This journey lasted two years and gave Champlain the opportunity to see or hear about Spanish holdings from the Caribbean to Mexico City. Along the way, he took detailed notes, wrote an illustrated report on what he learned on this trip, and gave this secret report to King Henry, who rewarded Champlain with an annual pension.
This report was published for the first time in 1870, by Laverdière, as Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (and in English as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602).
The authenticity of this account as a work written by Champlain has frequently been questioned, due to inaccuracies and discrepancies with other sources on a number of points; however, recent scholarship indicates that the work probably was authored by Champlain.
On Champlain's return to Cádiz in August 1600, his uncle Guillermo Elena (Guillaume Allene), who had fallen ill, asked him to look after his business affairs. This Champlain did, and when his uncle died in June 1601, Champlain inherited his substantial estate. It included an estate near La Rochelle, commercial properties in Spain, and a 150-ton merchant ship.
This inheritance, combined with the king's annual pension, gave the young explorer a great deal of independence, as he did not need to rely on the financial backing of merchants and other investors.
From 1601 to 1603 Champlain served as a geographer in the court of King Henry IV. As part of his duties, he traveled to French ports and learned much about North America from the fishermen that seasonally traveled to coastal areas from Nantucket to Newfoundland to capitalize on the rich fishing grounds there.
He also made a study of previous French failures at colonization in the area, including that of Pierre de Chauvin at Tadoussac. When Chauvin forfeited his monopoly on the fur trade in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent.
Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm lifelong friendship.
He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and in Acadia after). The Bonne-Renommée (the Good Fame) arrived at Tadoussac on March 15, 1603. Champlain was anxious to see for himself all of the places that Jacques Cartier had seen and described sixty years earlier, and wanted to go even further than Cartier, if possible.
Champlain created a map of the Saint Lawrence on this trip and, after his return to France on 20 September, published an account as Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 ("Concerning the Savages: or travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, made in New France in the year 1603").
Included in his account were meetings with Begourat, chief of the Montagnais at Tadoussac, in which positive relationships were established between the French and the many Montagnais gathered there, with some Algonquin friends.
Promising to King Henry to report on further discoveries, Champlain joined a second expedition to New France in the spring of 1604. This trip, once again an exploratory journey without women and children, lasted several years, and focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence River, in what later became known as Acadia. It was led by Pierre Dugua de Mons, a noble and Protestant merchant who had been given a fur trading monopoly in New France by the king. Dugua asked Champlain to find a site for winter settlement.
After exploring possible sites in the Bay of Fundy, Champlain selected Saint Croix Island in the St. Croix River as the site of the expedition's first winter settlement. After enduring a harsh winter on the island the settlement was relocated across the bay where they established Port Royal. Until 1607, Champlain used that site as his base, while he explored the Atlantic coast. Dugua was forced to leave the settlement for France in September 1605, because he learned that his monopoly was at risk. His monopoly was rescinded by the king in July 1607 under pressure from other merchants and proponents of free trade, leading to the abandonment of the settlement.
In 1605 and 1606, Champlain explored the North American coast as far south as Cape Cod, searching for sites for a permanent settlement. Minor skirmishes with the resident Nausets dissuaded him from the idea of establishing one near present-day Chatham, Massachusetts. He named the area Mallebar ("bad bar").
Founding of Quebec
In the spring of 1608, Dugua wanted Champlain to start a new French colony and fur trading centre on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Dugua equipped, at his own expense, a fleet of three ships with workers, that left the French port of Honfleur. The main ship, called the Don-de-Dieu (French for the Gift of God), was commanded by Champlain. Another ship, the Lévrier (the Hunt Dog), was commanded by his friend Du Pont. The small group of male settlers arrived at Tadoussac on the lower St. Lawrence in June. Because of the dangerous strength of the Saguenay River ending there, they left the ships and continued up the "Big River" in small boats bringing the men and the materials.
Upon arriving in Quebec, Champlain later wrote: "I arrived there on the 3rd of July, when I searched for a place suitable for our settlement; but I could find none more convenient or better suited than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut-trees." Champlain ordered his men to gather lumber by cutting down the nut-trees for use in building habitations.
Some days after Champlain's arrival in Quebec, Jean du Val, a member of Champlain's party, plotted to kill Champlain to the end of securing the settlement for the Basques or Spaniards and making a fortune for himself. Du Val's plot was ultimately foiled when an associate of Du Val confessed his involvement in the plot to Champlain's pilot, who informed Champlain. Champlain had a young man deliver Du Val, along with 3 co-conspirators, two bottles of wine and invite the four worthies to an event on board a boat. Soon after the four conspirators arrived on the boat, Champlain had them arrested. Du Val was strangled and hung in Quebec and his head was displayed in the "most conspicuous place" of Champlain's fort. The other three were sent back to France to be tried.
Relations and war with Native Americans
During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local First Nations tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (derogatorily called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes sought Champlain's help in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Rivière des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Haudenosaunee at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives.
On 29 July, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Haudenosaunee. In a battle that began the next day, two hundred and fifty Haudenosaunee advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Haudenosaunee turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century.
The Battle of Sorel occurred on 19 June 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wendat people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Champlain's forces armed with the arquebus engaged and slaughtered or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years.
Marriage
One route Champlain may have chosen to improve his access to the court of the regent was his decision to enter into marriage with the twelve-year-old Hélène Boullé. She was the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, a man charged with carrying out royal decisions at court. The marriage contract was signed on 27 December 1610 in presence of Dugua, who had dealt with the father, and the couple was married three days later. The terms of the contract called for the marriage to be consummated two years later.
Champlain's marriage was initially quite troubled, as Hélène rallied against joining him in August 1613. Their relationship, while it apparently lacked any physical connection, recovered and was apparently good for many years. Hélène lived in Quebec for several years, but returned to Paris and eventually decided to enter a convent. The couple had no children, and Champlain adopted three Montagnais girls named Faith, Hope, and Charity in the winter of 1627–28.
Exploration of New France
On 29 March 1613, arriving back in New France, he first ensured that his new royal commission be proclaimed. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably Hudson Bay). He travelled the Ottawa River, later giving the first description of this area. Along the way, he apparently dropped or left behind a cache of silver cups, copper kettles, and a brass astrolabe dated 1603 (Champlain's Astrolabe), which was later found by a farm boy named Edward Lee near Cobden, Ontario. It was in June that he met with Tessouat, the Algonquin chief of Allumettes Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids.
By 26 August, Champlain was back in Saint-Malo. There, he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages and published another map of New France. In 1614, he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four Recollects in order to further religious life in the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land, estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the French Crown in New France.
In 1615, Champlain reunited with Étienne Brûlé, his capable interpreter, following separate four-year explorations. There, Brûlé reported North American explorations, including that he had been joined by another French interpreter named Grenolle with whom he had travelled along the north shore of la mer douce (the calm sea), now known as Lake Huron, to the great rapids of Sault Ste. Marie, where Lake Superior enters Lake Huron, some of which was recorded by Champlain.
Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives, promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides, he explored further up the Ottawa River and reached Lake Nipissing. He then followed the French River until he reached Lake Huron.
In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Wendat. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road) and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth.
Military expedition
On 1 September 1615, at Cahiagué (a Wendat community on what is now called Lake Simcoe), he and the northern tribes started a military expedition against the Iroquois. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they arrived at the main Onondaga fort on October 10. The exact location of this place is still a matter of debate. Although the traditional location, Nichols Pond, is regularly disproved by professional and amateur archaeologists, many still claim that Nichols Pond is the location of the battle, south of Canastota, New York. Champlain attacked the stockaded Oneida village. He was accompanied by 10 Frenchmen and 300 Wendat. Pressured by the Huron Wendat to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The conflict ended on October 16 when the French Wendat were forced to flee.
Although he did not want to, the Wendat insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay, he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of First Nations people by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On 22 May 1616, he left the Wendat country and returned to Quebec before heading back to France on 2 July.
Improving administration in New France
Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the territory rather than exploration. Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cape Diamond. By mid-May, he learned that the fur trading monopoly had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the natives and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Iroquois.
Champlain continued to work on the fortifications of what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on 6 May 1624. On 15 August he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue looking for a passage to China, something widely believed to exist at the time. By July 5 he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.
In 1627 the Caen brothers' company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, and Cardinal Richelieu (who had joined the Royal Council in 1624 and rose rapidly to a position of dominance in French politics that he would hold until his death in 1642) formed the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (the Hundred Associates) to manage the fur trade. Champlain was one of the 100 investors, and its first fleet, loaded with colonists and supplies, set sail in April 1628.
Champlain had overwintered in Quebec. Supplies were low, and English merchants sacked Cap Tourmente in early July 1628. A war had broken out between France and England, and Charles I of England had issued letters of marque that authorized the capture of French shipping and its colonies in North America. Champlain received a summons to surrender on July 10 from the Kirke brothers, two Scottish brothers who were working for the English government. Champlain refused to deal with them, misleading them to believe that Quebec's defenses were better than they actually were (Champlain had only 50 pounds of gunpowder to defend the community). Successfully bluffed, they withdrew, but encountered and captured the French supply fleet, cutting off that year's supplies to the colony. By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé and into Indian communities to conserve rations. On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived before Quebec after intercepting Champlain's plea for help, and Champlain was forced to surrender the colony. Many colonists were transported first to England and then to France by the Kirkes, but Champlain remained in London to begin the process of regaining the colony. A peace treaty had been signed in April 1629, three months before the surrender, and, under the terms of that treaty, Quebec and other prizes that were taken by the Kirkes after the treaty were to be returned. It was not until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, however, that Quebec was formally given back to France. (David Kirke was rewarded when Charles I knighted him and gave him a charter for Newfoundland.) Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on 1 March 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu" from 1629 to 1635. In 1632 Champlain published Voyages de la Nouvelle-France, which was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain made more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)
Last return, and last years working in Quebec
Champlain returned to Quebec on 22 May 1633, after an absence of four years. Richelieu gave him a commission as Lieutenant General of New France, along with other titles and responsibilities, but not that of governor. Despite this lack of formal status, many colonists, French merchants, and Indians treated him as if he had the title; writings survive in which he is referred to as "our governor". On 18 August 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, and established two more habitations. One was 15 leagues upstream, and the other was at Trois-Rivières. He also began an offensive against the Iroquois, reporting that he wanted them either wiped out or "brought to reason".
Death and burial
Champlain had a severe stroke in October 1635, and died on 25 December, leaving no immediate heirs. Jesuit records state he died in the care of his friend and confessor Charles Lallemant.
Although his will (drafted on 17 November 1635) gave much of his French property to his wife Hélène Boullé, he made significant bequests to the Catholic missions and to individuals in the colony of Quebec. However, Marie Camaret, a cousin on his mother's side, challenged the will in Paris and had it overturned. It is unclear exactly what happened to his estate.
Samuel de Champlain was temporarily buried in the church while a standalone chapel was built to hold his remains in the upper part of the city. Unfortunately, this small building, along with many others, was destroyed by a large fire in 1640. Though immediately rebuilt, no traces of it exist anymore: his exact burial site is still unknown, despite much research since about 1850, including several archaeological digs in the city. There is general agreement that the previous Champlain chapel site, and the remains of Champlain, should be somewhere near the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral.
The search for Champlain's remains supplies a key plot-line in the crime writer Louise Penny's 2010 novel, Bury Your Dead.
Legacy
Many sites and landmarks have been named to honour Champlain, who was a prominent figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont. Memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Father of Acadia", his historic significance endures in modern times. Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between northern New York and Vermont, extending slightly across the border into Canada, was named by him, in 1609, when he led an expedition along the Richelieu River, exploring a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York. The first European to map and describe it, Champlain claimed the lake as his namesake.
Memorials include:
Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, the Champlain Trail Lakes.
Champlain Sea: a past inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, over the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and the Richelieu rivers, to over Lake Champlain, which inlet disappeared many thousands years before Champlain was born.
Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park – which he first observed in 1604.
A town and village in New York, as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Quebec.
The provincial electoral district of Champlain, Quebec, and several defunct electoral districts elsewhere in Canada.
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, a provincial park in northern Ontario near the town of Mattawa.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the island of Montreal to Brossard, Quebec across the St. Lawrence.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.
Champlain College, one of six colleges at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, is named in his honour.
Fort Champlain, a dormitory at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario; named in his honour in 1965, it houses the 10th cadet squadron.
A French school in Saint John, New Brunswick; École Champlain, an elementary school in Moncton, New Brunswick and one in Brossard; Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont; and Champlain Regional College, a CEGEP with three campuses in Quebec.
Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in Montreal.
Streets named Champlain in numerous cities, including Quebec, Shawinigan, the city of Dieppe in the province of New Brunswick, in Plattsburgh, and no less than eleven communities in northwestern Vermont.
A garden called Jardin Samuel-de-Champlain in Paris, France.
A memorial statue on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain in a park named for Champlain.
A memorial statue in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in Queen Square that commemorates his discovery of the Saint John River.
A memorial statue in Isle La Motte, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.
The lighthouse at Crown Point, New York features a statue of Champlain by Carl Augustus Heber.
A commemorative stamp issue in May 2006 jointly by the United States Postal Service and Canada Post.
A statue in Ticonderoga, New York, unveiled in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of Lake Champlain.
A statue in Orillia, Ontario at Couchiching Beach Park on Lake Couchiching. This statue was removed by Parks Canada, and is not likely to be returned, as it incorporated offensive depictions of First Nations peoples.
HMCS Champlain (1919), a S class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1928 to 1936.
HMCS Champlain, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve division based in Chicoutimi, Quebec since activation in 1985.
Champlain Place, a shopping centre located in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada.
The Champlain Society, a Canadian historical and text publication society, chartered in 1927.
A memorial statue in Ottawa at Nepean Point, by Hamilton MacCarthy. The statue depicts Champlain holding an astrolabe (upside-down, as it happens). It did previously include an "Indian Scout" kneeling at its base. In the 1990s, after lobbying by Indigenous people, it was removed from the statue's base, renamed and placed as "Anishinaabe Scout" in Major's Hill Park.
Bibliography
These are works that were written by Champlain:
Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (first French publication 1870, first English publication 1859 as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602)
Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 (first French publication 1604, first English publication 1625)
Voyages de la Nouvelle-France (first French publication 1632)
Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier (first French publication 1632)
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
Note: Mathieu d'Avignon (Ph.D. in history, Laval University, 2006) is an affiliate researcher into the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi Research Group on History. He is preparing a special new full edition, in modern French, of Champlain's Voyages in New France.
Further reading
Dix, Edwin Asa. (1903). Champlain, the Founder of New France, IndyPublish
Morison, Samuel Eliot, (1972). Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France Little Brown,
External links
From Marcel Trudel: Champlain, Samuel de (at The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Champlain in Acadia
Biography at the Museum of Civilization
Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.
They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, October 31, 2008
Dead Reckoning – Champlain in America, PBS documentary 2009
World Digital Library presentation of Descripsion des costs, pts., rades, illes de la Nouuele France faict selon son vray méridienor Description of the Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France. Library of Congress. Primary source portolan style chart on vellum with summary description, image with enhanced view and zoom features, text to speech capability. French. Links to related content. Content available as TIF. One of the major cartographic resources, this map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod.
A book from 1603 of Champlain's first voyage to New France from the World Digital Library
Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Inquiry
From Samuel de Champlain: Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... (1632) (at Rare Book Room)
Baptismal parish register, August 13, 1574, protestant temple Saint.Yon, La Rochelle
(in French) Digitized copy of Champlain's Des Sauvages from the John Carter Brown Library
French explorers of North America
French explorers
French geographers
Governors of New France
People of New France
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People from Charente-Maritime
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"The Lordship of Champlain was granted in 1664, on the north side of the St. Lawrence River between Trois-Rivières and Quebec City, under the feudal system of New France. Today, the territory of the former manor of Champlain is located in the administrative region of Mauricie in Quebec, Canada. The capital was the town of Champlain.\n\nThe Lordship of Champlain stretched from the north shore of the St. Lawrence River (west of the mouth of the Champlain River) up towards the north, parallel to the Lordship of Batiscan on the east side. The north-south dividing line between the two domains also divides the municipalities of Saint-Narcisse and Hérouxville.\n\nToponymy\nDuring an exploration trip in 1632, Samuel de Champlain, the acknowledged founder of New France, gave his name to the Champlain River. Subsequently, the first lord, Étienne Pézard de la Touche, adopted the place name of Champlain to describe his lordship. The same place name was used by the Catholic parish at Champlain, to describe the town of Champlain in 1845, and the federal electoral district in 1867.\n\nHistory of the Lordship\nMany people used the St. Lawrence River before the creation of the Lordship of Champlain. The indigenous peoples were present along the river for more than 5,000 to 7,000 years. The Vikings sailed along the east coast of Canada and in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 11th century, and French fishermen frequented the Gaspé Peninsula before Jacques Cartier first arrived in Canada in 1534.\n\nIn 1535, during his second voyage of discovery on the St. Lawrence River, Cartier passed the site of the future town of Champlain. In 1580, the Basque people made several fishing trips to the St. Lawrence River. In 1603, Samuel de Champlain went to Champlain, Quebec. He erected the first permanent post which became Quebec City in 1608. The town of Trois-Rivières was founded in 1634.\n\nOn August 16, 1643, Jacques Aubuchon of Trois-Rivières was granted permission to settle on land of the future Lordship of Champlain. However, he did not do so, mainly because of the property's remoteness and the threat of attacks by the Iroquois. He sold his share in 1645.\n\nThe Marsolet and Hertel land grants, of April 5, 1644, were located in the area of the upper Champlain, in the western part of the municipality. Beginning in 1645, Jacques Hertel built a house on his land while continuing to live in Trois-Rivières. Both of these land grants were divided into lots, beginning in 1666.\n\nGrant of the Lordship of Champlain\nAccording to a deed dated August 8, 1664, the Lordship of Champlain was granted to Étienne Pézard de la Tousche, Governor Augustine Saffray Mézy and Bishop François de Montmorency-Laval. Its scope covered 1.5 lieue of frontage and one lieue deep, on both sides of the Champlain River. The lease did not mention a name given to the lordship. The act of ratification was issued by His Majesty on May 24, 1689.\n\nIn 1665, the first land grants were contracted in the Lordship of Champlain. From 1668, manor residents said they lived in \"La Touche-Champlain\" which was simplified to \"Champlain\" in 1669. Twenty years after the creation of the Lordship of Champlain, in 1684, Monsignor François de Montmorency-Laval gave the official name to the Catholic parish as \"Champlain\", pointing out that this was the name in common use. The first lord was called \"De la Touche-Champlain\" in 1680, or \"Pézard Champlain\" in 1693 or \"Pézard Latouche-Champlain\" in 1702. A fort and a chapel were built between 1664 and 1665.\n\nThe first acts were registered in 1665 in the parish registry. The first church was built between 1666 and 1671, to replace the chapel of Fort La Touche. In 1671, a flour mill was put into operation. In 1679, the town of Champlain had forty families with 250 people, some who had been established there ever since the founding of the lordship. The Lord was able to grant all the lots along the river's shore.\n\nThe first increase in the territory of the lordship seems to have been granted before 1721 by the Jesuits, to Étienne Pézard de la Tousche according to Jean Bouffard. Another increase, with a range of three \"lieues\" deep, was granted on April 28, 1697, to Madame De la Tousche by the Governor, Louis Frontenac Buade, and the steward, Jean Bochart de Champigny. The ratification act was by His Majesty on May 28, 1700.\n\nÉtienne Pézard de la Tousch\nÉtienne Pézard de la Tousche, a military man, was born in Blois, Orleans, France, the son of Claude Pézard and Marie Masson. He left France for Canada in 1661, and was immediately appointed a lieutenant, then captain, of the garrison at Trois-Rivières. During this assignment, Pézard gave assistance to Pierre Boucher in the drafting of the document \"Histoire véritable et, naturelle…\" (real history and natural ...) (Paris, 1664).\n\nIn June 1664, Pézard left Trois-Rivières to command the garrison at Montreal. He married Madeleine Mullois de La Borde on June 20, 1664, at Notre Dame Church in Montreal; they had five children. Although Pézard was appointed governor of Montreal by Augustine Saffray Mézy (on the same day as his marriage), this appointment never came into effect. The lords of Montreal opposed, alleging their right to appoint the Governor.\n\nFollowing this setback, Mézy granted Pézard a manor on the north shore of St. Lawrence river on August 8, 1664. Pézard immediately began to operate the Lordship, unlike the majority of the lords of his time. He immediately began construction of a mansion near the mouth of the Champlain River, on the edge of a rock and a church in 1665. This stately new concession exacerbated the Jesuits who believed their manorial fully vested on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River between the Saint-Maurice River and the Batiscan River. Meanwhile, the Jesuits actively pursued the settlement of Cap-de-la-Madeleine.\n\nThrough his contacts with the authorities of Trois-Rivières, as well as efforts among captains, established families, soldiers and immigrants, Pézard attracted pioneers, and the first families come from Trois-Rivières, such as those of Antoine Desrosiers, François Chorel and Pierre Dandonneau, among 22 land grants in 1665. To thank Pézard for his efforts in encouraging colonization, the steward gave him a \"flight\" from the royal stables.\n\nThe date of Pézard's death is unknown, and is not recorded in religious or civil records of New France. Historians conclude he died in 1696, based on documents that highlight his name in 1695. In addition, according to historian Jean Hamelin, documents written in November 1696 refer to the widow Mary Magdalene Mullois, who died in 1704.\n\nOther important dates\n• April 5, 1644: concession of the fief Marsolet and fief Tree to the Cross, located in the present territory of the Municipality of Champlain.\n\n• August 8, 1664: grant of the lordship of Champlain. This date proves the founding of the town of Champlain, Quebec, the eighth oldest town in New France.\n\n• 1664: Construction of Fort La Touche-Champlain, in Champlain, at the mouth of the Champlain River.\n\n• 1664-1665: The first settlers moved to the side of the lordship of Champlain. One of 34 lots granted in 1664-65 by Pézard. Some of the first families come from Trois-Rivières, such as those of Antoine Desrosiers, François Chorel and Pierre Dandonneau.\n\n• In 1666: concessions of the fief Hertel begin to be granted.\n\n• 1667: concessions on fief Marsolet begin to be granted to tenants.\n\n• 1789: acquisition of the manor of Champlain by Joseph Drapeau (April 13, 1752 - November 3, 1810). He is a lord, a merchant and politician in Lower Canada. In 1809 and 1810, he was elected to Northumberland to House of Assembly of Lower Canada.\n\n• 1797: sale of the manor of Champlain by Joseph Drapeau to buy half of the Isle of Orleans.\n\n• 1830-1850: emergence of the present village in the center of town. In 1860, there were 20 locations in the village. In 1933, there were 150.\n\n• 1854: the end of the feudal regime in New France.\n\n• 1855: Creation of the Municipality of parish of La Visitation-de-Champlain in the first municipal boundaries of the Quebec.\n\nSee also \n\n Government of Trois-Rivières\n Lordship of Batiscan\n Champlain (homonymy)\n Champlain (municipalité)\n Saint-Luc-de-Vincennes\n Saint-Narcisse\n Hérouxville\n Champlain (electoral district)\n Champlain (provincial electoral district)\n\nNotes and references \n\nLes Chenaux Regional County Municipality\nMékinac Regional County Municipality\n1664 establishments in the French colonial empire",
"Champlain is a municipality in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is located in Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality and the administrative region the Mauricie, on the north shore of St. Lawrence River. Champlain is also part of the metropolitan area of Trois-Rivières.\n\nChamplain is a member of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec.\n\nOrigin of the place name \n\nIn 1632, Samuel de Champlain, founder of New France, gave his name to the Champlain River. The Commission de toponymie du Québec has noted a \"popular version\" of the origin of the name, which suggests that Champlain gave the area its name because, \"amazed by the beauty of the place, [he] exclaimed to himself, 'What a beautiful flat plain', from the Latin campus planus, 'flat field'.\" However, the Commission concludes that it is certain that Champlain named the area after himself, as his contemporary record indicates that he named the river the \"Rivière de Champlain\".\n\nThe deed of the seigniory of Champlain, dated April 8, 1664, does not name the seigniory. The deed only mentions that the granted land extended \"from the Champlain River following the said river [Saint Lawrence] to the said Trois-Rivières\". It appears that it was the first seigneur, Étienne Pézard de la Touche, who gave the name of \"Champlain\" to the seigniory, then to the parish.\n\nBy 1668, the documents relating to the residents of Champlain mention they live in \"La Touche-Champlain\", or simply \"Champlain\" from 1669 onwards. In 1684, the area was already well known as Champlain, demonstrated when Bishop Laval, finally giving the official titles of the parish twenty years after its foundation, referred to: \"the place commonly called Champlain\".\n\nAs for the family name of the seigneurs, by 1680 the first seigneur referred to himself as La Touche-Champlain, and Pézard Champlain by 1693. His successor referred to himself as Pézard Latouche-Champlain by 1702.\n\nIn 1829 the name was used for the electoral district for the area in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, and in 1841, the electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. The name was given to the municipality in 1845, and then to the federal and provincial electoral districts in 1867.\n\nHistory\n\nBeginnings of French settlement \n\nThe Champlain municipality lies on the territory of the former seigniories of Marsolet and l'Arbre-à-la-Croix, both granted on April 5, 1644, and the seigniory of Champlain, granted on August 8, 1664.\n\nThe first French occupants of Champlain settled in 1664 or 1665. There had been a first attempt to settle on land granted August 16, 1643, but the distance from other settlements and the Iroquois threat discouraged settlement. In 1664 or 1665, the first settlers established settlements in the land of the seigniory of Champlain. The following year, in 1666, concessions were granted in the seigniory of Hertel, and in 1667 in the seigniory of Marsolet. Some of the first families came from Trois-Rivières, such as the families of Antoine Desrosiers, François Chorel and Pierre Dandonneau.\n\nChronology \n\n April 5, 1644: Grants of the Marsolet and Arbre-à-la-Croix seigniories.\n August 8, 1664: Grant of the seigniory of Champlain. This date is considered the founding of the town of Champlain, the eighth oldest town of New France.\n 1664: Construction of Fort Champlain.\n 1830-1850: Emergence of the present village in the centre of the area. \n 1845: Creation of the parish municipality of Champlain effective July 1, pursuant to a new provincial statute, the first formal municipal government for the area.\n 1847: Parish municipality of Champlain is merged with other local municipalities to form the County of Champlain, effective September 1, pursuant to a provincial statute re-organising municipal government.\n 1855: Parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain re-created from the County of Champlain, effective July 1, pursuant to a provincial statute re-organising municipal government.\n 1860: Twenty buildings in the village.\n 1879: Construction of the present church\n 1882: Construction of the present monastery\n 1886: The streets Sainte-Anne and Saint-Joseph are authenticated by the municipal council.\n 1917: The village municipality of Champlain is created by a division of the parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain.\n 1933: 150 buildings in the village.\n 1979 : Celebration of the tricentennial of Champlain. The 300th anniversary was based on an erroneous understanding of the date of the foundation of the village, assumed from the oldest surviving parish records of baptisms, marriages and burials. It was not known that the parish registers from 1665 to 1679 had been lost.\n 1982: Champlain municipalities are included in the Francheville Regional County Municipality.\n 1982: The parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain and the village municipality of Champlain are merged to create the municipality of Champlain.\n 1984: 10: Pope John Paul II passes though Champlain on September 10, travelling by train from Quebec City to Trois-Rivières.\n 1986: On April 7, the municipal council passes a resolution formalizing the term \"Champlainois-Champlainoise\" to designate inhabitants of Champlain.\n 2002: The regional county municipality of Francheville is dissolved, and the municipality of Champlain is included in the new regional county municipality, Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality.\n 2004: On October 13, the Astronomical Observatory of Champlain discovers an asteroid from the Astronomical Observatory Champlain. It is given the number 157329 and is provisionally named 2004 TM16.\n 2006: On November 24, the Astronomical Observatory discovers a second asteroid, given the number 161815 and the temporary name of 2006 WK30.\n 2014: Celebration of the 350th anniversary of Champlain. This time, the celebration is based on the grant of the seigniory of Champlain in 1664.\n\nDemographics\n\nPopulation trend:\n Population in 2011: 1664 (2006 to 2011 population change: 6.3%)\n Population in 2006: 1566\n Population in 2001: 1623\n Population in 1996: 1608\n Population in 1991: 1610\n\nPrivate dwellings occupied by usual residents: 766 (total dwellings: 861)\n\nMother tongue:\n English as first language: 0.7%\n French as first language: 97.9%\n English and French as first language: 0.7%\n Other as first language: 0.7%\n\nPopulation\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nIncorporated places in Mauricie\nMunicipalities in Quebec\nLes Chenaux Regional County Municipality\n1982 establishments in Quebec"
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[
"Samuel de Champlain",
"Relations and war with natives",
"When did Champlain land at the \"point of Quebec\"?",
"During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes.",
"What did Champlain name his collection of three buildings?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the name of the boat Champlain commanded?",
"but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois.",
"What was the name of the house that Champlain lived in?",
"The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies,"
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C_47fd9c03dc404f3aa01f69f2660dd953_0
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What were Champlains' passions?
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What were Champlains' passions?
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Samuel de Champlain
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During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes demanded that Champlain help them in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Riviere des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Iroquois at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives. On July 29, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois. In a battle begun the next day, two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century. The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wyandot people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Samuel de Champlain (; c. 13 August 1567 – 25 December 1635) was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations, and founded various colonial settlements.
Born into a family of sailors, Champlain began exploring North America in 1603, under the guidance of his uncle, François Gravé Du Pont. After 1603, Champlain's life and career consolidated into the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
From 1604 to 1607, he participated in the exploration and creation of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605).
In 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City.
Champlain was the first European to describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives.
He formed long time relationships with local Montagnais and Innu, and, later, with others farther west—tribes of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, and with Algonquin and Wendat; he also agreed to provide assistance in the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois.
Late in the year of 1615, Champlain returned to the Wendat and stayed with them over the winter, which permitted him to make the first ethnographic observations of this important nation, the events of which form the bulk of his book Voyages et Decouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis l’année 1615 published in 1619.
In 1620, Louis XIII of France ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.
In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.
Champlain established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death, in 1635.
Champlain is memorialized as the "Father of New France", "Father of Acadia", or in French "Père de la Nouvelle-France" with many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bearing his name, most notably Lake Champlain.
Birth year, location and family
Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written "Anthoine Chappelain" in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, in either Hiers-Brouage, or the port city of La Rochelle, in the French province of Aunis.
He was born on or before 13 August 1574, according to a recent baptism record found by Jean-Marie Germe, French genealogist.
Although in 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his Œuvres de Champlain, accepted Pierre-Damien Rainguet's estimate of Champlain's birth in 1567 and tried to justify it, his calculations were based on assumptions now believed or proven, to be incorrect.
Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle) wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimate was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence. The 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain and is widely regarded as accurate.
In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed, choosing 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage, France."
Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).
Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613).
He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children. The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage.
Born into a family of mariners (both his father and uncle-in-law were sailors, or navigators), Samuel Champlain learned to navigate, draw, make nautical charts, and write practical reports. His education did not include Ancient Greek or Latin, so he did not read or learn from any ancient literature.
As each French fleet had to assure its own defense at sea, Champlain sought to learn to fight with the firearms of his time: he acquired this practical knowledge when serving with the army of King Henry IV during the later stages of France's religious wars in Brittany from 1594 or 1595 to 1598, beginning as a quartermaster responsible for the feeding and care of horses.
During this time he claimed to go on a "certain secret voyage" for the king, and saw combat (including maybe the Siege of Fort Crozon, at the end of 1594). By 1597 he was a "capitaine d'une compagnie" serving in a garrison near Quimper.
Early travels
In year 3 his uncle-in-law, a navigator whose ship Saint-Julien was to transport Spanish troops to Cádiz pursuant to the Treaty of Vervins, gave Champlain the opportunity to accompany him.
After a difficult passage, he spent some time in Cádiz before his uncle, whose ship was then chartered to accompany a large Spanish fleet to the West Indies, again offered him a place on the ship. His uncle, who gave command of the ship to Jeronimo de Valaebrera, instructed the young Champlain to watch over the ship.
This journey lasted two years and gave Champlain the opportunity to see or hear about Spanish holdings from the Caribbean to Mexico City. Along the way, he took detailed notes, wrote an illustrated report on what he learned on this trip, and gave this secret report to King Henry, who rewarded Champlain with an annual pension.
This report was published for the first time in 1870, by Laverdière, as Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (and in English as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602).
The authenticity of this account as a work written by Champlain has frequently been questioned, due to inaccuracies and discrepancies with other sources on a number of points; however, recent scholarship indicates that the work probably was authored by Champlain.
On Champlain's return to Cádiz in August 1600, his uncle Guillermo Elena (Guillaume Allene), who had fallen ill, asked him to look after his business affairs. This Champlain did, and when his uncle died in June 1601, Champlain inherited his substantial estate. It included an estate near La Rochelle, commercial properties in Spain, and a 150-ton merchant ship.
This inheritance, combined with the king's annual pension, gave the young explorer a great deal of independence, as he did not need to rely on the financial backing of merchants and other investors.
From 1601 to 1603 Champlain served as a geographer in the court of King Henry IV. As part of his duties, he traveled to French ports and learned much about North America from the fishermen that seasonally traveled to coastal areas from Nantucket to Newfoundland to capitalize on the rich fishing grounds there.
He also made a study of previous French failures at colonization in the area, including that of Pierre de Chauvin at Tadoussac. When Chauvin forfeited his monopoly on the fur trade in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent.
Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm lifelong friendship.
He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and in Acadia after). The Bonne-Renommée (the Good Fame) arrived at Tadoussac on March 15, 1603. Champlain was anxious to see for himself all of the places that Jacques Cartier had seen and described sixty years earlier, and wanted to go even further than Cartier, if possible.
Champlain created a map of the Saint Lawrence on this trip and, after his return to France on 20 September, published an account as Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 ("Concerning the Savages: or travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, made in New France in the year 1603").
Included in his account were meetings with Begourat, chief of the Montagnais at Tadoussac, in which positive relationships were established between the French and the many Montagnais gathered there, with some Algonquin friends.
Promising to King Henry to report on further discoveries, Champlain joined a second expedition to New France in the spring of 1604. This trip, once again an exploratory journey without women and children, lasted several years, and focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence River, in what later became known as Acadia. It was led by Pierre Dugua de Mons, a noble and Protestant merchant who had been given a fur trading monopoly in New France by the king. Dugua asked Champlain to find a site for winter settlement.
After exploring possible sites in the Bay of Fundy, Champlain selected Saint Croix Island in the St. Croix River as the site of the expedition's first winter settlement. After enduring a harsh winter on the island the settlement was relocated across the bay where they established Port Royal. Until 1607, Champlain used that site as his base, while he explored the Atlantic coast. Dugua was forced to leave the settlement for France in September 1605, because he learned that his monopoly was at risk. His monopoly was rescinded by the king in July 1607 under pressure from other merchants and proponents of free trade, leading to the abandonment of the settlement.
In 1605 and 1606, Champlain explored the North American coast as far south as Cape Cod, searching for sites for a permanent settlement. Minor skirmishes with the resident Nausets dissuaded him from the idea of establishing one near present-day Chatham, Massachusetts. He named the area Mallebar ("bad bar").
Founding of Quebec
In the spring of 1608, Dugua wanted Champlain to start a new French colony and fur trading centre on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Dugua equipped, at his own expense, a fleet of three ships with workers, that left the French port of Honfleur. The main ship, called the Don-de-Dieu (French for the Gift of God), was commanded by Champlain. Another ship, the Lévrier (the Hunt Dog), was commanded by his friend Du Pont. The small group of male settlers arrived at Tadoussac on the lower St. Lawrence in June. Because of the dangerous strength of the Saguenay River ending there, they left the ships and continued up the "Big River" in small boats bringing the men and the materials.
Upon arriving in Quebec, Champlain later wrote: "I arrived there on the 3rd of July, when I searched for a place suitable for our settlement; but I could find none more convenient or better suited than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut-trees." Champlain ordered his men to gather lumber by cutting down the nut-trees for use in building habitations.
Some days after Champlain's arrival in Quebec, Jean du Val, a member of Champlain's party, plotted to kill Champlain to the end of securing the settlement for the Basques or Spaniards and making a fortune for himself. Du Val's plot was ultimately foiled when an associate of Du Val confessed his involvement in the plot to Champlain's pilot, who informed Champlain. Champlain had a young man deliver Du Val, along with 3 co-conspirators, two bottles of wine and invite the four worthies to an event on board a boat. Soon after the four conspirators arrived on the boat, Champlain had them arrested. Du Val was strangled and hung in Quebec and his head was displayed in the "most conspicuous place" of Champlain's fort. The other three were sent back to France to be tried.
Relations and war with Native Americans
During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local First Nations tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (derogatorily called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes sought Champlain's help in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Rivière des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Haudenosaunee at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives.
On 29 July, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Haudenosaunee. In a battle that began the next day, two hundred and fifty Haudenosaunee advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Haudenosaunee turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century.
The Battle of Sorel occurred on 19 June 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wendat people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Champlain's forces armed with the arquebus engaged and slaughtered or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years.
Marriage
One route Champlain may have chosen to improve his access to the court of the regent was his decision to enter into marriage with the twelve-year-old Hélène Boullé. She was the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, a man charged with carrying out royal decisions at court. The marriage contract was signed on 27 December 1610 in presence of Dugua, who had dealt with the father, and the couple was married three days later. The terms of the contract called for the marriage to be consummated two years later.
Champlain's marriage was initially quite troubled, as Hélène rallied against joining him in August 1613. Their relationship, while it apparently lacked any physical connection, recovered and was apparently good for many years. Hélène lived in Quebec for several years, but returned to Paris and eventually decided to enter a convent. The couple had no children, and Champlain adopted three Montagnais girls named Faith, Hope, and Charity in the winter of 1627–28.
Exploration of New France
On 29 March 1613, arriving back in New France, he first ensured that his new royal commission be proclaimed. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably Hudson Bay). He travelled the Ottawa River, later giving the first description of this area. Along the way, he apparently dropped or left behind a cache of silver cups, copper kettles, and a brass astrolabe dated 1603 (Champlain's Astrolabe), which was later found by a farm boy named Edward Lee near Cobden, Ontario. It was in June that he met with Tessouat, the Algonquin chief of Allumettes Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids.
By 26 August, Champlain was back in Saint-Malo. There, he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages and published another map of New France. In 1614, he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four Recollects in order to further religious life in the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land, estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the French Crown in New France.
In 1615, Champlain reunited with Étienne Brûlé, his capable interpreter, following separate four-year explorations. There, Brûlé reported North American explorations, including that he had been joined by another French interpreter named Grenolle with whom he had travelled along the north shore of la mer douce (the calm sea), now known as Lake Huron, to the great rapids of Sault Ste. Marie, where Lake Superior enters Lake Huron, some of which was recorded by Champlain.
Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives, promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides, he explored further up the Ottawa River and reached Lake Nipissing. He then followed the French River until he reached Lake Huron.
In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Wendat. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road) and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth.
Military expedition
On 1 September 1615, at Cahiagué (a Wendat community on what is now called Lake Simcoe), he and the northern tribes started a military expedition against the Iroquois. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they arrived at the main Onondaga fort on October 10. The exact location of this place is still a matter of debate. Although the traditional location, Nichols Pond, is regularly disproved by professional and amateur archaeologists, many still claim that Nichols Pond is the location of the battle, south of Canastota, New York. Champlain attacked the stockaded Oneida village. He was accompanied by 10 Frenchmen and 300 Wendat. Pressured by the Huron Wendat to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The conflict ended on October 16 when the French Wendat were forced to flee.
Although he did not want to, the Wendat insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay, he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of First Nations people by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On 22 May 1616, he left the Wendat country and returned to Quebec before heading back to France on 2 July.
Improving administration in New France
Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the territory rather than exploration. Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cape Diamond. By mid-May, he learned that the fur trading monopoly had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the natives and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Iroquois.
Champlain continued to work on the fortifications of what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on 6 May 1624. On 15 August he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue looking for a passage to China, something widely believed to exist at the time. By July 5 he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.
In 1627 the Caen brothers' company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, and Cardinal Richelieu (who had joined the Royal Council in 1624 and rose rapidly to a position of dominance in French politics that he would hold until his death in 1642) formed the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (the Hundred Associates) to manage the fur trade. Champlain was one of the 100 investors, and its first fleet, loaded with colonists and supplies, set sail in April 1628.
Champlain had overwintered in Quebec. Supplies were low, and English merchants sacked Cap Tourmente in early July 1628. A war had broken out between France and England, and Charles I of England had issued letters of marque that authorized the capture of French shipping and its colonies in North America. Champlain received a summons to surrender on July 10 from the Kirke brothers, two Scottish brothers who were working for the English government. Champlain refused to deal with them, misleading them to believe that Quebec's defenses were better than they actually were (Champlain had only 50 pounds of gunpowder to defend the community). Successfully bluffed, they withdrew, but encountered and captured the French supply fleet, cutting off that year's supplies to the colony. By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé and into Indian communities to conserve rations. On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived before Quebec after intercepting Champlain's plea for help, and Champlain was forced to surrender the colony. Many colonists were transported first to England and then to France by the Kirkes, but Champlain remained in London to begin the process of regaining the colony. A peace treaty had been signed in April 1629, three months before the surrender, and, under the terms of that treaty, Quebec and other prizes that were taken by the Kirkes after the treaty were to be returned. It was not until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, however, that Quebec was formally given back to France. (David Kirke was rewarded when Charles I knighted him and gave him a charter for Newfoundland.) Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on 1 March 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu" from 1629 to 1635. In 1632 Champlain published Voyages de la Nouvelle-France, which was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain made more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)
Last return, and last years working in Quebec
Champlain returned to Quebec on 22 May 1633, after an absence of four years. Richelieu gave him a commission as Lieutenant General of New France, along with other titles and responsibilities, but not that of governor. Despite this lack of formal status, many colonists, French merchants, and Indians treated him as if he had the title; writings survive in which he is referred to as "our governor". On 18 August 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, and established two more habitations. One was 15 leagues upstream, and the other was at Trois-Rivières. He also began an offensive against the Iroquois, reporting that he wanted them either wiped out or "brought to reason".
Death and burial
Champlain had a severe stroke in October 1635, and died on 25 December, leaving no immediate heirs. Jesuit records state he died in the care of his friend and confessor Charles Lallemant.
Although his will (drafted on 17 November 1635) gave much of his French property to his wife Hélène Boullé, he made significant bequests to the Catholic missions and to individuals in the colony of Quebec. However, Marie Camaret, a cousin on his mother's side, challenged the will in Paris and had it overturned. It is unclear exactly what happened to his estate.
Samuel de Champlain was temporarily buried in the church while a standalone chapel was built to hold his remains in the upper part of the city. Unfortunately, this small building, along with many others, was destroyed by a large fire in 1640. Though immediately rebuilt, no traces of it exist anymore: his exact burial site is still unknown, despite much research since about 1850, including several archaeological digs in the city. There is general agreement that the previous Champlain chapel site, and the remains of Champlain, should be somewhere near the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral.
The search for Champlain's remains supplies a key plot-line in the crime writer Louise Penny's 2010 novel, Bury Your Dead.
Legacy
Many sites and landmarks have been named to honour Champlain, who was a prominent figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont. Memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Father of Acadia", his historic significance endures in modern times. Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between northern New York and Vermont, extending slightly across the border into Canada, was named by him, in 1609, when he led an expedition along the Richelieu River, exploring a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York. The first European to map and describe it, Champlain claimed the lake as his namesake.
Memorials include:
Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, the Champlain Trail Lakes.
Champlain Sea: a past inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, over the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and the Richelieu rivers, to over Lake Champlain, which inlet disappeared many thousands years before Champlain was born.
Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park – which he first observed in 1604.
A town and village in New York, as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Quebec.
The provincial electoral district of Champlain, Quebec, and several defunct electoral districts elsewhere in Canada.
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, a provincial park in northern Ontario near the town of Mattawa.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the island of Montreal to Brossard, Quebec across the St. Lawrence.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.
Champlain College, one of six colleges at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, is named in his honour.
Fort Champlain, a dormitory at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario; named in his honour in 1965, it houses the 10th cadet squadron.
A French school in Saint John, New Brunswick; École Champlain, an elementary school in Moncton, New Brunswick and one in Brossard; Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont; and Champlain Regional College, a CEGEP with three campuses in Quebec.
Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in Montreal.
Streets named Champlain in numerous cities, including Quebec, Shawinigan, the city of Dieppe in the province of New Brunswick, in Plattsburgh, and no less than eleven communities in northwestern Vermont.
A garden called Jardin Samuel-de-Champlain in Paris, France.
A memorial statue on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain in a park named for Champlain.
A memorial statue in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in Queen Square that commemorates his discovery of the Saint John River.
A memorial statue in Isle La Motte, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.
The lighthouse at Crown Point, New York features a statue of Champlain by Carl Augustus Heber.
A commemorative stamp issue in May 2006 jointly by the United States Postal Service and Canada Post.
A statue in Ticonderoga, New York, unveiled in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of Lake Champlain.
A statue in Orillia, Ontario at Couchiching Beach Park on Lake Couchiching. This statue was removed by Parks Canada, and is not likely to be returned, as it incorporated offensive depictions of First Nations peoples.
HMCS Champlain (1919), a S class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1928 to 1936.
HMCS Champlain, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve division based in Chicoutimi, Quebec since activation in 1985.
Champlain Place, a shopping centre located in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada.
The Champlain Society, a Canadian historical and text publication society, chartered in 1927.
A memorial statue in Ottawa at Nepean Point, by Hamilton MacCarthy. The statue depicts Champlain holding an astrolabe (upside-down, as it happens). It did previously include an "Indian Scout" kneeling at its base. In the 1990s, after lobbying by Indigenous people, it was removed from the statue's base, renamed and placed as "Anishinaabe Scout" in Major's Hill Park.
Bibliography
These are works that were written by Champlain:
Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (first French publication 1870, first English publication 1859 as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602)
Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 (first French publication 1604, first English publication 1625)
Voyages de la Nouvelle-France (first French publication 1632)
Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier (first French publication 1632)
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
Note: Mathieu d'Avignon (Ph.D. in history, Laval University, 2006) is an affiliate researcher into the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi Research Group on History. He is preparing a special new full edition, in modern French, of Champlain's Voyages in New France.
Further reading
Dix, Edwin Asa. (1903). Champlain, the Founder of New France, IndyPublish
Morison, Samuel Eliot, (1972). Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France Little Brown,
External links
From Marcel Trudel: Champlain, Samuel de (at The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Champlain in Acadia
Biography at the Museum of Civilization
Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.
They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, October 31, 2008
Dead Reckoning – Champlain in America, PBS documentary 2009
World Digital Library presentation of Descripsion des costs, pts., rades, illes de la Nouuele France faict selon son vray méridienor Description of the Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France. Library of Congress. Primary source portolan style chart on vellum with summary description, image with enhanced view and zoom features, text to speech capability. French. Links to related content. Content available as TIF. One of the major cartographic resources, this map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod.
A book from 1603 of Champlain's first voyage to New France from the World Digital Library
Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Inquiry
From Samuel de Champlain: Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... (1632) (at Rare Book Room)
Baptismal parish register, August 13, 1574, protestant temple Saint.Yon, La Rochelle
(in French) Digitized copy of Champlain's Des Sauvages from the John Carter Brown Library
French explorers of North America
French explorers
French geographers
Governors of New France
People of New France
17th-century explorers
1574 births
1635 deaths
People from Charente-Maritime
1600s in Canada
1610s in Canada
1620s in Canada
1630s in Canada
17th century in Quebec
Acadia
Acadian history
Colonial United States (French)
Explorers of Canada
Explorers of the United States
Pre-statehood history of Maine
Pre-statehood history of Massachusetts
Pre-Confederation New Brunswick people
Pre-statehood history of New York (state)
Pre-Confederation Nova Scotia people
Pre-Confederation Ontario people
Pre-Confederation Quebec people
Pre-statehood history of Vermont
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Quebec City
17th-century Canadian politicians
Canadian city founders
French city founders
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[
"In his final philosophical treatise, The Passions of the Soul (), completed in 1649 and dedicated to Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, René Descartes contributes to a long tradition of philosophical inquiry into the nature of \"the passions\". The passions were experiences – now commonly called emotions in the modern period – that had been a subject of debate among philosophers and theologians since the time of Plato.\n\nNotable precursors to Descartes who articulated their own theories of the passions include St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Hobbes.\n\nOrigins and organization of the text\n\nOrigins of the book\n\nIn 1643 Descartes began a prolific written correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, in which he answered her moral questions, especially the nature of happiness, passions, and ethics. Passions of the Soul was written as a synthesis of this exchange.\n\nAmélie Rorty asserts that the examination of the passions present in Descartes' work plays a significant role in illustrating the development of the perception of the cognitive mind in western society. According to her article “From Passions to Emotions and Sentiments,” Descartes’ need to reconcile the influence of the passions on otherwise rational beings marks a clear point in the advancement of human self-estimation, paralleling the increasingly rational-based scientific method.\n\nRelationship between moral philosophy and science\n\nIn the context of the development of scientific thought in the seventeenth century which was abandoning the idea of the cosmos in favor of an open universe guided by inviolable laws of nature (see Alexandre Koyré), human actions no longer depended on understanding the order and mechanism of the universe (as had been the philosophy of the Greeks), but instead on understanding the essential workings of nature.\n\nIt was in this context that Descartes wished to speak of the passions, neither as a moralist nor from a psychological perspective, but as a method of exploring a fundamental aspect of natural science. “My design is not to explain the passions as an Orator,” he wrote in a letter to his editor dated August 14, 1649, “nor even as a Philosopher, but only as a Physicist.” In doing so, Descartes broke not only from the Aristotelian tradition (according to which the movements of the body originate in the soul), but also the Stoic and Christian traditions which defined the passions as the illnesses of the soul and which dictate that they be treated as such. Descartes thus affirmed that the passions “are all intrinsically good, and that all we have to avoid is their misuse or their excess,” (art. 211).\n\nIn the context of the mechanistic view of life which was gaining popularity in seventeenth century science, Descartes perceived the body as an autonomous machine, capable of moving independently of the soul. It was from this physiological perception of the body that Descartes developed his theories on the passions of the soul. Formerly considered to be an anomaly, the passions became a natural phenomenon, necessitating a scientific explanation.\n\nThe notion of passion\n\nThe treatise is based on the philosophy developed by Descartes in his previous works, especially the distinction between the body and the soul: the soul thinks (res cogitans) but is incorporeal, while the body is physical (res extensa) but does not think and is primarily defined by its form and movement. This is what is known as Cartesian Dualism. In Passions, Descartes further explores this mysterious dichotomy of mind and body.\n\nThe passions such as Descartes understood them correspond roughly to the sentiments now called emotions, but there exist several important distinctions between the two. The principle of these is that passions, as is suggested by the word’s etymology, are by nature suffered and endured, and are therefore the result of an external cause acting upon a subject. In contrast, modern psychology considers emotions to be a sensation which occurs inside a subject and therefore is produced by the subject themselves.\n\nIn Passions of the Soul, Descartes defines the passions as \"the perceptions, sensations, or commotions of the soul which we relate particularly to the soul and are caused, maintained, and strengthened by some movement of the spirits\" (art. 27). The \"spirits\" mentioned in this definition are \"animal spirits,\" a notion central to understanding Descartes' physiology. These spirits function in a capacity similar to modern medicine's nervous system. Descartes explains that these animal spirits are produced in the blood and are responsible for the physical stimulation which causes the body to move. In affecting the muscles, for example, the animal spirits \"move the body in all the different ways it is capable of\" (Passions of the Soul art. 10).\n\nDescartes does not reject the passions in principle; instead, he underlines their beneficial role in human existence. He maintains that humans should work to better understand their function in order to control them rather than be controlled by them. Thus, \"[e]ven those who have the weakest souls could acquire absolute mastery over all their passions if they worked hard enough at training and guiding them\" (art. 50).\n\nOrganization of the treatise\n\nThe organization of Descartes’ Passions is indicative of the author’s philosophy. Applying his famous method to moral philosophy, Descartes represented the problem of the passions of the soul in terms of its simplest integral components. He distinguishes between six fundamentally distinct passions: But there aren’t many simple and basic passions... you’ll easily see that there are only six: wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy, sadness. All the others are either composed from some of these six or they are species of them. So I’ll help you to find your way through the great multitude of passions by treating the six basic ones separately, and then showing how all the others stem from them. —Descartes, Passions of the Soul, article 69\n\nIt is with these six primary passions (wonder, love, hate, desire, joy, and sadness) that Descartes begins his investigation on their physiological effects and their influence on human behavior. He then follows by combining the six passions to create a holistic picture of the passions.\n\nThe work is itself divided into three parts, titled:\n The Passions in General and incidentally the whole nature of man;\n The Number and Order of the Passions and explanations of the six basic passions; \n Specific Passions.\n\nThe work is further divided, within the three greater parts, into 212 short articles which rarely exceed a few paragraphs in length.\n\nPhilosophical problems\n\nStatus of the subject\n\nAccording to Michel Meyer, Passions is one of the most important of Descartes’ published works. Descartes wrote the treatise in response to an acute philosophical anxiety, and yet in doing so, he risked destroying the entirety of his previous work and the Cartesian system.\n\nThe problem arises from the fact that the passions, inextricably based in human nature, threaten the supremacy of the thinking subject on which Descartes based his philosophical system, notably in Discourse on the Method. Descartes had made the thinking subject the foundation of objective certainty in his famous statement, “I think, therefore I am.” It was on this system that he based the possibility of knowing and understanding the world. In allowing that the passions could disrupt the process of reasoning within a human, he allowed for an inherent flaw in this proof. And if man was forced to doubt the truth of his own perceptions, on what could he base his understanding of the natural world?\n\nAdditionally, a further distinction between Descartes’ writings on physics and those on human nature such as can be found in Passions is their relationship to Aristotelian teleology. While Descartes argues against the existence of a final cause in physics, the nature of his work on examining the origins and functions of desires in the human soul necessitates the existence of a final goal towards which the individual is working.\n\nThe relationship between the body and the spirit\n\nThe problem of the Passions treatise is also the problem of Cartesian Dualism. In the first part of his work, Descartes ponders the relationship between the thinking substance and the body. For Descartes, the only link between these two substances is the pineal gland (art. 31), the place where the soul is attached to the body.\n\nThe passions that Descartes studies are in reality the actions of the body on the soul (art. 25). The soul suffers the influence of the body and is entirely subject to the influence of the passions. In the manner by which Descartes explains the human body, the animal spirits stimulate the pineal gland and cause many troubles (or strong emotions) in the soul.\n\nThe combination of the passions\n\nThe passions attack the soul and force the body to commit inappropriate actions. It was therefore necessary for Descartes to study in the second part of his treatise the particular effects of each separate passion and its manners of manifestation. The study of the passions permits one to better understand and account for these elements which may otherwise disturb a human's rational reasoning capabilities.\n\nAt the same time, Descartes' modernity must also be appreciated. Even while outlining the passions and their effect, he never issues an overarching interdiction against them as fatal human defects to be avoided at all costs. He recognizes them as an inherent aspect of humanity, not to be taken as aberrations. Furthermore, the role of the passions on the body is not insignificant. Descartes indicates that they must be harnessed in order to learn which are good and bad for the body, and therefore for the individual (art. 211 and 212).\n\nThus the majority of the work is devoted to enumerating the passions and their effects. He begins with the six basic passions and then touches on the specific passions which stem from their combination. For example, contempt and esteem are two of the passions derived from the basic passion of admiration (art. 150). The passion which Descartes valued the most is generosity for the positive effect it has on the individual (art. 153).\n\nControlling the passions\n\nFor Descartes, nothing could be more damaging to the soul and therefore the thought-process, which is its primary function (art. 17), than the body (art. 2). He maintained that the passions are not harmful in and of themselves. To protect the independence of the thoughts and guarantee a man’s understanding of reality, however, he indicated that it is necessary to know the passions, and learn to control them in order to put them to the best possible use. It is also necessary, therefore, that a man strive to master the separation which exists between the corporeal body and the mind.\n\nThe influence of The Passions of the Soul\n\nIn her examination of the popular modern misconceptions of Descartes' philosophy, Lilli Alanen argues that Gilbert Ryle, author of The Concept of Mind (1949) is commonly associated with a modern-day application of Descartes’ philosophy as put forth in Passions. According to Alanen, Ryle describes the true man as the “Ghost in the machine,” completely separating the physical body and from the metaphysical ‘mind’ which actually encapsulates the spirit as well. Alanen argues that this philosophy is more akin to that of Plato’s, while Descartes’ remains more closely tied to Aristotle. The confusion which ties Ryle so closely to Descartes arises from a confusing mix of metaphors; Descartes and his contemporaries conceptualized of the mind as a thing of physical (if inconceivable) proportions, which allowed for a differentiation between “inner” and “outer” sense. This ties back to Descartes’ Discourse, which derived knowledge and understanding of external realities on the basis of internal certainty.\n\nSee also\n Passions (philosophy)\n Balloonist theory\n Discourse on the Method\n Mind–body problem\n Implicit cognition\n Principles of Philosophy\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n http://net.cgu.edu/philosophy/descartes/Passions_Letters.html\n Passions of the Soul, modified for easier reading\n\n1649 books\nWorks by René Descartes\nEmotion",
"The American soap opera Passions has been honored with numerous awards and nominations during its run:\n\nAmerican Latino Media Arts Awards (ALMA Awards)\n\nCasting Society of America Artios Awards\n\nDaytime Emmy Awards\n\nGLAAD Media Awards\n\nHollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards\n\nNAACP Image Awards\n\nSoap Opera Digest Awards\n\nImagen Foundation Awards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nPassions awards - IMDb.com\n\nPassions\nPassions"
] |
[
"Samuel de Champlain",
"Relations and war with natives",
"When did Champlain land at the \"point of Quebec\"?",
"During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes.",
"What did Champlain name his collection of three buildings?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the name of the boat Champlain commanded?",
"but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois.",
"What was the name of the house that Champlain lived in?",
"The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies,",
"What were Champlains' passions?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_47fd9c03dc404f3aa01f69f2660dd953_0
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Were there other houses built where Champlain settled?
| 6 |
Were there other houses built where Champlain settled besides the collection of three houses?
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Samuel de Champlain
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During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes demanded that Champlain help them in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Riviere des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Iroquois at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives. On July 29, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois. In a battle begun the next day, two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century. The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wyandot people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Samuel de Champlain (; c. 13 August 1567 – 25 December 1635) was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations, and founded various colonial settlements.
Born into a family of sailors, Champlain began exploring North America in 1603, under the guidance of his uncle, François Gravé Du Pont. After 1603, Champlain's life and career consolidated into the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
From 1604 to 1607, he participated in the exploration and creation of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605).
In 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City.
Champlain was the first European to describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives.
He formed long time relationships with local Montagnais and Innu, and, later, with others farther west—tribes of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, and with Algonquin and Wendat; he also agreed to provide assistance in the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois.
Late in the year of 1615, Champlain returned to the Wendat and stayed with them over the winter, which permitted him to make the first ethnographic observations of this important nation, the events of which form the bulk of his book Voyages et Decouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis l’année 1615 published in 1619.
In 1620, Louis XIII of France ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.
In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.
Champlain established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death, in 1635.
Champlain is memorialized as the "Father of New France", "Father of Acadia", or in French "Père de la Nouvelle-France" with many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bearing his name, most notably Lake Champlain.
Birth year, location and family
Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written "Anthoine Chappelain" in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, in either Hiers-Brouage, or the port city of La Rochelle, in the French province of Aunis.
He was born on or before 13 August 1574, according to a recent baptism record found by Jean-Marie Germe, French genealogist.
Although in 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his Œuvres de Champlain, accepted Pierre-Damien Rainguet's estimate of Champlain's birth in 1567 and tried to justify it, his calculations were based on assumptions now believed or proven, to be incorrect.
Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle) wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimate was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence. The 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain and is widely regarded as accurate.
In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed, choosing 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage, France."
Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).
Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613).
He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children. The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage.
Born into a family of mariners (both his father and uncle-in-law were sailors, or navigators), Samuel Champlain learned to navigate, draw, make nautical charts, and write practical reports. His education did not include Ancient Greek or Latin, so he did not read or learn from any ancient literature.
As each French fleet had to assure its own defense at sea, Champlain sought to learn to fight with the firearms of his time: he acquired this practical knowledge when serving with the army of King Henry IV during the later stages of France's religious wars in Brittany from 1594 or 1595 to 1598, beginning as a quartermaster responsible for the feeding and care of horses.
During this time he claimed to go on a "certain secret voyage" for the king, and saw combat (including maybe the Siege of Fort Crozon, at the end of 1594). By 1597 he was a "capitaine d'une compagnie" serving in a garrison near Quimper.
Early travels
In year 3 his uncle-in-law, a navigator whose ship Saint-Julien was to transport Spanish troops to Cádiz pursuant to the Treaty of Vervins, gave Champlain the opportunity to accompany him.
After a difficult passage, he spent some time in Cádiz before his uncle, whose ship was then chartered to accompany a large Spanish fleet to the West Indies, again offered him a place on the ship. His uncle, who gave command of the ship to Jeronimo de Valaebrera, instructed the young Champlain to watch over the ship.
This journey lasted two years and gave Champlain the opportunity to see or hear about Spanish holdings from the Caribbean to Mexico City. Along the way, he took detailed notes, wrote an illustrated report on what he learned on this trip, and gave this secret report to King Henry, who rewarded Champlain with an annual pension.
This report was published for the first time in 1870, by Laverdière, as Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (and in English as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602).
The authenticity of this account as a work written by Champlain has frequently been questioned, due to inaccuracies and discrepancies with other sources on a number of points; however, recent scholarship indicates that the work probably was authored by Champlain.
On Champlain's return to Cádiz in August 1600, his uncle Guillermo Elena (Guillaume Allene), who had fallen ill, asked him to look after his business affairs. This Champlain did, and when his uncle died in June 1601, Champlain inherited his substantial estate. It included an estate near La Rochelle, commercial properties in Spain, and a 150-ton merchant ship.
This inheritance, combined with the king's annual pension, gave the young explorer a great deal of independence, as he did not need to rely on the financial backing of merchants and other investors.
From 1601 to 1603 Champlain served as a geographer in the court of King Henry IV. As part of his duties, he traveled to French ports and learned much about North America from the fishermen that seasonally traveled to coastal areas from Nantucket to Newfoundland to capitalize on the rich fishing grounds there.
He also made a study of previous French failures at colonization in the area, including that of Pierre de Chauvin at Tadoussac. When Chauvin forfeited his monopoly on the fur trade in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent.
Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm lifelong friendship.
He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and in Acadia after). The Bonne-Renommée (the Good Fame) arrived at Tadoussac on March 15, 1603. Champlain was anxious to see for himself all of the places that Jacques Cartier had seen and described sixty years earlier, and wanted to go even further than Cartier, if possible.
Champlain created a map of the Saint Lawrence on this trip and, after his return to France on 20 September, published an account as Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 ("Concerning the Savages: or travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, made in New France in the year 1603").
Included in his account were meetings with Begourat, chief of the Montagnais at Tadoussac, in which positive relationships were established between the French and the many Montagnais gathered there, with some Algonquin friends.
Promising to King Henry to report on further discoveries, Champlain joined a second expedition to New France in the spring of 1604. This trip, once again an exploratory journey without women and children, lasted several years, and focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence River, in what later became known as Acadia. It was led by Pierre Dugua de Mons, a noble and Protestant merchant who had been given a fur trading monopoly in New France by the king. Dugua asked Champlain to find a site for winter settlement.
After exploring possible sites in the Bay of Fundy, Champlain selected Saint Croix Island in the St. Croix River as the site of the expedition's first winter settlement. After enduring a harsh winter on the island the settlement was relocated across the bay where they established Port Royal. Until 1607, Champlain used that site as his base, while he explored the Atlantic coast. Dugua was forced to leave the settlement for France in September 1605, because he learned that his monopoly was at risk. His monopoly was rescinded by the king in July 1607 under pressure from other merchants and proponents of free trade, leading to the abandonment of the settlement.
In 1605 and 1606, Champlain explored the North American coast as far south as Cape Cod, searching for sites for a permanent settlement. Minor skirmishes with the resident Nausets dissuaded him from the idea of establishing one near present-day Chatham, Massachusetts. He named the area Mallebar ("bad bar").
Founding of Quebec
In the spring of 1608, Dugua wanted Champlain to start a new French colony and fur trading centre on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Dugua equipped, at his own expense, a fleet of three ships with workers, that left the French port of Honfleur. The main ship, called the Don-de-Dieu (French for the Gift of God), was commanded by Champlain. Another ship, the Lévrier (the Hunt Dog), was commanded by his friend Du Pont. The small group of male settlers arrived at Tadoussac on the lower St. Lawrence in June. Because of the dangerous strength of the Saguenay River ending there, they left the ships and continued up the "Big River" in small boats bringing the men and the materials.
Upon arriving in Quebec, Champlain later wrote: "I arrived there on the 3rd of July, when I searched for a place suitable for our settlement; but I could find none more convenient or better suited than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut-trees." Champlain ordered his men to gather lumber by cutting down the nut-trees for use in building habitations.
Some days after Champlain's arrival in Quebec, Jean du Val, a member of Champlain's party, plotted to kill Champlain to the end of securing the settlement for the Basques or Spaniards and making a fortune for himself. Du Val's plot was ultimately foiled when an associate of Du Val confessed his involvement in the plot to Champlain's pilot, who informed Champlain. Champlain had a young man deliver Du Val, along with 3 co-conspirators, two bottles of wine and invite the four worthies to an event on board a boat. Soon after the four conspirators arrived on the boat, Champlain had them arrested. Du Val was strangled and hung in Quebec and his head was displayed in the "most conspicuous place" of Champlain's fort. The other three were sent back to France to be tried.
Relations and war with Native Americans
During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local First Nations tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (derogatorily called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes sought Champlain's help in their war against the Iroquois, who lived farther south. Champlain set off with nine French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Rivière des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Haudenosaunee at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives.
On 29 July, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga historians claim that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Haudenosaunee. In a battle that began the next day, two hundred and fifty Haudenosaunee advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Haudenosaunee turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century.
The Battle of Sorel occurred on 19 June 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Wendat people, Algonquin people and Innu people against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Champlain's forces armed with the arquebus engaged and slaughtered or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years.
Marriage
One route Champlain may have chosen to improve his access to the court of the regent was his decision to enter into marriage with the twelve-year-old Hélène Boullé. She was the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, a man charged with carrying out royal decisions at court. The marriage contract was signed on 27 December 1610 in presence of Dugua, who had dealt with the father, and the couple was married three days later. The terms of the contract called for the marriage to be consummated two years later.
Champlain's marriage was initially quite troubled, as Hélène rallied against joining him in August 1613. Their relationship, while it apparently lacked any physical connection, recovered and was apparently good for many years. Hélène lived in Quebec for several years, but returned to Paris and eventually decided to enter a convent. The couple had no children, and Champlain adopted three Montagnais girls named Faith, Hope, and Charity in the winter of 1627–28.
Exploration of New France
On 29 March 1613, arriving back in New France, he first ensured that his new royal commission be proclaimed. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably Hudson Bay). He travelled the Ottawa River, later giving the first description of this area. Along the way, he apparently dropped or left behind a cache of silver cups, copper kettles, and a brass astrolabe dated 1603 (Champlain's Astrolabe), which was later found by a farm boy named Edward Lee near Cobden, Ontario. It was in June that he met with Tessouat, the Algonquin chief of Allumettes Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids.
By 26 August, Champlain was back in Saint-Malo. There, he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages and published another map of New France. In 1614, he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four Recollects in order to further religious life in the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land, estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the French Crown in New France.
In 1615, Champlain reunited with Étienne Brûlé, his capable interpreter, following separate four-year explorations. There, Brûlé reported North American explorations, including that he had been joined by another French interpreter named Grenolle with whom he had travelled along the north shore of la mer douce (the calm sea), now known as Lake Huron, to the great rapids of Sault Ste. Marie, where Lake Superior enters Lake Huron, some of which was recorded by Champlain.
Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives, promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides, he explored further up the Ottawa River and reached Lake Nipissing. He then followed the French River until he reached Lake Huron.
In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Wendat. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road) and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth.
Military expedition
On 1 September 1615, at Cahiagué (a Wendat community on what is now called Lake Simcoe), he and the northern tribes started a military expedition against the Iroquois. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they arrived at the main Onondaga fort on October 10. The exact location of this place is still a matter of debate. Although the traditional location, Nichols Pond, is regularly disproved by professional and amateur archaeologists, many still claim that Nichols Pond is the location of the battle, south of Canastota, New York. Champlain attacked the stockaded Oneida village. He was accompanied by 10 Frenchmen and 300 Wendat. Pressured by the Huron Wendat to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The conflict ended on October 16 when the French Wendat were forced to flee.
Although he did not want to, the Wendat insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay, he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of First Nations people by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On 22 May 1616, he left the Wendat country and returned to Quebec before heading back to France on 2 July.
Improving administration in New France
Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the territory rather than exploration. Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cape Diamond. By mid-May, he learned that the fur trading monopoly had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the natives and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Iroquois.
Champlain continued to work on the fortifications of what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on 6 May 1624. On 15 August he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue looking for a passage to China, something widely believed to exist at the time. By July 5 he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.
In 1627 the Caen brothers' company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, and Cardinal Richelieu (who had joined the Royal Council in 1624 and rose rapidly to a position of dominance in French politics that he would hold until his death in 1642) formed the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (the Hundred Associates) to manage the fur trade. Champlain was one of the 100 investors, and its first fleet, loaded with colonists and supplies, set sail in April 1628.
Champlain had overwintered in Quebec. Supplies were low, and English merchants sacked Cap Tourmente in early July 1628. A war had broken out between France and England, and Charles I of England had issued letters of marque that authorized the capture of French shipping and its colonies in North America. Champlain received a summons to surrender on July 10 from the Kirke brothers, two Scottish brothers who were working for the English government. Champlain refused to deal with them, misleading them to believe that Quebec's defenses were better than they actually were (Champlain had only 50 pounds of gunpowder to defend the community). Successfully bluffed, they withdrew, but encountered and captured the French supply fleet, cutting off that year's supplies to the colony. By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé and into Indian communities to conserve rations. On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived before Quebec after intercepting Champlain's plea for help, and Champlain was forced to surrender the colony. Many colonists were transported first to England and then to France by the Kirkes, but Champlain remained in London to begin the process of regaining the colony. A peace treaty had been signed in April 1629, three months before the surrender, and, under the terms of that treaty, Quebec and other prizes that were taken by the Kirkes after the treaty were to be returned. It was not until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, however, that Quebec was formally given back to France. (David Kirke was rewarded when Charles I knighted him and gave him a charter for Newfoundland.) Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on 1 March 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu" from 1629 to 1635. In 1632 Champlain published Voyages de la Nouvelle-France, which was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain made more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)
Last return, and last years working in Quebec
Champlain returned to Quebec on 22 May 1633, after an absence of four years. Richelieu gave him a commission as Lieutenant General of New France, along with other titles and responsibilities, but not that of governor. Despite this lack of formal status, many colonists, French merchants, and Indians treated him as if he had the title; writings survive in which he is referred to as "our governor". On 18 August 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, and established two more habitations. One was 15 leagues upstream, and the other was at Trois-Rivières. He also began an offensive against the Iroquois, reporting that he wanted them either wiped out or "brought to reason".
Death and burial
Champlain had a severe stroke in October 1635, and died on 25 December, leaving no immediate heirs. Jesuit records state he died in the care of his friend and confessor Charles Lallemant.
Although his will (drafted on 17 November 1635) gave much of his French property to his wife Hélène Boullé, he made significant bequests to the Catholic missions and to individuals in the colony of Quebec. However, Marie Camaret, a cousin on his mother's side, challenged the will in Paris and had it overturned. It is unclear exactly what happened to his estate.
Samuel de Champlain was temporarily buried in the church while a standalone chapel was built to hold his remains in the upper part of the city. Unfortunately, this small building, along with many others, was destroyed by a large fire in 1640. Though immediately rebuilt, no traces of it exist anymore: his exact burial site is still unknown, despite much research since about 1850, including several archaeological digs in the city. There is general agreement that the previous Champlain chapel site, and the remains of Champlain, should be somewhere near the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral.
The search for Champlain's remains supplies a key plot-line in the crime writer Louise Penny's 2010 novel, Bury Your Dead.
Legacy
Many sites and landmarks have been named to honour Champlain, who was a prominent figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont. Memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Father of Acadia", his historic significance endures in modern times. Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between northern New York and Vermont, extending slightly across the border into Canada, was named by him, in 1609, when he led an expedition along the Richelieu River, exploring a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York. The first European to map and describe it, Champlain claimed the lake as his namesake.
Memorials include:
Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, the Champlain Trail Lakes.
Champlain Sea: a past inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, over the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and the Richelieu rivers, to over Lake Champlain, which inlet disappeared many thousands years before Champlain was born.
Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park – which he first observed in 1604.
A town and village in New York, as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Quebec.
The provincial electoral district of Champlain, Quebec, and several defunct electoral districts elsewhere in Canada.
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, a provincial park in northern Ontario near the town of Mattawa.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the island of Montreal to Brossard, Quebec across the St. Lawrence.
Champlain Bridge, which connects the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.
Champlain College, one of six colleges at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, is named in his honour.
Fort Champlain, a dormitory at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario; named in his honour in 1965, it houses the 10th cadet squadron.
A French school in Saint John, New Brunswick; École Champlain, an elementary school in Moncton, New Brunswick and one in Brossard; Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont; and Champlain Regional College, a CEGEP with three campuses in Quebec.
Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in Montreal.
Streets named Champlain in numerous cities, including Quebec, Shawinigan, the city of Dieppe in the province of New Brunswick, in Plattsburgh, and no less than eleven communities in northwestern Vermont.
A garden called Jardin Samuel-de-Champlain in Paris, France.
A memorial statue on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain in a park named for Champlain.
A memorial statue in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in Queen Square that commemorates his discovery of the Saint John River.
A memorial statue in Isle La Motte, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.
The lighthouse at Crown Point, New York features a statue of Champlain by Carl Augustus Heber.
A commemorative stamp issue in May 2006 jointly by the United States Postal Service and Canada Post.
A statue in Ticonderoga, New York, unveiled in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of Lake Champlain.
A statue in Orillia, Ontario at Couchiching Beach Park on Lake Couchiching. This statue was removed by Parks Canada, and is not likely to be returned, as it incorporated offensive depictions of First Nations peoples.
HMCS Champlain (1919), a S class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1928 to 1936.
HMCS Champlain, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve division based in Chicoutimi, Quebec since activation in 1985.
Champlain Place, a shopping centre located in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada.
The Champlain Society, a Canadian historical and text publication society, chartered in 1927.
A memorial statue in Ottawa at Nepean Point, by Hamilton MacCarthy. The statue depicts Champlain holding an astrolabe (upside-down, as it happens). It did previously include an "Indian Scout" kneeling at its base. In the 1990s, after lobbying by Indigenous people, it was removed from the statue's base, renamed and placed as "Anishinaabe Scout" in Major's Hill Park.
Bibliography
These are works that were written by Champlain:
Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (first French publication 1870, first English publication 1859 as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602)
Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 (first French publication 1604, first English publication 1625)
Voyages de la Nouvelle-France (first French publication 1632)
Traitté de la marine et du devoir d'un bon marinier (first French publication 1632)
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
Note: Mathieu d'Avignon (Ph.D. in history, Laval University, 2006) is an affiliate researcher into the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi Research Group on History. He is preparing a special new full edition, in modern French, of Champlain's Voyages in New France.
Further reading
Dix, Edwin Asa. (1903). Champlain, the Founder of New France, IndyPublish
Morison, Samuel Eliot, (1972). Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France Little Brown,
External links
From Marcel Trudel: Champlain, Samuel de (at The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Champlain in Acadia
Biography at the Museum of Civilization
Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.
They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, October 31, 2008
Dead Reckoning – Champlain in America, PBS documentary 2009
World Digital Library presentation of Descripsion des costs, pts., rades, illes de la Nouuele France faict selon son vray méridienor Description of the Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France. Library of Congress. Primary source portolan style chart on vellum with summary description, image with enhanced view and zoom features, text to speech capability. French. Links to related content. Content available as TIF. One of the major cartographic resources, this map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod.
A book from 1603 of Champlain's first voyage to New France from the World Digital Library
Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Inquiry
From Samuel de Champlain: Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... (1632) (at Rare Book Room)
Baptismal parish register, August 13, 1574, protestant temple Saint.Yon, La Rochelle
(in French) Digitized copy of Champlain's Des Sauvages from the John Carter Brown Library
French explorers of North America
French explorers
French geographers
Governors of New France
People of New France
17th-century explorers
1574 births
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People from Charente-Maritime
1600s in Canada
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[
"Orleans Cove is the cove in the town of Orleans, Massachusetts\n\nLooking for a place to establish a settlement, Samuel de Champlain came ashore at Orleans Cove in 1605. Champlain liked the area, but commented that \"too many people already lived there\". Champlain went back north, landing in Nova Scotia at an inlet on the south shore of Baie Francaise, which Champlain named Port Royal. Some claim that this was the first permanent French settlement in Canada, although there is some evidence that Breton fishermen had settled in the Newfoundland area by this time.\n\nOrleans Cove was the landfall of various French transatlantic telegraph cables. The French Cable Station Museum is just inland from the cove. The French Cable Station Museum houses some of the original equipment used to lay the French transatlantic telegraph cables. The first French cable was laid in 1869 from Le Minou near Brest to St. Pierre and then on to Duxbury. In 1891, the French cables reaching the US were grouped together at the French Cable Station at Orleans Cove. These cables allowed for communication between North America and France.\n\nReferences\n\n Description of the French transatlantic telegraph cable\n\nCoves of the United States\nBodies of water of Barnstable County, Massachusetts\nBays of Massachusetts",
"The Hawley's Ferry House, also known just as the Hawley House, is a historic house on the shore of Lake Champlain in Kingsland Bay State Park, Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Built about 1790, it is one of the few surviving 18th-century buildings on the Vermont side of the lake. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.\n\nDescription and history\nKingsland Bay is a north-facing inlet on the east side of Lake Champlain, at a point where the lake briefly bends eastward. The bay is flanked by Hurlburt Point to the west and Macdonough Point to the east, both of which are contained in Kingsland Bay State Park, a day-use facility operated by the state. The Hawley House is located on the west side of Macdonough Point, where most of the park facilities are located. It is a 2-1/2 story gable-roofed structure, built out of local stone. Its walls are fairly uniformly thick. It is five bays wide and three deep, with a central hall plan. A three-story tower stands at the northeast corner, added about 1900.\n\nThe house was built about 1790 by Gideon Hawley, one of Ferrisburgh's first settlers. At the time, there were no roads in the area, and commerce on the lake was of vital importance. Hawley began operating a ferry across the lake about that time, which operated until about 1830. By then, roads had been built, to which much commerce moved, and the orientation of lake traffic became more north-south. Macdonough Point was an important militia muster site during the War of 1812 in advance of the important Battle of Plattsburgh. The building was used for many years as a farmhouse by local families, and was converted for use as a girls summer camp called Ecole Champlain about 1924. That property was acquired by the state and became the core of the state park in the 1970s.\n\nSee also\nNational Register of Historic Places listings in Addison County, Vermont\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nKingsland Bay State Park web site\n\nHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont\nNational Register of Historic Places in Addison County, Vermont\nHouses completed in 1790\nHouses in Addison County, Vermont\nBuildings and structures in Ferrisburgh, Vermont"
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"George Bernard Shaw",
"Novelist and critic"
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C_aa2ac1f67a034cec846ac6f222b244cc_1
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What types of novels did George Bernard Shaw write?
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What types of novels did, the Novelist and critic, George Bernard Shaw write?
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George Bernard Shaw
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Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty". By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players. In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature. Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw". In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano. On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it--he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals. After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator. From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886-87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions". The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons. The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882-83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886. In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic. Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950. From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence". CANNOTANSWER
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the closest Shaw had ever come to university education.
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George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma and Caesar and Cleopatra.
Shaw's expressed views were often contentious; he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable, and although not a republican, castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success. In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion for which he received an Academy Award. His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by the late 1920s he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism and often wrote and spoke favourably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin. In the final decade of his life he made fewer public statements, but continued to write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged ninety-four, having refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 1946.
Since Shaw's death scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied, but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them.
Life
Early years
Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814–1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (née Gurly; 1830–1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853–1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855–1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty".
By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players.
In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature.
Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw".
In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano.
London
Early in 1876 Shaw learned from his mother that Agnes was dying of tuberculosis. He resigned from the land agents, and in March travelled to England to join his mother and Lucy at Agnes's funeral. He never again lived in Ireland, and did not visit it for twenty-nine years.
Initially, Shaw refused to seek clerical employment in London. His mother allowed him to live free of charge in her house in South Kensington, but he nevertheless needed an income. He had abandoned a teenage ambition to become a painter, and had not yet thought of writing for a living, but Lee found a little work for him, ghost-writing a musical column printed under Lee's name in a satirical weekly, The Hornet. Lee's relations with Bessie deteriorated after their move to London. Shaw maintained contact with Lee, who found him work as a rehearsal pianist and occasional singer.
Eventually Shaw was driven to applying for office jobs. In the interim he secured a reader's pass for the British Museum Reading Room (the forerunner of the British Library) and spent most weekdays there, reading and writing. His first attempt at drama, begun in 1878, was a blank-verse satirical piece on a religious theme. It was abandoned unfinished, as was his first try at a novel. His first completed novel, Immaturity (1879), was too grim to appeal to publishers and did not appear until the 1930s. He was employed briefly by the newly formed Edison Telephone Company in 1879–80, and as in Dublin achieved rapid promotion. Nonetheless, when the Edison firm merged with the rival Bell Telephone Company, Shaw chose not to seek a place in the new organisation. Thereafter he pursued a full-time career as an author.
For the next four years Shaw made a negligible income from writing, and was subsidised by his mother. In 1881, for the sake of economy, and increasingly as a matter of principle, he became a vegetarian. He grew a beard to hide a facial scar left by smallpox. In rapid succession he wrote two more novels: The Irrational Knot (1880) and Love Among the Artists (1881), but neither found a publisher; each was serialised a few years later in the socialist magazine Our Corner.
In 1880 Shaw began attending meetings of the Zetetical Society, whose objective was to "search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race". Here he met Sidney Webb, a junior civil servant who, like Shaw, was busy educating himself. Despite difference of style and temperament, the two quickly recognised qualities in each other and developed a lifelong friendship. Shaw later reflected: "You knew everything that I didn't know and I knew everything you didn't know ... We had everything to learn from one another and brains enough to do it".
Shaw's next attempt at drama was a one-act playlet in French, Un Petit Drame, written in 1884 but not published in his lifetime. In the same year the critic William Archer suggested a collaboration, with a plot by Archer and dialogue by Shaw. The project foundered, but Shaw returned to the draft as the basis of Widowers' Houses in 1892, and the connection with Archer proved of immense value to Shaw's career.
Political awakening: Marxism, socialism, Fabian Society
On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it—he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals.
After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator.
From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886–87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties.
Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions".
Novelist and critic
The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons.
The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882–83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886.
In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic.
Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950.
From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence".
Playwright and politician: 1890s
After using the plot of the aborted 1884 collaboration with Archer to complete Widowers' Houses (it was staged twice in London, in December 1892), Shaw continued writing plays. At first he made slow progress; The Philanderer, written in 1893 but not published until 1898, had to wait until 1905 for a stage production. Similarly, Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) was written five years before publication and nine years before reaching the stage.
Shaw's first play to bring him financial success was Arms and the Man (1894), a mock-Ruritanian comedy satirising conventions of love, military honour and class. The press found the play overlong, and accused Shaw of mediocrity, sneering at heroism and patriotism, heartless cleverness, and copying W.S.Gilbert's style. The public took a different view, and the management of the theatre staged extra matinée performances to meet the demand. The play ran from April to July, toured the provinces and was staged in New York. It earned him £341 in royalties in its first year, a sufficient sum to enable him to give up his salaried post as a music critic. Among the cast of the London production was Florence Farr, with whom Shaw had a romantic relationship between 1890 and 1894, much resented by Jenny Patterson.
The success of Arms and the Man was not immediately replicated. Candida, which presented a young woman making a conventional romantic choice for unconventional reasons, received a single performance in South Shields in 1895; in 1897 a playlet about Napoleon called The Man of Destiny had a single staging at Croydon. In the 1890s Shaw's plays were better known in print than on the West End stage; his biggest success of the decade was in New York in 1897, when Richard Mansfield's production of the historical melodrama The Devil's Disciple earned the author more than £2,000 in royalties.
In January 1893, as a Fabian delegate, Shaw attended the Bradford conference which led to the foundation of the Independent Labour Party. He was sceptical about the new party, and scorned the likelihood that it could switch the allegiance of the working class from sport to politics. He persuaded the conference to adopt resolutions abolishing indirect taxation, and taxing unearned income "to extinction". Back in London, Shaw produced what Margaret Cole, in her Fabian history, terms a "grand philippic" against the minority Liberal administration that had taken power in 1892. To Your Tents, O Israel excoriated the government for ignoring social issues and concentrating solely on Irish Home Rule, a matter Shaw declared of no relevance to socialism. In 1894 the Fabian Society received a substantial bequest from a sympathiser, Henry Hunt Hutchinson—Holroyd mentions £10,000. Webb, who chaired the board of trustees appointed to supervise the legacy, proposed to use most of it to found a school of economics and politics. Shaw demurred; he thought such a venture was contrary to the specified purpose of the legacy. He was eventually persuaded to support the proposal, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) opened in the summer of 1895.
By the later 1890s Shaw's political activities lessened as he concentrated on making his name as a dramatist. In 1897 he was persuaded to fill an uncontested vacancy for a "vestryman" (parish councillor) in London's St Pancras district. At least initially, Shaw took to his municipal responsibilities seriously; when London government was reformed in 1899 and the St Pancras vestry became the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, he was elected to the newly formed borough council.
In 1898, as a result of overwork, Shaw's health broke down. He was nursed by Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a rich Anglo-Irish woman whom he had met through the Webbs. The previous year she had proposed that she and Shaw should marry. He had declined, but when she insisted on nursing him in a house in the country, Shaw, concerned that this might cause scandal, agreed to their marriage. The ceremony took place on 1 June 1898, in the register office in Covent Garden. The bride and bridegroom were both aged forty-one. In the view of the biographer and critic St John Ervine, "their life together was entirely felicitous". There were no children of the marriage, which it is generally believed was never consummated; whether this was wholly at Charlotte's wish, as Shaw liked to suggest, is less widely credited. In the early weeks of the marriage Shaw was much occupied writing his Marxist analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, published as The Perfect Wagnerite late in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws found a country home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire; they renamed the house "Shaw's Corner", and lived there for the rest of their lives. They retained a London flat in the Adelphi and later at Whitehall Court.
Stage success: 1900–1914
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Shaw secured a firm reputation as a playwright. In 1904 J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker established a company at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, Chelsea to present modern drama. Over the next five years they staged fourteen of Shaw's plays. The first, John Bull's Other Island, a comedy about an Englishman in Ireland, attracted leading politicians and was seen by Edward VII, who laughed so much that he broke his chair. The play was withheld from Dublin's Abbey Theatre, for fear of the affront it might provoke, although it was shown at the city's Royal Theatre in November 1907. Shaw later wrote that William Butler Yeats, who had requested the play, "got rather more than he bargained for... It was uncongenial to the whole spirit of the neo-Gaelic movement, which is bent on creating a new Ireland after its own ideal, whereas my play is a very uncompromising presentment of the real old Ireland." Nonetheless, Shaw and Yeats were close friends; Yeats and Lady Gregory tried unsuccessfully to persuade Shaw to take up the vacant co-directorship of the Abbey Theatre after J. M. Synge's death in 1909. Shaw admired other figures in the Irish Literary Revival, including George Russell and James Joyce, and was a close friend of Seán O'Casey, who was inspired to become a playwright after reading John Bull's Other Island.
Man and Superman, completed in 1902, was a success both at the Royal Court in 1905 and in Robert Loraine's New York production in the same year. Among the other Shaw works presented by Vedrenne and Granville-Barker were Major Barbara (1905), depicting the contrasting morality of arms manufacturers and the Salvation Army; The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a mostly serious piece about professional ethics; and Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw's counterblast to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, seen in New York in 1906 and in London the following year.
Now prosperous and established, Shaw experimented with unorthodox theatrical forms described by his biographer Stanley Weintraub as "discussion drama" and "serious farce". These plays included Getting Married (premiered 1908), The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1909), Misalliance (1910), and Fanny's First Play (1911). Blanco Posnet was banned on religious grounds by the Lord Chamberlain (the official theatre censor in England), and was produced instead in Dublin; it filled the Abbey Theatre to capacity. Fanny's First Play, a comedy about suffragettes, had the longest initial run of any Shaw play—622 performances.
Androcles and the Lion (1912), a less heretical study of true and false religious attitudes than Blanco Posnet, ran for eight weeks in September and October 1913. It was followed by one of Shaw's most successful plays, Pygmalion, written in 1912 and staged in Vienna the following year, and in Berlin shortly afterwards. Shaw commented, "It is the custom of the English press when a play of mine is produced, to inform the world that it is not a play—that it is dull, blasphemous, unpopular, and financially unsuccessful. ... Hence arose an urgent demand on the part of the managers of Vienna and Berlin that I should have my plays performed by them first." The British production opened in April 1914, starring Sir Herbert Tree and Mrs Patrick Campbell as, respectively, a professor of phonetics and a cockney flower-girl. There had earlier been a romantic liaison between Shaw and Campbell that caused Charlotte Shaw considerable concern, but by the time of the London premiere it had ended. The play attracted capacity audiences until July, when Tree insisted on going on holiday, and the production closed. His co-star then toured with the piece in the US.
Fabian years: 1900–1913
In 1899, when the Boer War began, Shaw wished the Fabians to take a neutral stance on what he deemed, like Home Rule, to be a "non-Socialist" issue. Others, including the future Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, wanted unequivocal opposition, and resigned from the society when it followed Shaw. In the Fabians' war manifesto, Fabianism and the Empire (1900), Shaw declared that "until the Federation of the World becomes an accomplished fact we must accept the most responsible Imperial federations available as a substitute for it".
As the new century began, Shaw became increasingly disillusioned by the limited impact of the Fabians on national politics. Thus, although a nominated Fabian delegate, he did not attend the London conference at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street in February 1900, that created the Labour Representation Committee—precursor of the modern Labour Party. By 1903, when his term as borough councillor expired, he had lost his earlier enthusiasm, writing: "After six years of Borough Councilling I am convinced that the borough councils should be abolished". Nevertheless, in 1904 he stood in the London County Council elections. After an eccentric campaign, which Holroyd characterises as "[making] absolutely certain of not getting in", he was duly defeated. It was Shaw's final foray into electoral politics. Nationally, the 1906 general election produced a huge Liberal majority and an intake of 29 Labour members. Shaw viewed this outcome with scepticism; he had a low opinion of the new prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and saw the Labour members as inconsequential: "I apologise to the Universe for my connection with such a body".
In the years after the 1906 election, Shaw felt that the Fabians needed fresh leadership, and saw this in the form of his fellow-writer H. G. Wells, who had joined the society in February 1903. Wells's ideas for reform—particularly his proposals for closer cooperation with the Independent Labour Party—placed him at odds with the society's "Old Gang", led by Shaw. According to Cole, Wells "had minimal capacity for putting [his ideas] across in public meetings against Shaw's trained and practised virtuosity". In Shaw's view, "the Old Gang did not extinguish Mr Wells, he annihilated himself". Wells resigned from the society in September 1908; Shaw remained a member, but left the executive in April 1911. He later wondered whether the Old Gang should have given way to Wells some years earlier: "God only knows whether the Society had not better have done it". Although less active—he blamed his advancing years—Shaw remained a Fabian.
In 1912 Shaw invested £1,000 for a one-fifth share in the Webbs' new publishing venture, a socialist weekly magazine called The New Statesman, which appeared in April 1913. He became a founding director, publicist, and in due course a contributor, mostly anonymously. He was soon at odds with the magazine's editor, Clifford Sharp, who by 1916 was rejecting his contributions—"the only paper in the world that refuses to print anything by me", according to Shaw.
First World War
After the First World War began in August 1914, Shaw produced his tract Common Sense About the War, which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable. Such a view was anathema in an atmosphere of fervent patriotism, and offended many of Shaw's friends; Ervine records that "[h]is appearance at any public function caused the instant departure of many of those present."
Despite his errant reputation, Shaw's propagandist skills were recognised by the British authorities, and early in 1917 he was invited by Field Marshal Haig to visit the Western Front battlefields. Shaw's 10,000-word report, which emphasised the human aspects of the soldier's life, was well received, and he became less of a lone voice. In April 1917 he joined the national consensus in welcoming America's entry into the war: "a first class moral asset to the common cause against junkerism".
Three short plays by Shaw were premiered during the war. The Inca of Perusalem, written in 1915, encountered problems with the censor for burlesquing not only the enemy but the British military command; it was performed in 1916 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. O'Flaherty V.C., satirising the government's attitude to Irish recruits, was banned in the UK and was presented at a Royal Flying Corps base in Belgium in 1917. Augustus Does His Bit, a genial farce, was granted a licence; it opened at the Royal Court in January 1917.
Ireland
Shaw had long supported the principle of Irish Home Rule within the British Empire (which he thought should become the British Commonwealth).
In April 1916 he wrote scathingly in The New York Times about militant Irish nationalism: "In point of learning nothing and forgetting nothing these fellow-patriots of mine leave the Bourbons nowhere." Total independence, he asserted, was impractical; alliance with a bigger power (preferably England) was essential. The Dublin Easter Rising later that month took him by surprise. After its suppression by British forces, he expressed horror at the summary execution of the rebel leaders, but continued to believe in some form of Anglo-Irish union. In How to Settle the Irish Question (1917), he envisaged a federal arrangement, with national and imperial parliaments. Holroyd records that by this time the separatist party Sinn Féin was in the ascendency, and Shaw's and other moderate schemes were forgotten.
In the postwar period, Shaw despaired of the British government's coercive policies towards Ireland, and joined his fellow-writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton in publicly condemning these actions. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to the partition of Ireland between north and south, a provision that dismayed Shaw. In 1922 civil war broke out in the south between its pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions, the former of whom had established the Irish Free State. Shaw visited Dublin in August, and met Michael Collins, then head of the Free State's Provisional Government. Shaw was much impressed by Collins, and was saddened when, three days later, the Irish leader was ambushed and killed by anti-treaty forces. In a letter to Collins's sister, Shaw wrote: "I met Michael for the first and last time on Saturday last, and am very glad I did. I rejoice in his memory, and will not be so disloyal to it as to snivel over his valiant death". Shaw remained a British subject all his life, but took dual British-Irish nationality in 1934.
1920s
Shaw's first major work to appear after the war was Heartbreak House, written in 1916–17 and performed in 1920. It was produced on Broadway in November, and was coolly received; according to The Times: "Mr Shaw on this occasion has more than usual to say and takes twice as long as usual to say it". After the London premiere in October 1921 The Times concurred with the American critics: "As usual with Mr Shaw, the play is about an hour too long", although containing "much entertainment and some profitable reflection". Ervine in The Observer thought the play brilliant but ponderously acted, except for Edith Evans as Lady Utterword.
Shaw's largest-scale theatrical work was Back to Methuselah, written in 1918–20 and staged in 1922. Weintraub describes it as "Shaw's attempt to fend off 'the bottomless pit of an utterly discouraging pessimism'". This cycle of five interrelated plays depicts evolution, and the effects of longevity, from the Garden of Eden to the year 31,920 AD. Critics found the five plays strikingly uneven in quality and invention. The original run was brief, and the work has been revived infrequently. Shaw felt he had exhausted his remaining creative powers in the huge span of this "Metabiological Pentateuch". He was now sixty-seven, and expected to write no more plays.
This mood was short-lived. In 1920 Joan of Arc was proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict XV; Shaw had long found Joan an interesting historical character, and his view of her veered between "half-witted genius" and someone of "exceptional sanity". He had considered writing a play about her in 1913, and the canonisation prompted him to return to the subject. He wrote Saint Joan in the middle months of 1923, and the play was premiered on Broadway in December. It was enthusiastically received there, and at its London premiere the following March. In Weintraub's phrase, "even the Nobel prize committee could no longer ignore Shaw after Saint Joan". The citation for the literature prize for 1925 praised his work as "... marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty". He accepted the award, but rejected the monetary prize that went with it, on the grounds that "My readers and my audiences provide me with more than sufficient money for my needs".
After Saint Joan, it was five years before Shaw wrote a play. From 1924, he spent four years writing what he described as his "magnum opus", a political treatise entitled The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. The book was published in 1928 and sold well. At the end of the decade Shaw produced his final Fabian tract, a commentary on the League of Nations. He described the League as "a school for the new international statesmanship as against the old Foreign Office diplomacy", but thought that it had not yet become the "Federation of the World".
Shaw returned to the theatre with what he called "a political extravaganza", The Apple Cart, written in late 1928. It was, in Ervine's view, unexpectedly popular, taking a conservative, monarchist, anti-democratic line that appealed to contemporary audiences. The premiere was in Warsaw in June 1928, and the first British production was two months later, at Sir Barry Jackson's inaugural Malvern Festival. The other eminent creative artist most closely associated with the festival was Sir Edward Elgar, with whom Shaw enjoyed a deep friendship and mutual regard. He described The Apple Cart to Elgar as "a scandalous Aristophanic burlesque of democratic politics, with a brief but shocking sex interlude".
During the 1920s Shaw began to lose faith in the idea that society could be changed through Fabian gradualism, and became increasingly fascinated with dictatorial methods. In 1922 he had welcomed Mussolini's accession to power in Italy, observing that amid the "indiscipline and muddle and Parliamentary deadlock", Mussolini was "the right kind of tyrant". Shaw was prepared to tolerate certain dictatorial excesses; Weintraub in his ODNB biographical sketch comments that Shaw's "flirtation with authoritarian inter-war regimes" took a long time to fade, and Beatrice Webb thought he was "obsessed" about Mussolini.
1930s
Shaw's enthusiasm for the Soviet Union dated to the early 1920s when he had hailed Lenin as "the one really interesting statesman in Europe". Having turned down several chances to visit, in 1931 he joined a party led by Nancy Astor. The carefully managed trip culminated in a lengthy meeting with Stalin, whom Shaw later described as "a Georgian gentleman" with no malice in him. At a dinner given in his honour, Shaw told the gathering: "I have seen all the 'terrors' and I was terribly pleased by them". In March 1933 Shaw was a co-signatory to a letter in The Manchester Guardian protesting at the continuing misrepresentation of Soviet achievements: "No lie is too fantastic, no slander is too stale ... for employment by the more reckless elements of the British press."
Shaw's admiration for Mussolini and Stalin demonstrated his growing belief that dictatorship was the only viable political arrangement. When the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in January 1933, Shaw described Hitler as "a very remarkable man, a very able man", and professed himself proud to be the only writer in England who was "scrupulously polite and just to Hitler". His principal admiration was for Stalin, whose regime he championed uncritically throughout the decade. Shaw saw the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as a triumph for Stalin who, he said, now had Hitler under his thumb.
Shaw's first play of the decade was Too True to be Good, written in 1931 and premiered in Boston in February 1932. The reception was unenthusiastic. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times commenting that Shaw had "yielded to the impulse to write without having a subject", judged the play a "rambling and indifferently tedious conversation". The correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune said that most of the play was "discourse, unbelievably long lectures" and that although the audience enjoyed the play it was bewildered by it.
During the decade Shaw travelled widely and frequently. Most of his journeys were with Charlotte; she enjoyed voyages on ocean liners, and he found peace to write during the long spells at sea. Shaw met an enthusiastic welcome in South Africa in 1932, despite his strong remarks about the racial divisions of the country. In December 1932 the couple embarked on a round-the-world cruise. In March 1933 they arrived at San Francisco, to begin Shaw's first visit to the US. He had earlier refused to go to "that awful country, that uncivilized place", "unfit to govern itself... illiberal, superstitious, crude, violent, anarchic and arbitrary". He visited Hollywood, with which he was unimpressed, and New York, where he lectured to a capacity audience in the Metropolitan Opera House. Harried by the intrusive attentions of the press, Shaw was glad when his ship sailed from New York harbour. New Zealand, which he and Charlotte visited the following year, struck him as "the best country I've been in"; he urged its people to be more confident and loosen their dependence on trade with Britain. He used the weeks at sea to complete two plays—The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and The Six of Calais—and begin work on a third, The Millionairess.
Despite his contempt for Hollywood and its aesthetic values, Shaw was enthusiastic about cinema, and in the middle of the decade wrote screenplays for prospective film versions of Pygmalion and Saint Joan. The latter was never made, but Shaw entrusted the rights to the former to the unknown Gabriel Pascal, who produced it at Pinewood Studios in 1938. Shaw was determined that Hollywood should have nothing to do with the film, but was powerless to prevent it from winning one Academy Award ("Oscar"); he described his award for "best-written screenplay" as an insult, coming from such a source. He became the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. In a 1993 study of the Oscars, Anthony Holden observes that Pygmalion was soon spoken of as having "lifted movie-making from illiteracy to literacy".
Shaw's final plays of the 1930s were Cymbeline Refinished (1936), Geneva (1936) and In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939). The first, a fantasy reworking of Shakespeare, made little impression, but the second, a satire on European dictators, attracted more notice, much of it unfavourable. In particular, Shaw's parody of Hitler as "Herr Battler" was considered mild, almost sympathetic. The third play, an historical conversation piece first seen at Malvern, ran briefly in London in May 1940. James Agate commented that the play contained nothing to which even the most conservative audiences could take exception, and though it was long and lacking in dramatic action only "witless and idle" theatregoers would object. After their first runs none of the three plays were seen again in the West End during Shaw's lifetime.
Towards the end of the decade, both Shaws began to suffer ill health. Charlotte was increasingly incapacitated by Paget's disease of bone, and he developed pernicious anaemia. His treatment, involving injections of concentrated animal liver, was successful, but this breach of his vegetarian creed distressed him and brought down condemnation from militant vegetarians.
Second World War and final years
Although Shaw's works since The Apple Cart had been received without great enthusiasm, his earlier plays were revived in the West End throughout the Second World War, starring such actors as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat. In 1944 nine Shaw plays were staged in London, including Arms and the Man with Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and Margaret Leighton in the leading roles. Two touring companies took his plays all round Britain. The revival in his popularity did not tempt Shaw to write a new play, and he concentrated on prolific journalism. A second Shaw film produced by Pascal, Major Barbara (1941), was less successful both artistically and commercially than Pygmalion, partly because of Pascal's insistence on directing, to which he was unsuited.
Following the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 and the rapid conquest of Poland, Shaw was accused of defeatism when, in a New Statesman article, he declared the war over and demanded a peace conference. Nevertheless, when he became convinced that a negotiated peace was impossible, he publicly urged the neutral United States to join the fight. The London blitz of 1940–41 led the Shaws, both in their mid-eighties, to live full-time at Ayot St Lawrence. Even there they were not immune from enemy air raids, and stayed on occasion with Nancy Astor at her country house, Cliveden. In 1943, the worst of the London bombing over, the Shaws moved back to Whitehall Court, where medical help for Charlotte was more easily arranged. Her condition deteriorated, and she died in September.
Shaw's final political treatise, Everybody's Political What's What, was published in 1944. Holroyd describes this as "a rambling narrative ... that repeats ideas he had given better elsewhere and then repeats itself". The book sold well—85,000 copies by the end of the year. After Hitler's suicide in May 1945, Shaw approved of the formal condolences offered by the Irish Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, at the German embassy in Dublin. Shaw disapproved of the postwar trials of the defeated German leaders, as an act of self-righteousness: "We are all potential criminals".
Pascal was given a third opportunity to film Shaw's work with Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). It cost three times its original budget and was rated "the biggest financial failure in the history of British cinema". The film was poorly received by British critics, although American reviews were friendlier. Shaw thought its lavishness nullified the drama, and he considered the film "a poor imitation of Cecil B. de Mille".
In 1946, the year of Shaw's ninetieth birthday, he accepted the freedom of Dublin and became the first honorary freeman of the borough of St Pancras, London. In the same year the British government asked Shaw informally whether he would accept the Order of Merit. He declined, believing that an author's merit could only be determined by the posthumous verdict of history. 1946 saw the publication, as The Crime of Imprisonment, of the preface Shaw had written 20 years previously to a study of prison conditions. It was widely praised; a reviewer in the American Journal of Public Health considered it essential reading for any student of the American criminal justice system.
Shaw continued to write into his nineties. His last plays were Buoyant Billions (1947), his final full-length work; Farfetched Fables (1948) a set of six short plays revisiting several of his earlier themes such as evolution; a comic play for puppets, Shakes versus Shav (1949), a ten-minute piece in which Shakespeare and Shaw trade insults; and Why She Would Not (1950), which Shaw described as "a little comedy", written in one week shortly before his ninety-fourth birthday.
During his later years, Shaw enjoyed tending the gardens at Shaw's Corner. He died at the age of ninety-four of renal failure precipitated by injuries incurred when falling while pruning a tree. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 6 November 1950. His ashes, mixed with those of Charlotte, were scattered along footpaths and around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden.
Works
Plays
Shaw published a collected edition of his plays in 1934, comprising forty-two works. He wrote a further twelve in the remaining sixteen years of his life, mostly one-act pieces. Including eight earlier plays that he chose to omit from his published works, the total is sixty-two.
Early works
Shaw's first three full-length plays dealt with social issues. He later grouped them as "Plays Unpleasant". Widowers' Houses (1892) concerns the landlords of slum properties, and introduces the first of Shaw's New Women—a recurring feature of later plays. The Philanderer (1893) develops the theme of the New Woman, draws on Ibsen, and has elements of Shaw's personal relationships, the character of Julia being based on Jenny Patterson. In a 2003 study Judith Evans describes Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) as "undoubtedly the most challenging" of the three Plays Unpleasant, taking Mrs Warren's profession—prostitute and, later, brothel-owner—as a metaphor for a prostituted society.
Shaw followed the first trilogy with a second, published as "Plays Pleasant". Arms and the Man (1894) conceals beneath a mock-Ruritanian comic romance a Fabian parable contrasting impractical idealism with pragmatic socialism. The central theme of Candida (1894) is a woman's choice between two men; the play contrasts the outlook and aspirations of a Christian Socialist and a poetic idealist. The third of the Pleasant group, You Never Can Tell (1896), portrays social mobility, and the gap between generations, particularly in how they approach social relations in general and mating in particular.
The "Three Plays for Puritans"—comprising The Devil's Disciple (1896), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899)—all centre on questions of empire and imperialism, a major topic of political discourse in the 1890s. The three are set, respectively, in 1770s America, Ancient Egypt, and 1890s Morocco. The Gadfly, an adaptation of the popular novel by Ethel Voynich, was unfinished and unperformed. The Man of Destiny (1895) is a short curtain raiser about Napoleon.
1900–1909
Shaw's major plays of the first decade of the twentieth century address individual social, political or ethical issues. Man and Superman (1902) stands apart from the others in both its subject and its treatment, giving Shaw's interpretation of creative evolution in a combination of drama and associated printed text. The Admirable Bashville (1901), a blank verse dramatisation of Shaw's novel Cashel Byron's Profession, focuses on the imperial relationship between Britain and Africa. John Bull's Other Island (1904), comically depicting the prevailing relationship between Britain and Ireland, was popular at the time but fell out of the general repertoire in later years. Major Barbara (1905) presents ethical questions in an unconventional way, confounding expectations that in the depiction of an armaments manufacturer on the one hand and the Salvation Army on the other the moral high ground must invariably be held by the latter. The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a play about medical ethics and moral choices in allocating scarce treatment, was described by Shaw as a tragedy. With a reputation for presenting characters who did not resemble real flesh and blood, he was challenged by Archer to present an on-stage death, and here did so, with a deathbed scene for the anti-hero.
Getting Married (1908) and Misalliance (1909)—the latter seen by Judith Evans as a companion piece to the former—are both in what Shaw called his "disquisitionary" vein, with the emphasis on discussion of ideas rather than on dramatic events or vivid characterisation. Shaw wrote seven short plays during the decade; they are all comedies, ranging from the deliberately absurd Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction (1905) to the satirical Press Cuttings (1909).
1910–1919
In the decade from 1910 to the aftermath of the First World War Shaw wrote four full-length plays, the third and fourth of which are among his most frequently staged works. Fanny's First Play (1911) continues his earlier examinations of middle-class British society from a Fabian viewpoint, with additional touches of melodrama and an epilogue in which theatre critics discuss the play. Androcles and the Lion (1912), which Shaw began writing as a play for children, became a study of the nature of religion and how to put Christian precepts into practice. Pygmalion (1912) is a Shavian study of language and speech and their importance in society and in personal relationships. To correct the impression left by the original performers that the play portrayed a romantic relationship between the two main characters Shaw rewrote the ending to make it clear that the heroine will marry another, minor character. Shaw's only full-length play from the war years is Heartbreak House (1917), which in his words depicts "cultured, leisured Europe before the war" drifting towards disaster. Shaw named Shakespeare (King Lear) and Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard) as important influences on the piece, and critics have found elements drawing on Congreve (The Way of the World) and Ibsen (The Master Builder).
The short plays range from genial historical drama in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and Great Catherine (1910 and 1913) to a study of polygamy in Overruled; three satirical works about the war (The Inca of Perusalem, O'Flaherty V.C. and Augustus Does His Bit, 1915–16); a piece that Shaw called "utter nonsense" (The Music Cure, 1914) and a brief sketch about a "Bolshevik empress" (Annajanska, 1917).
1920–1950
Saint Joan (1923) drew widespread praise both for Shaw and for Sybil Thorndike, for whom he wrote the title role and who created the part in Britain. In the view of the commentator Nicholas Grene, Shaw's Joan, a "no-nonsense mystic, Protestant and nationalist before her time" is among the 20th century's classic leading female roles. The Apple Cart (1929) was Shaw's last popular success. He gave both that play and its successor, Too True to Be Good (1931), the subtitle "A political extravaganza", although the two works differ greatly in their themes; the first presents the politics of a nation (with a brief royal love-scene as an interlude) and the second, in Judith Evans's words, "is concerned with the social mores of the individual, and is nebulous." Shaw's plays of the 1930s were written in the shadow of worsening national and international political events. Once again, with On the Rocks (1933) and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934), a political comedy with a clear plot was followed by an introspective drama. The first play portrays a British prime minister considering, but finally rejecting, the establishment of a dictatorship; the second is concerned with polygamy and eugenics and ends with the Day of Judgement.
The Millionairess (1934) is a farcical depiction of the commercial and social affairs of a successful businesswoman. Geneva (1936) lampoons the feebleness of the League of Nations compared with the dictators of Europe. In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939), described by Weintraub as a warm, discursive high comedy, also depicts authoritarianism, but less satirically than Geneva. As in earlier decades, the shorter plays were generally comedies, some historical and others addressing various political and social preoccupations of the author. Ervine writes of Shaw's later work that although it was still "astonishingly vigorous and vivacious" it showed unmistakable signs of his age. "The best of his work in this period, however, was full of wisdom and the beauty of mind often displayed by old men who keep their wits about them."
Music and drama reviews
Music
Shaw's collected musical criticism, published in three volumes, runs to more than 2,700 pages. It covers the British musical scene from 1876 to 1950, but the core of the collection dates from his six years as music critic of The Star and The World in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In his view music criticism should be interesting to everyone rather than just the musical élite, and he wrote for the non-specialist, avoiding technical jargon—"Mesopotamian words like 'the dominant of D major'". He was fiercely partisan in his columns, promoting the music of Wagner and decrying that of Brahms and those British composers such as Stanford and Parry whom he saw as Brahmsian. He campaigned against the prevailing fashion for performances of Handel oratorios with huge amateur choirs and inflated orchestration, calling for "a chorus of twenty capable artists". He railed against opera productions unrealistically staged or sung in languages the audience did not speak.
Drama
In Shaw's view, the London theatres of the 1890s presented too many revivals of old plays and not enough new work. He campaigned against "melodrama, sentimentality, stereotypes and worn-out conventions". As a music critic he had frequently been able to concentrate on analysing new works, but in the theatre he was often obliged to fall back on discussing how various performers tackled well-known plays. In a study of Shaw's work as a theatre critic, E. J. West writes that Shaw "ceaselessly compared and contrasted artists in interpretation and in technique". Shaw contributed more than 150 articles as theatre critic for The Saturday Review, in which he assessed more than 212 productions. He championed Ibsen's plays when many theatregoers regarded them as outrageous, and his 1891 book Quintessence of Ibsenism remained a classic throughout the twentieth century. Of contemporary dramatists writing for the West End stage he rated Oscar Wilde above the rest: "... our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theatre". Shaw's collected criticisms were published as Our Theatres in the Nineties in 1932.
Shaw maintained a provocative and frequently self-contradictory attitude to Shakespeare (whose name he insisted on spelling "Shakespear"). Many found him difficult to take seriously on the subject; Duff Cooper observed that by attacking Shakespeare, "it is Shaw who appears a ridiculous pigmy shaking his fist at a mountain." Shaw was, nevertheless, a knowledgeable Shakespearian, and in an article in which he wrote, "With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind against his," he also said, "But I am bound to add that I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespear. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers, and will outlast a thousand more". Shaw had two regular targets for his more extreme comments about Shakespeare: undiscriminating "Bardolaters", and actors and directors who presented insensitively cut texts in over-elaborate productions. He was continually drawn back to Shakespeare, and wrote three plays with Shakespearean themes: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Cymbeline Refinished and Shakes versus Shav. In a 2001 analysis of Shaw's Shakespearian criticisms, Robert Pierce concludes that Shaw, who was no academic, saw Shakespeare's plays—like all theatre—from an author's practical point of view: "Shaw helps us to get away from the Romantics' picture of Shakespeare as a titanic genius, one whose art cannot be analyzed or connected with the mundane considerations of theatrical conditions and profit and loss, or with a specific staging and cast of actors."
Political and social writings
Shaw's political and social commentaries were published variously in Fabian tracts, in essays, in two full-length books, in innumerable newspaper and journal articles and in prefaces to his plays. The majority of Shaw's Fabian tracts were published anonymously, representing the voice of the society rather than of Shaw, although the society's secretary Edward Pease later confirmed Shaw's authorship. According to Holroyd, the business of the early Fabians, mainly under the influence of Shaw, was to "alter history by rewriting it". Shaw's talent as a pamphleteer was put to immediate use in the production of the society's manifesto—after which, says Holroyd, he was never again so succinct.
After the turn of the twentieth century, Shaw increasingly propagated his ideas through the medium of his plays. An early critic, writing in 1904, observed that Shaw's dramas provided "a pleasant means" of proselytising his socialism, adding that "Mr Shaw's views are to be sought especially in the prefaces to his plays". After loosening his ties with the Fabian movement in 1911, Shaw's writings were more personal and often provocative; his response to the furore following the issue of Common Sense About the War in 1914, was to prepare a sequel, More Common Sense About the War. In this, he denounced the pacifist line espoused by Ramsay MacDonald and other socialist leaders, and proclaimed his readiness to shoot all pacifists rather than cede them power and influence. On the advice of Beatrice Webb, this pamphlet remained unpublished.
The Intelligent Woman's Guide, Shaw's main political treatise of the 1920s, attracted both admiration and criticism. MacDonald considered it the world's most important book since the Bible; Harold Laski thought its arguments outdated and lacking in concern for individual freedoms. Shaw's increasing flirtation with dictatorial methods is evident in many of his subsequent pronouncements. A New York Times report dated 10 December 1933 quoted a recent Fabian Society lecture in which Shaw had praised Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin: "[T]hey are trying to get something done, [and] are adopting methods by which it is possible to get something done". As late as the Second World War, in Everybody's Political What's What, Shaw blamed the Allies' "abuse" of their 1918 victory for the rise of Hitler, and hoped that, after defeat, the Führer would escape retribution "to enjoy a comfortable retirement in Ireland or some other neutral country". These sentiments, according to the Irish philosopher-poet Thomas Duddy, "rendered much of the Shavian outlook passé and contemptible".
"Creative evolution", Shaw's version of the new science of eugenics, became an increasing theme in his political writing after 1900. He introduced his theories in The Revolutionist's Handbook (1903), an appendix to Man and Superman, and developed them further during the 1920s in Back to Methuselah. A 1946 Life magazine article observed that Shaw had "always tended to look at people more as a biologist than as an artist". By 1933, in the preface to On the Rocks, he was writing that "if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it"; critical opinion is divided on whether this was intended as irony. In an article in the American magazine Liberty in September 1938, Shaw included the statement: "There are many people in the world who ought to be liquidated". Many commentators assumed that such comments were intended as a joke, although in the worst possible taste. Otherwise, Life magazine concluded, "this silliness can be classed with his more innocent bad guesses".
Fiction
Shaw's fiction-writing was largely confined to the five unsuccessful novels written in the period 1879–1885. Immaturity (1879) is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of mid-Victorian England, Shaw's "own David Copperfield" according to Weintraub. The Irrational Knot (1880) is a critique of conventional marriage, in which Weintraub finds the characterisations lifeless, "hardly more than animated theories". Shaw was pleased with his third novel, Love Among the Artists (1881), feeling that it marked a turning point in his development as a thinker, although he had no more success with it than with its predecessors. Cashel Byron's Profession (1882) is, says Weintraub, an indictment of society which anticipates Shaw's first full-length play, Mrs Warren's Profession. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s.
Shaw's only subsequent fiction of any substance was his 1932 novella The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, written during a visit to South Africa in 1932. The eponymous girl, intelligent, inquisitive, and converted to Christianity by insubstantial missionary teaching, sets out to find God, on a journey that after many adventures and encounters, leads her to a secular conclusion. The story, on publication, offended some Christians and was banned in Ireland by the Board of Censors.
Letters and diaries
Shaw was a prolific correspondent throughout his life. His letters, edited by Dan H. Laurence, were published between 1965 and 1988. Shaw once estimated his letters would occupy twenty volumes; Laurence commented that, unedited, they would fill many more. Shaw wrote more than a quarter of a million letters, of which about ten per cent have survived; 2,653 letters are printed in Laurence's four volumes. Among Shaw's many regular correspondents were his childhood friend Edward McNulty; his theatrical colleagues (and amitiés amoureuses) Mrs Patrick Campbell and Ellen Terry; writers including Lord Alfred Douglas, H. G. Wells and G. K. Chesterton; the boxer Gene Tunney; the nun Laurentia McLachlan; and the art expert Sydney Cockerell. In 2007 a 316-page volume consisting entirely of Shaw's letters to The Times was published.
Shaw's diaries for 1885–1897, edited by Weintraub, were published in two volumes, with a total of 1,241 pages, in 1986. Reviewing them, the Shaw scholar Fred Crawford wrote: "Although the primary interest for Shavians is the material that supplements what we already know about Shaw's life and work, the diaries are also valuable as a historical and sociological document of English life at the end of the Victorian age." After 1897, pressure of other writing led Shaw to give up keeping a diary.
Miscellaneous and autobiographical
Through his journalism, pamphlets and occasional longer works, Shaw wrote on many subjects. His range of interest and enquiry included vivisection, vegetarianism, religion, language, cinema and photography, on all of which he wrote and spoke copiously. Collections of his writings on these and other subjects were published, mainly after his death, together with volumes of "wit and wisdom" and general journalism.
Despite the many books written about him (Holroyd counts 80 by 1939) Shaw's autobiographical output, apart from his diaries, was relatively slight. He gave interviews to newspapers—"GBS Confesses", to The Daily Mail in 1904 is an example—and provided sketches to would-be biographers whose work was rejected by Shaw and never published. In 1939 Shaw drew on these materials to produce Shaw Gives Himself Away, a miscellany which, a year before his death, he revised and republished as Sixteen Self Sketches (there were seventeen). He made it clear to his publishers that this slim book was in no sense a full autobiography.
Beliefs and opinions
Throughout his lifetime Shaw professed many beliefs, often contradictory. This inconsistency was partly an intentional provocation—the Spanish scholar-statesman Salvador de Madariaga describes Shaw as "a pole of negative electricity set in a people of positive electricity". In one area at least Shaw was constant: in his lifelong refusal to follow normal English forms of spelling and punctuation. He favoured archaic spellings such as "shew" for "show"; he dropped the "u" in words like "honour" and "favour"; and wherever possible he rejected the apostrophe in contractions such as "won't" or "that's". In his will, Shaw ordered that, after some specified legacies, his remaining assets were to form a trust to pay for fundamental reform of the English alphabet into a phonetic version of forty letters. Though Shaw's intentions were clear, his drafting was flawed, and the courts initially ruled the intended trust void. A later out-of-court agreement provided a sum of £8,300 for spelling reform; the bulk of his fortune went to the residuary legatees—the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the National Gallery of Ireland. Most of the £8,300 went on a special phonetic edition of Androcles and the Lion in the Shavian alphabet, published in 1962 to a largely indifferent reception.
Shaw's views on religion and Christianity were less consistent. Having in his youth proclaimed himself an atheist, in middle age he explained this as a reaction against the Old Testament image of a vengeful Jehovah. By the early twentieth century, he termed himself a "mystic", although Gary Sloan, in an essay on Shaw's beliefs, disputes his credentials as such. In 1913 Shaw declared that he was not religious "in the sectarian sense", aligning himself with Jesus as "a person of no religion". In the preface (1915) to Androcles and the Lion, Shaw asks "Why not give Christianity a chance?" contending that Britain's social order resulted from the continuing choice of Barabbas over Christ. In a broadcast just before the Second World War, Shaw invoked the Sermon on the Mount, "a very moving exhortation, and it gives you one first-rate tip, which is to do good to those who despitefully use you and persecute you". In his will, Shaw stated that his "religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative revolution". He requested that no one should imply that he accepted the beliefs of any specific religious organisation, and that no memorial to him should "take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice".
Shaw espoused racial equality, and inter-marriage between people of different races. Despite his expressed wish to be fair to Hitler, he called anti-Semitism "the hatred of the lazy, ignorant fat-headed Gentile for the pertinacious Jew who, schooled by adversity to use his brains to the utmost, outdoes him in business". In The Jewish Chronicle he wrote in 1932, "In every country you can find rabid people who have a phobia against Jews, Jesuits, Armenians, Negroes, Freemasons, Irishmen, or simply foreigners as such. Political parties are not above exploiting these fears and jealousies."
In 1903 Shaw joined in a controversy about vaccination against smallpox. He called vaccination "a peculiarly filthy piece of witchcraft"; in his view immunisation campaigns were a cheap and inadequate substitute for a decent programme of housing for the poor, which would, he declared, be the means of eradicating smallpox and other infectious diseases. Less contentiously, Shaw was keenly interested in transport; Laurence observed in 1992 a need for a published study of Shaw's interest in "bicycling, motorbikes, automobiles, and planes, climaxing in his joining the Interplanetary Society in his nineties". Shaw published articles on travel, took photographs of his journeys, and submitted notes to the Royal Automobile Club.
Shaw strove throughout his adult life to be referred to as "Bernard Shaw" rather than "George Bernard Shaw", but confused matters by continuing to use his full initials—G.B.S.—as a by-line, and often signed himself "G.Bernard Shaw". He left instructions in his will that his executor (the Public Trustee) was to license publication of his works only under the name Bernard Shaw. Shaw scholars including Ervine, Judith Evans, Holroyd, Laurence and Weintraub, and many publishers have respected Shaw's preference, although the Cambridge University Press was among the exceptions with its 1988 Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw.
Legacy and influence
Theatrical
Shaw did not found a school of dramatists as such, but Crawford asserts that today "we recognise [him] as second only to Shakespeare in the British theatrical tradition ... the proponent of the theater of ideas" who struck a death-blow to 19th-century melodrama. According to Laurence, Shaw pioneered "intelligent" theatre, in which the audience was required to think, thereby paving the way for the new breeds of twentieth-century playwrights from Galsworthy to Pinter.
Crawford lists numerous playwrights whose work owes something to that of Shaw. Among those active in Shaw's lifetime he includes Noël Coward, who based his early comedy The Young Idea on You Never Can Tell and continued to draw on the older man's works in later plays. T. S. Eliot, by no means an admirer of Shaw, admitted that the epilogue of Murder in the Cathedral, in which Becket's slayers explain their actions to the audience, might have been influenced by Saint Joan. The critic Eric Bentley comments that Eliot's later play The Confidential Clerk "had all the earmarks of Shavianism ... without the merits of the real Bernard Shaw". Among more recent British dramatists, Crawford marks Tom Stoppard as "the most Shavian of contemporary playwrights"; Shaw's "serious farce" is continued in the works of Stoppard's contemporaries Alan Ayckbourn, Henry Livings and Peter Nichols.
Shaw's influence crossed the Atlantic at an early stage. Bernard Dukore notes that he was successful as a dramatist in America ten years before achieving comparable success in Britain. Among many American writers professing a direct debt to Shaw, Eugene O'Neill became an admirer at the age of seventeen, after reading The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Other Shaw-influenced American playwrights mentioned by Dukore are Elmer Rice, for whom Shaw "opened doors, turned on lights, and expanded horizons"; William Saroyan, who empathised with Shaw as "the embattled individualist against the philistines"; and S. N. Behrman, who was inspired to write for the theatre after attending a performance of Caesar and Cleopatra: "I thought it would be agreeable to write plays like that".
Assessing Shaw's reputation in a 1976 critical study, T. F. Evans described Shaw as unchallenged in his lifetime and since as the leading English-language dramatist of the (twentieth) century, and as a master of prose style. The following year, in a contrary assessment, the playwright John Osborne castigated The Guardians theatre critic Michael Billington for referring to Shaw as "the greatest British dramatist since Shakespeare". Osborne responded that Shaw "is the most fraudulent, inept writer of Victorian melodramas ever to gull a timid critic or fool a dull public". Despite this hostility, Crawford sees the influence of Shaw in some of Osborne's plays, and concludes that though the latter's work is neither imitative nor derivative, these affinities are sufficient to classify Osborne as an inheritor of Shaw.
In a 1983 study, R. J. Kaufmann suggests that Shaw was a key forerunner—"godfather, if not actually finicky paterfamilias"—of the Theatre of the Absurd. Two further aspects of Shaw's theatrical legacy are noted by Crawford: his opposition to stage censorship, which was finally ended in 1968, and his efforts which extended over many years to establish a National Theatre. Shaw's short 1910 play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare pleads with Queen Elizabeth I for the endowment of a state theatre, was part of this campaign.
Writing in The New Statesman in 2012 Daniel Janes commented that Shaw's reputation had declined by the time of his 150th anniversary in 2006 but had recovered considerably. In Janes's view, the many current revivals of Shaw's major works showed the playwright's "almost unlimited relevance to our times". In the same year, Mark Lawson wrote in The Guardian that Shaw's moral concerns engaged present-day audiences, and made him—like his model, Ibsen—one of the most popular playwrights in contemporary British theatre.
The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. It produces plays by or written during the lifetime of Shaw as well as some contemporary works. The Gingold Theatrical Group, founded in 2006, presents works by Shaw and others in New York City that feature the humanitarian ideals that his work promoted. It became the first theatre group to present all of Shaw's stage work through its monthly concert series Project Shaw.
General
In the 1940s the author Harold Nicolson advised the National Trust not to accept the bequest of Shaw's Corner, predicting that Shaw would be totally forgotten within fifty years. In the event, Shaw's broad cultural legacy, embodied in the widely used term "Shavian", has endured and is nurtured by Shaw Societies in various parts of the world. The original society was founded in London in 1941 and survives; it organises meetings and events, and publishes a regular bulletin The Shavian. The Shaw Society of America began in June 1950; it foundered in the 1970s but its journal, adopted by Penn State University Press, continued to be published as Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies until 2004. A second American organisation, founded in 1951 as "The Bernard Shaw Society", remains active . More recent societies have been established in Japan and India.
Besides his collected music criticism, Shaw has left a varied musical legacy, not all of it of his choosing. Despite his dislike of having his work adapted for the musical theatre ("my plays set themselves to a verbal music of their own") two of his plays were turned into musical comedies: Arms and the Man was the basis of The Chocolate Soldier in 1908, with music by Oscar Straus, and Pygmalion was adapted in 1956 as My Fair Lady with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Although he had a high regard for Elgar, Shaw turned down the composer's request for an opera libretto, but played a major part in persuading the BBC to commission Elgar's Third Symphony, and was the dedicatee of The Severn Suite (1930).
The substance of Shaw's political legacy is uncertain. In 1921 Shaw's erstwhile collaborator William Archer, in a letter to the playwright, wrote: "I doubt if there is any case of a man so widely read, heard, seen, and known as yourself, who has produced so little effect on his generation." Margaret Cole, who considered Shaw the greatest writer of his age, professed never to have understood him. She thought he worked "immensely hard" at politics, but essentially, she surmises, it was for fun—"the fun of a brilliant artist". After Shaw's death, Pearson wrote: "No one since the time of Tom Paine has had so definite an influence on the social and political life of his time and country as Bernard Shaw."
In its obituary tribute to Shaw, The Times Literary Supplement concluded:
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Books
Shaw's writings
Journals
Newspapers
Online
External links
(About 50 ebooks of Shaw's works and some additional Shaw-related material)
(More links to Shaw-related material)
(19 downloads for audiobooks)
Shaw at IBDb.com (Information on Broadway productions, 1894 to present)
(Lists all film and TV versions of Shaw's works since 1921)
Shaw photographs held at LSE Library
International Shaw Society
The Shaw Society, UK, established in 1941
The Bernard Shaw Society, New York
Shaw collection at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin
1856 births
1950 deaths
19th-century British dramatists and playwrights
19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
19th-century male writers
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
20th-century British male writers
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in England
Anti-vivisectionists
Articles containing video clips
Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
British eugenicists
British male dramatists and playwrights
British music critics
British Nobel laureates
British screenwriters
British socialists
Burials at Ayot St Lawrence
Classical music critics
Deaths from kidney failure
English-language spelling reform advocates
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
PEN International
Irish anti-vaccination activists
Irish Dominion League
Irish male dramatists and playwrights
Irish music critics
Irish Nobel laureates
Irish people of English descent
Irish screenwriters
Irish socialists
Members of St Pancras Metropolitan Borough Council
Members of the Fabian Society
Writers from Dublin (city)
Nobel laureates in Literature
People associated with the British Museum
People associated with the London School of Economics
People associated with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
People educated at Wesley College, Dublin
People from Ayot St Lawrence
People from Portobello, Dublin
Victorian novelists
20th-century British screenwriters
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"Archibald Henderson (July 17, 1877 – December 6, 1963) was an American professor of mathematics who wrote on a variety of subjects, including drama and history. He is well known for his friendship with George Bernard Shaw.\n\nEarly life\nHe was born at Salisbury, N. C., was educated at the University of North Carolina (A.B., 1898; Ph.D., 1902), where he was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity, and studied more at Chicago, Cambridge, and Berlin universities, and at the Sorbonne (Paris). After 1899 he taught at the University of North Carolina, becoming professor of pure mathematics in 1908.\n\nBernard Shaw\n\nIn 1903 in Chicago Henderson saw the first performance in the United States of Bernard Shaw's play You Never Can Tell. Henderson became so enthusiastic about the playwright and his personality that he determined to write Shaw's biography. After some communication between Shaw and Henderson, Henderson arrived in London in 1907 on the very same train carrying Mark Twain who was en route to Oxford to receive an honorary degree. Having established his relation with Shaw, Henderson went on to write three different versions of Shaw's biography covering Shaw's entire career up to the playwright's death in 1950, including several other miscellaneous works about Shaw. The Libraries at the University of North Carolina hold about 380 of Henderson's own writings on various topics, including an invaluable collection of 75 scrap books devoted to articles about Shaw.\n\nWorks\nHis publications include: \n Lines on the Cubic Surface (1911) \n Interpreters of Life and the Modern Spirit (1911) \n Mark Twain (1911) \n George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works (1911)\n George Bernard Shaw: Playboy and Prophet (1932)\n George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century (1956)\n George Bernard Shaw: Table Talk of G.B.S. (1926)\n George Bernard Shaw: Is Bernard Shaw a Dramatist? (1929)\n Forerunners of the Republic (1913) \n The Life and Times of Richard Henderson (1913) \n European Dramatists (1913) \n The Changing Drama (1914)\n\nReferences\n\"Archibald Henderson\", Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, edited by William S. Powell. University of North Carolina Press, 1979–1996.\n\nExternal links\n \n \n \n\nAmerican biographers\nAmerican male biographers\nAmerican non-fiction writers\nUniversity of Chicago alumni\nUniversity of Paris alumni\n1877 births\n1963 deaths\nUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty\nPeople from Salisbury, North Carolina",
"The Shaw Festival is a major Canadian theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. Founded in 1962, its original mandate was to stimulate interest in George Bernard Shaw and his period, and to advance the development of theatre arts in Canada.\n\nThe following is a chronological list of the productions that have been staged as part of the Shaw Festival since its inception.\n\n1962\nDon Juan in Hell – (from Man and Superman) by George Bernard Shaw\nCandida – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1963\nYou Never Can Tell – by George Bernard Shaw\nHow He Lied to Her Husband – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Man of Destiny – by George Bernard Shaw\nAndrocles and the Lion – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1964\nHeartbreak House – by George Bernard Shaw\nVillage Wooing – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Dark Lady of the Sonnets – by George Bernard Shaw\nJohn Bull's Other Island – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1965\nPygmalion – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Shadow of a Gunman – by Seán O'Casey\nThe Millionairess – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1966\nMan and Superman – by George Bernard Shaw\nMisalliance – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Apple Cart – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1967\nArms and the Man – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Circle – by W. Somerset Maugham\nMajor Barbara – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1968\nHeartbreak House – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Importance of Being Oscar – based on the life and works of Oscar Wilde, by Michael MacLiammoir\nThe Chemmy Circle – by Georges Feydeau, translated by Suzanne Grossman\n\n1969\nThe Doctor's Dilemma – by George Bernard Shaw\nBack to Methuselah (Part One) – by George Bernard Shaw\nFive Variations for Corno di Basetto – from the music criticism of George Bernard Shaw\nThe Guardsman – by Ferenc Molnár\n\n1970\nCandida – by George Bernard Shaw\nForty Years On – by Alan Bennett\n\n1971\nThe Philanderer – by George Bernard Shaw\nSummer Days – by Romain Weingarten, translated by Suzanne Grossman\nTonight at 8.30 – by Noël Coward\nWar Women and Other Trivia -- A Social Success – by Max Beerbohm\nO'Flaherty V.C. – by George Bernard Shaw\nPress Cuttings – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1972\nThe Royal Family – by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber\nGetting Married – by George Bernard Shaw\nMisalliance – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1973\nYou Never Can Tell – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Brass Butterfly – by William Golding\nFanny's First Play – by George Bernard Shaw\nSister of Mercy - A Musical Journey into the World of Leonard Cohen – conceived by Gene Lesser\n\n1974\nThe Devil's Disciple – by George Bernard Shaw\nToo True to be Good – by George Bernard Shaw\nCharley's Aunt – by Brandon Thomas\nThe Admirable Bashville – by George Bernard Shaw\nRosmersholm – by Henrik Ibsen\n\n1975\nPygmalion – by George Bernard Shaw\nLeaven of Malice – by Robertson Davies\nCaesar and Cleopatra – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe First Night of Pygmalion – by Richard Huggett\nG.K.C. The Wit and Wisdom of Gilbert Keith Chesterton – compiled, arranged and performed by Tony Van Bridge\n\n1976\nMrs. Warren's Profession – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Admirable Crichton – by J. M. Barrie\nArms and the Man – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Apple Cart – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1977\nMan and Superman – by George Bernard Shaw\nThark – by Ben Travers\nThe Millionairess – by George Bernard Shaw\nGreat Catherine – by George Bernard Shaw\nWidowers' Houses – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1978\nMajor Barbara – by George Bernard Shaw\nJohn Gabriel Borkman – by Henrik Ibsen\nHeartbreak House – by George Bernard Shaw\nLady Audley's Secret – A Musical Melodrama – by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, adapted by Douglas Seale, music by George Goehring, lyrics by John Kuntz\n\n1979\nYou Never Can Tell – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Corn is Green – by Emlyn Williams\nDear Liar – by Jerome Kilty\nCaptain Brassbound's Conversion – by George Bernard Shaw\nBlithe Spirit – by Noël Coward\nMy Astonishing Self from the writings of G.B.S., – by Michael Voysey\nVillage Wooing – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1980\nMisalliance – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Cherry Orchard – by Anton Chekhov\nA Flea in Her Ear – by Georges Feydeau\nThe Grand Hunt – by Gyula Hernady\nThe Philanderer – by George Bernard Shaw\nA Respectable Wedding – by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Jean Benedetti\nCanuck – by John Bruce Cowan\nPuttin on the Ritz – by Irving Berlin\nGunga Heath – compiled and performed by Heath Lamberts\nOverruled – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1981\nSaint Joan – by George Bernard Shaw\nTons of Money – by Will Evans and Valentine\nThe Suicide – by Nikolai Erdman\nCamille – by Robert David MacDonald\nIn Good King Charles's Golden Days – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Magistrate – by Arthur Wing Pinero\nRose-Marie – book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein, music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart\nThe Man of Destiny – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1982\nPygmalion – by George Bernard Shaw\nSee How They Run – by Philip King\nCamille – by Robert David MacDonald\nCyrano de Bergerac – by Edmond Rostand\nToo True to Be Good – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Singular Life of Alfred Nobbs – adapted by Simone Benmussa from Albert Nobbs by George Moore\nThe Desert Song – book and lyrics by Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein and Frank Mandel\nThe Music Cure – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1983\nCaesar and Cleopatra – by George Bernard Shaw\nCyrano de Bergerac – by Edmond Rostand\nRookery Nook – by Ben Travers\nPrivate Lives – by Noël Coward\nThe Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles – by George Bernard Shaw\nCandida – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Vortex – by Noël Coward\nTom Jones – by Sir Edward German, libretto by Robert Courtneidge and A. M. Thompson\nO'Flaherty V.C. – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1984\nThe Devil's Disciple – by George Bernard Shaw\nPrivate Lives – by Noël Coward\nThe Skin of Our Teeth – by Thornton Wilder\nCélimar (or Friends of a Feather) – by Eugène Labiche\nAndrocles and the Lion – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Vortex – by Noël Coward\nThe Lost Letter – by Ian Luca Caragiale\nRoberta – books and lyrics by Otto Harbach, music by Jerome Kern\nThe Shaw Playlets: The Fascinating Foundling and How He Lied to Her Husband – by George Bernard Shaw\n1984 – by George Orwell\n\n1985\nHeartbreak House – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Madwoman of Chaillot – by Jean Giraudoux\nOne for the Pot – by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton\nCavalcade – by Noël Coward\nJohn Bull's Other Island – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Women – by Clare Boothe Luce\nTropical Madness No. 2 - Metaphysics of the Two-Headed Calf – by Stanisław Witkiewicz\nMurder on the Nile – by Agatha Christie\nNaughty Marietta – book and lyrics by Rida Johnson Young, music by Victor Herbert\nThe Inca of Perusalem – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1986\nArms and the Man – by George Bernard Shaw\nBanana Ridge – by Ben Travers\nCavalcade – by Noël Coward\nBack to Methuselah – by George Bernard Shaw\nOn the Rocks – by George Bernard Shaw\nHoliday – by Philip Barry\nTonight We Improvise – by Luigi Pirandello\nBlack Coffee – by Agatha Christie\nGirl Crazy – music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, libretto by John McGowan and Guy Bolton\nPassion, Poison and Petrifaction – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1987\nMajor Barbara – by George Bernard Shaw\nHay Fever – by Noël Coward\nMarathon 33 – by June Havoc\nPeter Pan – by J.M. Barrie\nFanny's First Play – by George Bernard Shaw\nNight of January 16th – by Ayn Rand\nPlaying with Fire – by August Strindberg\nSalome – by Oscar Wilde\nNot in the Book – by Arthur Watkyn\nAnything Goes – music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse\nAugustus Does His Bit – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1988\nYou Never Can Tell – by George Bernard Shaw\nPeter Pan – by J.M. Barrie\nWar and Peace – by Leo Tolstoy\nOnce in a Lifetime – by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman\nGeneva – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Voysey Inheritance – by Harley Granville Barker\nHe Who Gets Slapped – by Leonid Andreyev\nDangerous Corner – by J.B. Priestley\nHit the Deck – music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Leo Robin, Clifford Grey and Irving Caesar, book by Herbert Fields\nThe Dark Lady of the Sonnets – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1989\nMan and Superman – by George Bernard Shaw\nBerkeley Square – by John L. Balderston\nOnce in a Lifetime – by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman\nTrelawny of the \"Wells\" – by Arthur Wing Pinero\nGetting Married – by George Bernard Shaw\nPeer Gynt – by Henrik Ibsen, translated by John Lingard\nNymph Errant – music and lyrics by Cole Porter, libretto by Romney Brent, from the novel by James Laver\nAn Inspector Calls – by J.B. Priestley\nGood News – music by Ray Henderson, book by Laurence Schwab and B.G. DeSylva\nShakes versus Shav and The Glimpse of Reality – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1990\nMisalliance – by George Bernard Shaw\nTrelawny of the \"Wells\" – by Arthur Wing Pinero\nThe Waltz of the Toreadors – by Jean Anouilh, translated by Lucienne Hill\nPresent Laughter – by Noël Coward\nMrs. Warren's Profession – by George Bernard Shaw\nNymph Errant – music and lyrics by Cole Porter, libretto by Romney Brent, from the novel by James Laver\nUbu Rex – by Alfred Jarry, translated by David Copelin\nNight Must Fall – by Emlyn Williams\nWhen We Are Married – by J.B. Priestley\nVillage Wooing – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1991\nThe Doctor's Dilemma – by George Bernard Shaw\nA Cuckoo in the Nest – by Ben Travers\nLulu – by Frank Wedekind\nThe Millionairess – by George Bernard Shaw\nHenry IV – by Luigi Pirandello\nHedda Gabler – by Henrik Ibsen\nA Connecticut Yankee – music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book by Herbert Fields\nThis Happy Breed – by Noël Coward\nPress Cuttings – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1992\nPygmalion – by George Bernard Shaw\nCounsellor-at-Law – by Elmer Rice\nCharley's Aunt – by Brandon Thomas\nWidowers' Houses – by George Bernard Shaw\nDrums in the Night – by Bertolt Brecht\nPoint Valaine – by Noël Coward\nOn the Town – music by Leonard Bernstein, books and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green\nTen Minute Alibi – by Anthony Armstrong\nOverruled – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1993\nSaint Joan – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Silver King – by Henry Arthur Jones\nBlithe Spirit – by Noël Coward\nCandida – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Unmentionables – by Carl Sternheim\nThe Marrying of Anne Leete – by Harley Granville Barker\nGentlemen Prefer Blondes – music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Leo Robin, book by Anita Loos and Joseph Fields\nAnd Then There Were None – by Agatha Christie\nThe Man of Destiny – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1994\nArms and the Man – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Front Page – by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur\nSherlock Holmes – by William Gillette\nToo True to Be Good – by George Bernard Shaw\nEden End – by J.B. Priestley\nIvona the Princess of Burgundia – by Witold Gombrowicz\nLady Be Good – music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson\nBusman's Honeymoon – by Dorothy L. Sayers and Muriel St Clare Byrne\nRococo – by Harley Granville Barker\nAnnajanska the Bolshevik Princess – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1995\nYou Never Can Tell – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Petrified Forest – by Robert E. Sherwood\nCavalcade – by Noël Coward\nThe Philanderer – by George Bernard Shaw\nAn Ideal Husband – by Oscar Wilde\nWaste – by Harley Granville Barker\nThe Voice of the Turtle – by John William Van Druten\nLadies in Retirement – by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham\nThe Zoo – by Arthur Sullivan and B. C. Stephenson\nThe Six of Calais – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n1996\nThe Devil's Disciple – by George Bernard Shaw\nRashoman – by Fay Kanin and Michael Kanin\nHobson's Choice – by Harold Brighouse\nAn Ideal Husband – by Oscar Wilde\nThe Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Playboy of the Western World – by J.M. Synge\nMarsh Hay – by Merrill Denison\nMr. Cinders – music by Vivian Ellis and Richard Myers, libretto and lyrics by Clifford Grey and Greatrex Newman\nThe Hollow – by Agatha Christie\nShall We Join the Ladies – by J.M. Barrie\nThe Conjuror – by David Ben and Patrick Watson\n\n1997\nMrs. Warren's Profession – by George Bernard Shaw\nHobson's Choice – by Harold Brighouse\nWill Any Gentleman – by Vernon Sylvaine\nThe Seagull – by Anton Chekhov\nIn Good King Charles's Golden Days – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Playboy of the Western World – by J.M. Synge\nThe Children's Hour – by Lillian Hellman\nThe Secret Life – by Harley Granville Barker\nThe Chocolate Soldier – music by Oscar Straus, adapted and arranged by Ronald Hanmer, original book and lyrics by Rudolf Bernauer and \nThe Two Mrs. Carrolls – by Martin Vale\nThe Conjuror: Part 2 – by David Ben and Patrick Watson\nSorry Wrong Number – by Lucille Fletcher\n\n1998\nMajor Barbara – by George Bernard Shaw\nYou Can't Take It with You – by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart\nLady Windermere's Fan – by Oscar Wilde\nThe Lady's Not for Burning – by Christopher Fry\nJohn Bull's Other Island – by George Bernard Shaw\nJoy – by John Galsworthy\nA Foggy Day – music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, book by Norm Foster and John Mueller\nThe Shop at Sly Corner – by Edward Percy\nPassion, Poison and Petrifaction – by George Bernard Shaw\nBrothers in Arms – by Merrill Denison\nA Story of Waterloo – by Arthur Conan Doyle\n\n1999\nHeartbreak House – by George Bernard Shaw\nYou Can't Take It with You – by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart\nEasy Virtue – by Noël Coward\nAll My Sons – by Arthur Miller\nGetting Married – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Madras House – by Harley Granville Barker\nS.S. Tenacity – by Charles Vildrac\nUncle Vanya – by Anton Chekhov\nRebecca – by Daphne du Maurier\nA Foggy Day – music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, book by Norm Foster and John Mueller\nWaterloo – by Arthur Conan Doyle\nVillage Wooing – by George Bernard Shaw\n\n2000\nThe Doctor's Dilemma – by George Bernard Shaw\nEasy Virtue – by Noël Coward\nLord of the Flies – by William Golding\nThe Matchmaker – by Thornton Wilder\nA Woman of No Importance – by Oscar Wilde\nThe Apple Cart – by George Bernard Shaw\nA Room of One's Own – by Virginia Woolf\nSix Characters in Search of an Author – by Luigi Pirandello\nTime and the Conways – by J.B. Priestley\nShe Loves Me – book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick\nStill Life – by Noël Coward\n\n2001\nThe Millionairess – by George Bernard Shaw\nPeter Pan – by J.M. Barrie\nThe Man Who Came to Dinner – by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman\nPicnic – by William Inge\nFanny's First Play – by George Bernard Shaw\nSix Characters in Search of an Author – by Luigi Pirandello\nThe Return of the Prodigal – by St John Hankin\nThe Mystery of Edwin Drood – a musical by Rupert Holmes\nLaura – by Vera Caspary and George Sklar\nLove from a Stranger – by Frank Vosper, based on a story by Agatha Christie\nShadow Play – by Noël Coward\n\n2002\nCaesar and Cleopatra – by George Bernard Shaw\nDetective Story – by Sidney Kingsley\nCandida – by George Bernard Shaw\nHay Fever – by Noël Coward\nThe Return of the Prodigal – by St John Hankin\nThe House of Bernarda Alba – by Federico García Lorca\nHis Majesty – by Harley Granville Barker\nChaplin – by Simon Bradbury\nThe Old Ladies – by Rodney Ackland\nMerrily We Roll Along – music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth\nThe Old Lady Shows Her Medals – by J.M. Barrie\n\n2003\nMisalliance – by George Bernard Shaw\nThree Sisters – by Anton Chekhov\nThe Coronation Voyage – by Michel Marc Bouchard\nThe Royal Family – by George S. Kaufman\nWidowers' Houses – by George Bernard Shaw\nDiana of Dobson's – by Cicely Hamilton\nThe Plough and the Stars – by Seán O'Casey\nAfterplay – by Brian Friel\nOn the Twentieth Century – book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Cy Coleman\nBlood Relations – by Sharon Pollock\nHappy End – lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, music by Kurt Weill\n\n2004\nPygmalion – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Importance of Being Earnest – by Oscar Wilde\nThree Men on a Horse – by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott\nPal Joey – music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book by John O'Hara\nAh, Wilderness! – by Eugene O'Neill\nRutherford and Son – by Githa Sowerby\nWaiting for the Parade – by John Murrell\nThe Tinker's Wedding – by J.M. Synge\nMan and Superman – by George Bernard Shaw\nNothing Sacred – by George F. Walker\nHarlequinade – by Terence Rattigan\nFloyd Collins – music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, book by Tina Landau\n\n2005\nMajor Barbara – by George Bernard Shaw\nYou Never Can Tell – by George Bernard Shaw\nGypsy – music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents\nJourney's End – by R. C. Sherriff\nThe Autumn Garden – by Lillian Hellman\nBelle Moral – by Ann-Marie MacDonald\nThe Constant Wife – by Somerset Maugham\nHappy End – Music by Kurt Weill, Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht\nBus Stop – by William Inge\nSomething on the Side – (One Act) by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallieres\n\n2006\nArms and the Man – by George Bernard Shaw\nToo True to be Good – by George Bernard Shaw\nHigh Society – music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Arthur Kopit\nThe Crucible – by Arthur Miller\nThe Magic Fire – by Lillian Groag\nRosmersholm – by Henrik Ibsen\nLove Among the Russians – by Anton Chekhov\nThe Heiress – adapted from Washington Square by Henry James\nThe Invisible Man – by Michael O'Brien, adapted from the novel by H.G. Wells\nDesign for Living – by Noël Coward\n\n2007\nThe Philanderer – by George Bernard Shaw\nSaint Joan – by George Bernard Shaw\nMack and Mabel – music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, book by Michael Stewart\nHotel Peccadillo – by Georges Feydeau\nThe Circle – by Somerset Maugham\nSummer and Smoke – by Tennessee Williams\nA Month in the Country – by Brian Friel, based on the original by Ivan Turgenev\nTristan – by Paul Sportelli and Jay Turvey\nThe Cassillis Engagement – by St. John Hankin\nThe Kiltartan Comedies – by Lady Augusta Gregory\n\n2008\nAn Inspector Calls – by J.B. Priestley\nWonderful Town – music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden, book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov\nMrs. Warren's Profession – by George Bernard Shaw\nFollies: The Concert – by Stephen Sondheim\nGetting Married – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Little Foxes – by Lillian Hellman\nAfter the Dance – by Terence Rattigan\nThe President – by Ferenc Molnár\nThe Stepmother – by Githa Sowerby\nA Little Night Music – music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler\nBelle Moral – by Ann-Marie MacDonald\n\n2009\nBrief Encounters: Still Life, We Were Dancing and Hands Across the Sea – by Noël Coward\nPlay, Orchestra, Play: Red Peppers, Fumed Oak and Shadow Play – by Noël Coward\nWays of the Heart: Ways and Means, Family Album and The Astonished Heart – by Noël Coward\nStar Chamber – by Noël Coward\nThe Entertainer – by John Osborne\nThe Devil's Disciple – by George Bernard Shaw\nIn Good King Charles's Golden Days – by George Bernard Shaw\nBorn Yesterday – by Garson Kanin\nA Moon for the Misbegotten – by Eugene O'Neill\nAlbertine in Five Times – by Michel Tremblay\nSunday in the Park with George – music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine\n\n2010\nThe Women – by Clare Boothe Luce\nThe Doctor's Dilemma – by George Bernard Shaw\nThe Cherry Orchard – by Anton Chekhov\nAn Ideal Husband – by Oscar Wilde\nJohn Bull's Other Island – by George Bernard Shaw\nAge of Arousal – by Linda Griffiths\nHarvey – by Mary Coyle Chase\nOne Touch of Venus – by Kurt Weill, book by S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, lyrics by Ogden Nash\nHalf an Hour – by J. M. Barrie\nSerious Money - by Caryl Churchill\n\n2011\nHeartbreak House – by George Bernard Shaw\nOn the Rocks – by George Bernard Shaw\nCandida – by George Bernard Shaw\nMy Fair Lady – book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe\nMaria Severa – book, music & lyrics by Jay Turvey and Paul Sportelli\nThe Admirable Crichton – by J.M. Barrie\nDrama at Inish – A Comedy – by Lennox Robinson\nCat on a Hot Tin Roof – by Tennessee Williams\nThe President – by Ferenc Molnár\nTopdog/Underdog – by Suzan-Lori Parks\nWhen the Rain Stops Falling – by Andrew Bovell\n\n2012\nThe Millionairess – by George Bernard Shaw\nMisalliance – by George Bernard Shaw\nA Man and Some Women – by Githa Sowerby\nRagtime – book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow\nPresent Laughter – by Noël Coward\nTrouble in Tahiti – Music & libretto by Leonard Bernstein\nHedda Gabler – by Henrik Ibsen\nFrench Without Tears – by Terence Rattigan\nCome Back, Little Sheba – by William IngeHelen’s Necklace – by Carole Fréchette in an English version by John Murrell (playwright)\n\n2013Guys and Dolls – music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by Jo Swerling and Abe BurrowsLady Windermere's Fan – by Oscar WildeEnchanted April – by Elizabeth von Arnim, adapted by Matthew BarberPeace In Our Time: A Comedy – by John Murrell, adapted from Geneva by George Bernard ShawThe Light in the Piazza – book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam GuettelTrifles – by Susan GlaspellOur Betters – by W. Somerset MaughamMajor Barbara – by George Bernard ShawFaith Healer – by Brian FrielArcadia – by Tom Stoppard\n\n2014Cabaret – book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John KanderThe Philadelphia Story — by Philip BarryThe Philanderer — by George Bernard ShawThe Charity That Began at Home — by St. John HankinThe Sea — by Edward BondArms and the Man — by George Bernard ShawWhen We Are Married – by J.B. PriestleyJuno and the Paycock — by Seán O'CaseyThe Mountaintop — by Katori HallA Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur — by Tennessee Williams\n\n2015Sweet Charity – book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy FieldsPygmalion – by George Bernard ShawLight Up the Sky – by Moss HartThe Lady from the Sea – by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Erin ShieldsTop Girls – by Caryl ChurchillThe Twelve-Pound Look – By J. M. BarriePeter and the Starcatcher – by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, adapted by Rick EliceYou Never Can Tell – by George Bernard ShawThe Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt – by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda GaboriauThe Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures – by Tony Kushner\n\n2016Alice in Wonderland – by Lewis Carroll, adapted by Peter Hinton, music by Allen ColeA Woman of No Importance – by Oscar WildeSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh WheelerUncle Vanya – by Anton ChekhovMrs. Warren's Profession – by George Bernard Shaw\"Master Harold\"...and the Boys – by Athol FugardOur Town – by Thornton WilderEngaged – by W.S. GilbertThe Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God – by George Bernard Shaw, adapted by Lisa CodringtonThe Dance of Death – by August Strindberg, adapted by Richard Greenberg\n\n2017\nMe and My Girl - book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose, music by Noel Gay\nSaint Joan – by George Bernard Shaw\nDracula - by Bram Stoker, adapted by Liz Lochhead\n1837: The Farmers’ Revolt - by Rick Salutin\nAndrocles and the Lion – by George Bernard Shaw\nWilde Tales - by Oscar Wilde\nThe Madness of George III - by Alan Bennett\nDancing at Lughnasa - by Brian Friel\nAn Octoroon - by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins\nMiddletown - by Will Eno\n1979 - by Michael Healey\n\n2018\nThe Magician's Nephew - by C.S. Lewis, adapted for the stage by Michael O'Brien\nGrand Hotel - book by Luther Davis, music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, with additional music by Maury Yeston\nMythos: A Trilogy. Gods. Heroes. Men. - by Stephen Fry\nThe Hound of the Baskervilles - by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by R. Hamilton Wright and David Pichette\nStage Kiss - by Sarah Ruhl\nOf Marriage and Men: A Comedy Double-Bill (How He Lied to Her Husband and The Man of Destiny) - by George Bernard Shaw\nO'Flaherty V.C. - by George Bernard Shaw\nOh What a Lovely War - by Joan Littlewood, Theatre Workshop and Charles Chilton\nA Christmas Carol - by Charles Dickens\nThe Orchard (After Chekhov) - by Serena Parmar\nThe Baroness and the Pig - by Michael Mackenzie\nHenry V - by William Shakespeare\n\n2019\nThe Horse and His Boy - by C.S. Lewis, adapted for the stage by Anna Chatterton\nBrigadoon - book and lyrics by Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe\nThe Ladykillers - by Graham Linehan, from the motion picture screenplay by William Rose\nMan and Superman with Don Juan in Hell - by Bernard Shaw\nMahabharata: Beginnings - by Ravi Jain\nRope - by Patrick Hamilton\nGetting Married - by Bernard Shaw\nThe Russian Play - by Hannah Moscovitch\nCyrano de Bergerac - by Edmond Rostand, translated and adapted for the stage by Kate Hennig\nThe Glass Menagerie - by Tennessee Williams\nSex - by Mae West\nVictory - by Howard Barker\nA Christmas Carol - by Charles Dickens\nHoliday Inn - music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge\n\n2020\n\nDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced on August 26, 2020 that the entirety of the 2020 season was cancelled, with the possible exception of A Christmas Carol, which may still be performed depending on government guidelines. Previously, on July 22, 2020, it was said there was the possibility that some performances of Charley's Aunt and Flush might begin in September.\n\nGypsy - book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim\nThe Devil's Disciple - by Bernard Shaw\nSherlock Holmes and the Raven’s Curse - by R. Hamilton Wright, based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle\nMahabharata - adapted by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes, original concept developed with Jenny Koons\nCharley's Aunt - by Brandon Thomas\nPrince Caspian - adapted for the stage by Damien Atkins, based on the novel by C.S. Lewis\nFlush - based on the novella by Virginia Woolf, adapted and directed by Tim Carroll\nAssassins - book by John Weidman, music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, from an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr.The Playboy of the Western World - by J.M. SyngeDesire Under the Elms by Eugene O'NeillTrouble in Mind - by Alice ChildressThe History of Niagara - created and performed by Mike Petersen and Alexandra Montagnese, at Fort George Historic Site, in association with Parks CanadaA Christmas Carol - by Charles DickensMe and My Girl - book and lyrics by L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber, book revised by Stephen Fry, with contributions by Mike Ockrent, music by Noel Gay. Presented for the Christmas season.\n\n2021\nFor the 2021 season, the Shaw Festival hopes to present many of the anticipated productions that were originally scheduled for 2020.The Devil's Disciple - by Bernard ShawSherlock Holmes and the Raven’s Curse - by R. Hamilton Wright, based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan DoyleCharley's Aunt - by Brandon ThomasFlush - based on the novella by Virginia Woolf, adapted and directed by Tim CarrollDesire Under the Elms by Eugene O'NeillTrouble in Mind - by Alice ChildressThe History of Niagara - created and performed by Mike Petersen and Alexandra Montagnese, at Fort George Historic Site, in association with Parks CanadaA Christmas Carol - by Charles DickensHoliday Inn - music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad HodgeGypsy, originally planned for the 2020 season, and then intended to be staged in 2021, has now been postponed until the 2023 season.\n\nThe productions that were originally scheduled, and subsequently cancelled, for 2020 and not planned for 2021 are: Mahabharata, Prince Caspian, Assassins, The Playboy of the Western World, and Me and My Girl.\n\n2022 (announced)\nThe 2022 season announced by Artistic Director Tim Carroll will run from February to December.Damn Yankees - book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry RossThe Importance of Being Earnest – by Oscar WildeThe Doctor's Dilemma – by George Bernard ShawCyrano de Bergerac - by Edmond Rostand, translated and adapted for the stage by Kate HennigGaslight - by Johnna Wright and Patty JamiesonChitra - by Rabindranath TagoreJust To Get Married - by Cicely HamiltonThis Is How We Got Here - by Keith BarkerToo True to be Good – by George Bernard ShawEverybody - by Branden Jacobs-JenkinsGem of the Ocean - by August WilsonA Short History of Niagara - by Alexandra Montagnese and Mike PetersenFairground and ShawgroundA Christmas Carol - by Charles DickensWhite Christmas - music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by David Ives and Paul Blake\n\nFrequency of production of Shaw's playsThe Admirable Bashville - 1974Androcles and the Lion - 1963, 1984, 2017Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress - 1994The Apple Cart - 1966, 1976, 2000Arms and the Man - 1967, 1976, 1986, 1994, 2006, 2014Augustus Does His Bit - 1987Back to Methuselah - 1969, 1986Caesar and Cleopatra - 1975, 1983, 2002Candida - 1962, 1970, 1983, 1993, 2002, 2011Captain Brassbound's Conversion - 1979The Dark Lady of the Sonnets - 1964, 1988The Devil's Disciple - 1974, 1984, 1996, 2009, 2021The Doctor's Dilemma - 1969, 1991, 2000, 2010, 2022The Fascinating Foundling - 1984Fanny's First Play - 1973, 1987, 2001Geneva - 1988Getting Married - 1972, 1989, 1999, 2008, 2019The Glimpse of Reality - 1989Great Catherine - 1977Heartbreak House - 1964, 1968, 1978, 1985, 1999, 2011How He Lied to Her Husband - 1963, 1984, 2018The Inca of Perusalem - 1985In Good King Charles's Golden Days - 1981, 1997, 2009John Bull's Other Island - 1964, 1985, 1998, 2010Major Barbara - 1967, 1978, 1987, 1998, 2005, 2013The Man of Destiny - 1963, 1981, 1993, 2018Man and Superman - 1962, 1966, 1977, 1989, 2004, 2019The Millionairess - 1965, 1977, 1991, 2001, 2012Misalliance - 1966, 1972, 1980, 1990, 2003, 2012Mrs. Warren's Profession - 1976, 1990, 1997, 2008, 2016The Music Cure - 1982O'Flaherty V.C. - 1971, 1983, 2018On the Rocks - 1986, 2011Overruled - 1980, 1992Passion, Poison and Petrifaction - 1986, 1998The Philanderer - 1971, 1980, 1995, 2007, 2014Press Cuttings - 1971, 1991Pygmalion - 1965, 1975, 1982, 1992, 2004, 2015Saint Joan - 1981, 1993, 2007, 2017Shakes versus Shav - 1989The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles - 1983, 1996The Six of Calais - 1995Too True to be Good - 1974, 1982, 1994, 2006You Never Can Tell - 1963, 1973, 1979, 1988, 1995, 2005, 2015Village Wooing - 1964, 1979, 1990, 1999Widower's Houses - 1977, 1992, 2003\n\nNote: The following original theatrical works by Shaw have never been produced at the Shaw Festival:Buoyant Billions, Cymbeline Refinished, Farfetched Fables, The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, and Why She Would Not''.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\nShaw Festival Online\n\nCanadian theatre company production histories\nTheatre festivals in Ontario\nGeorge Bernard Shaw"
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"George Bernard Shaw",
"Novelist and critic",
"What types of novels did George Bernard Shaw write?",
"the closest Shaw had ever come to university education."
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C_aa2ac1f67a034cec846ac6f222b244cc_1
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What was the name of one of his novels?
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What was the name of one of George Bernard Shaws novels?
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George Bernard Shaw
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Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty". By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players. In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature. Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw". In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano. On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it--he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals. After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator. From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886-87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions". The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons. The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882-83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886. In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic. Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950. From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence". CANNOTANSWER
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G.B.S.
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George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma and Caesar and Cleopatra.
Shaw's expressed views were often contentious; he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable, and although not a republican, castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success. In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion for which he received an Academy Award. His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by the late 1920s he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism and often wrote and spoke favourably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin. In the final decade of his life he made fewer public statements, but continued to write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged ninety-four, having refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 1946.
Since Shaw's death scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied, but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them.
Life
Early years
Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814–1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (née Gurly; 1830–1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853–1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855–1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty".
By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players.
In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature.
Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw".
In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano.
London
Early in 1876 Shaw learned from his mother that Agnes was dying of tuberculosis. He resigned from the land agents, and in March travelled to England to join his mother and Lucy at Agnes's funeral. He never again lived in Ireland, and did not visit it for twenty-nine years.
Initially, Shaw refused to seek clerical employment in London. His mother allowed him to live free of charge in her house in South Kensington, but he nevertheless needed an income. He had abandoned a teenage ambition to become a painter, and had not yet thought of writing for a living, but Lee found a little work for him, ghost-writing a musical column printed under Lee's name in a satirical weekly, The Hornet. Lee's relations with Bessie deteriorated after their move to London. Shaw maintained contact with Lee, who found him work as a rehearsal pianist and occasional singer.
Eventually Shaw was driven to applying for office jobs. In the interim he secured a reader's pass for the British Museum Reading Room (the forerunner of the British Library) and spent most weekdays there, reading and writing. His first attempt at drama, begun in 1878, was a blank-verse satirical piece on a religious theme. It was abandoned unfinished, as was his first try at a novel. His first completed novel, Immaturity (1879), was too grim to appeal to publishers and did not appear until the 1930s. He was employed briefly by the newly formed Edison Telephone Company in 1879–80, and as in Dublin achieved rapid promotion. Nonetheless, when the Edison firm merged with the rival Bell Telephone Company, Shaw chose not to seek a place in the new organisation. Thereafter he pursued a full-time career as an author.
For the next four years Shaw made a negligible income from writing, and was subsidised by his mother. In 1881, for the sake of economy, and increasingly as a matter of principle, he became a vegetarian. He grew a beard to hide a facial scar left by smallpox. In rapid succession he wrote two more novels: The Irrational Knot (1880) and Love Among the Artists (1881), but neither found a publisher; each was serialised a few years later in the socialist magazine Our Corner.
In 1880 Shaw began attending meetings of the Zetetical Society, whose objective was to "search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race". Here he met Sidney Webb, a junior civil servant who, like Shaw, was busy educating himself. Despite difference of style and temperament, the two quickly recognised qualities in each other and developed a lifelong friendship. Shaw later reflected: "You knew everything that I didn't know and I knew everything you didn't know ... We had everything to learn from one another and brains enough to do it".
Shaw's next attempt at drama was a one-act playlet in French, Un Petit Drame, written in 1884 but not published in his lifetime. In the same year the critic William Archer suggested a collaboration, with a plot by Archer and dialogue by Shaw. The project foundered, but Shaw returned to the draft as the basis of Widowers' Houses in 1892, and the connection with Archer proved of immense value to Shaw's career.
Political awakening: Marxism, socialism, Fabian Society
On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it—he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals.
After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator.
From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886–87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties.
Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions".
Novelist and critic
The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons.
The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882–83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886.
In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic.
Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950.
From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence".
Playwright and politician: 1890s
After using the plot of the aborted 1884 collaboration with Archer to complete Widowers' Houses (it was staged twice in London, in December 1892), Shaw continued writing plays. At first he made slow progress; The Philanderer, written in 1893 but not published until 1898, had to wait until 1905 for a stage production. Similarly, Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) was written five years before publication and nine years before reaching the stage.
Shaw's first play to bring him financial success was Arms and the Man (1894), a mock-Ruritanian comedy satirising conventions of love, military honour and class. The press found the play overlong, and accused Shaw of mediocrity, sneering at heroism and patriotism, heartless cleverness, and copying W.S.Gilbert's style. The public took a different view, and the management of the theatre staged extra matinée performances to meet the demand. The play ran from April to July, toured the provinces and was staged in New York. It earned him £341 in royalties in its first year, a sufficient sum to enable him to give up his salaried post as a music critic. Among the cast of the London production was Florence Farr, with whom Shaw had a romantic relationship between 1890 and 1894, much resented by Jenny Patterson.
The success of Arms and the Man was not immediately replicated. Candida, which presented a young woman making a conventional romantic choice for unconventional reasons, received a single performance in South Shields in 1895; in 1897 a playlet about Napoleon called The Man of Destiny had a single staging at Croydon. In the 1890s Shaw's plays were better known in print than on the West End stage; his biggest success of the decade was in New York in 1897, when Richard Mansfield's production of the historical melodrama The Devil's Disciple earned the author more than £2,000 in royalties.
In January 1893, as a Fabian delegate, Shaw attended the Bradford conference which led to the foundation of the Independent Labour Party. He was sceptical about the new party, and scorned the likelihood that it could switch the allegiance of the working class from sport to politics. He persuaded the conference to adopt resolutions abolishing indirect taxation, and taxing unearned income "to extinction". Back in London, Shaw produced what Margaret Cole, in her Fabian history, terms a "grand philippic" against the minority Liberal administration that had taken power in 1892. To Your Tents, O Israel excoriated the government for ignoring social issues and concentrating solely on Irish Home Rule, a matter Shaw declared of no relevance to socialism. In 1894 the Fabian Society received a substantial bequest from a sympathiser, Henry Hunt Hutchinson—Holroyd mentions £10,000. Webb, who chaired the board of trustees appointed to supervise the legacy, proposed to use most of it to found a school of economics and politics. Shaw demurred; he thought such a venture was contrary to the specified purpose of the legacy. He was eventually persuaded to support the proposal, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) opened in the summer of 1895.
By the later 1890s Shaw's political activities lessened as he concentrated on making his name as a dramatist. In 1897 he was persuaded to fill an uncontested vacancy for a "vestryman" (parish councillor) in London's St Pancras district. At least initially, Shaw took to his municipal responsibilities seriously; when London government was reformed in 1899 and the St Pancras vestry became the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, he was elected to the newly formed borough council.
In 1898, as a result of overwork, Shaw's health broke down. He was nursed by Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a rich Anglo-Irish woman whom he had met through the Webbs. The previous year she had proposed that she and Shaw should marry. He had declined, but when she insisted on nursing him in a house in the country, Shaw, concerned that this might cause scandal, agreed to their marriage. The ceremony took place on 1 June 1898, in the register office in Covent Garden. The bride and bridegroom were both aged forty-one. In the view of the biographer and critic St John Ervine, "their life together was entirely felicitous". There were no children of the marriage, which it is generally believed was never consummated; whether this was wholly at Charlotte's wish, as Shaw liked to suggest, is less widely credited. In the early weeks of the marriage Shaw was much occupied writing his Marxist analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, published as The Perfect Wagnerite late in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws found a country home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire; they renamed the house "Shaw's Corner", and lived there for the rest of their lives. They retained a London flat in the Adelphi and later at Whitehall Court.
Stage success: 1900–1914
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Shaw secured a firm reputation as a playwright. In 1904 J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker established a company at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, Chelsea to present modern drama. Over the next five years they staged fourteen of Shaw's plays. The first, John Bull's Other Island, a comedy about an Englishman in Ireland, attracted leading politicians and was seen by Edward VII, who laughed so much that he broke his chair. The play was withheld from Dublin's Abbey Theatre, for fear of the affront it might provoke, although it was shown at the city's Royal Theatre in November 1907. Shaw later wrote that William Butler Yeats, who had requested the play, "got rather more than he bargained for... It was uncongenial to the whole spirit of the neo-Gaelic movement, which is bent on creating a new Ireland after its own ideal, whereas my play is a very uncompromising presentment of the real old Ireland." Nonetheless, Shaw and Yeats were close friends; Yeats and Lady Gregory tried unsuccessfully to persuade Shaw to take up the vacant co-directorship of the Abbey Theatre after J. M. Synge's death in 1909. Shaw admired other figures in the Irish Literary Revival, including George Russell and James Joyce, and was a close friend of Seán O'Casey, who was inspired to become a playwright after reading John Bull's Other Island.
Man and Superman, completed in 1902, was a success both at the Royal Court in 1905 and in Robert Loraine's New York production in the same year. Among the other Shaw works presented by Vedrenne and Granville-Barker were Major Barbara (1905), depicting the contrasting morality of arms manufacturers and the Salvation Army; The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a mostly serious piece about professional ethics; and Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw's counterblast to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, seen in New York in 1906 and in London the following year.
Now prosperous and established, Shaw experimented with unorthodox theatrical forms described by his biographer Stanley Weintraub as "discussion drama" and "serious farce". These plays included Getting Married (premiered 1908), The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1909), Misalliance (1910), and Fanny's First Play (1911). Blanco Posnet was banned on religious grounds by the Lord Chamberlain (the official theatre censor in England), and was produced instead in Dublin; it filled the Abbey Theatre to capacity. Fanny's First Play, a comedy about suffragettes, had the longest initial run of any Shaw play—622 performances.
Androcles and the Lion (1912), a less heretical study of true and false religious attitudes than Blanco Posnet, ran for eight weeks in September and October 1913. It was followed by one of Shaw's most successful plays, Pygmalion, written in 1912 and staged in Vienna the following year, and in Berlin shortly afterwards. Shaw commented, "It is the custom of the English press when a play of mine is produced, to inform the world that it is not a play—that it is dull, blasphemous, unpopular, and financially unsuccessful. ... Hence arose an urgent demand on the part of the managers of Vienna and Berlin that I should have my plays performed by them first." The British production opened in April 1914, starring Sir Herbert Tree and Mrs Patrick Campbell as, respectively, a professor of phonetics and a cockney flower-girl. There had earlier been a romantic liaison between Shaw and Campbell that caused Charlotte Shaw considerable concern, but by the time of the London premiere it had ended. The play attracted capacity audiences until July, when Tree insisted on going on holiday, and the production closed. His co-star then toured with the piece in the US.
Fabian years: 1900–1913
In 1899, when the Boer War began, Shaw wished the Fabians to take a neutral stance on what he deemed, like Home Rule, to be a "non-Socialist" issue. Others, including the future Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, wanted unequivocal opposition, and resigned from the society when it followed Shaw. In the Fabians' war manifesto, Fabianism and the Empire (1900), Shaw declared that "until the Federation of the World becomes an accomplished fact we must accept the most responsible Imperial federations available as a substitute for it".
As the new century began, Shaw became increasingly disillusioned by the limited impact of the Fabians on national politics. Thus, although a nominated Fabian delegate, he did not attend the London conference at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street in February 1900, that created the Labour Representation Committee—precursor of the modern Labour Party. By 1903, when his term as borough councillor expired, he had lost his earlier enthusiasm, writing: "After six years of Borough Councilling I am convinced that the borough councils should be abolished". Nevertheless, in 1904 he stood in the London County Council elections. After an eccentric campaign, which Holroyd characterises as "[making] absolutely certain of not getting in", he was duly defeated. It was Shaw's final foray into electoral politics. Nationally, the 1906 general election produced a huge Liberal majority and an intake of 29 Labour members. Shaw viewed this outcome with scepticism; he had a low opinion of the new prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and saw the Labour members as inconsequential: "I apologise to the Universe for my connection with such a body".
In the years after the 1906 election, Shaw felt that the Fabians needed fresh leadership, and saw this in the form of his fellow-writer H. G. Wells, who had joined the society in February 1903. Wells's ideas for reform—particularly his proposals for closer cooperation with the Independent Labour Party—placed him at odds with the society's "Old Gang", led by Shaw. According to Cole, Wells "had minimal capacity for putting [his ideas] across in public meetings against Shaw's trained and practised virtuosity". In Shaw's view, "the Old Gang did not extinguish Mr Wells, he annihilated himself". Wells resigned from the society in September 1908; Shaw remained a member, but left the executive in April 1911. He later wondered whether the Old Gang should have given way to Wells some years earlier: "God only knows whether the Society had not better have done it". Although less active—he blamed his advancing years—Shaw remained a Fabian.
In 1912 Shaw invested £1,000 for a one-fifth share in the Webbs' new publishing venture, a socialist weekly magazine called The New Statesman, which appeared in April 1913. He became a founding director, publicist, and in due course a contributor, mostly anonymously. He was soon at odds with the magazine's editor, Clifford Sharp, who by 1916 was rejecting his contributions—"the only paper in the world that refuses to print anything by me", according to Shaw.
First World War
After the First World War began in August 1914, Shaw produced his tract Common Sense About the War, which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable. Such a view was anathema in an atmosphere of fervent patriotism, and offended many of Shaw's friends; Ervine records that "[h]is appearance at any public function caused the instant departure of many of those present."
Despite his errant reputation, Shaw's propagandist skills were recognised by the British authorities, and early in 1917 he was invited by Field Marshal Haig to visit the Western Front battlefields. Shaw's 10,000-word report, which emphasised the human aspects of the soldier's life, was well received, and he became less of a lone voice. In April 1917 he joined the national consensus in welcoming America's entry into the war: "a first class moral asset to the common cause against junkerism".
Three short plays by Shaw were premiered during the war. The Inca of Perusalem, written in 1915, encountered problems with the censor for burlesquing not only the enemy but the British military command; it was performed in 1916 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. O'Flaherty V.C., satirising the government's attitude to Irish recruits, was banned in the UK and was presented at a Royal Flying Corps base in Belgium in 1917. Augustus Does His Bit, a genial farce, was granted a licence; it opened at the Royal Court in January 1917.
Ireland
Shaw had long supported the principle of Irish Home Rule within the British Empire (which he thought should become the British Commonwealth).
In April 1916 he wrote scathingly in The New York Times about militant Irish nationalism: "In point of learning nothing and forgetting nothing these fellow-patriots of mine leave the Bourbons nowhere." Total independence, he asserted, was impractical; alliance with a bigger power (preferably England) was essential. The Dublin Easter Rising later that month took him by surprise. After its suppression by British forces, he expressed horror at the summary execution of the rebel leaders, but continued to believe in some form of Anglo-Irish union. In How to Settle the Irish Question (1917), he envisaged a federal arrangement, with national and imperial parliaments. Holroyd records that by this time the separatist party Sinn Féin was in the ascendency, and Shaw's and other moderate schemes were forgotten.
In the postwar period, Shaw despaired of the British government's coercive policies towards Ireland, and joined his fellow-writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton in publicly condemning these actions. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to the partition of Ireland between north and south, a provision that dismayed Shaw. In 1922 civil war broke out in the south between its pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions, the former of whom had established the Irish Free State. Shaw visited Dublin in August, and met Michael Collins, then head of the Free State's Provisional Government. Shaw was much impressed by Collins, and was saddened when, three days later, the Irish leader was ambushed and killed by anti-treaty forces. In a letter to Collins's sister, Shaw wrote: "I met Michael for the first and last time on Saturday last, and am very glad I did. I rejoice in his memory, and will not be so disloyal to it as to snivel over his valiant death". Shaw remained a British subject all his life, but took dual British-Irish nationality in 1934.
1920s
Shaw's first major work to appear after the war was Heartbreak House, written in 1916–17 and performed in 1920. It was produced on Broadway in November, and was coolly received; according to The Times: "Mr Shaw on this occasion has more than usual to say and takes twice as long as usual to say it". After the London premiere in October 1921 The Times concurred with the American critics: "As usual with Mr Shaw, the play is about an hour too long", although containing "much entertainment and some profitable reflection". Ervine in The Observer thought the play brilliant but ponderously acted, except for Edith Evans as Lady Utterword.
Shaw's largest-scale theatrical work was Back to Methuselah, written in 1918–20 and staged in 1922. Weintraub describes it as "Shaw's attempt to fend off 'the bottomless pit of an utterly discouraging pessimism'". This cycle of five interrelated plays depicts evolution, and the effects of longevity, from the Garden of Eden to the year 31,920 AD. Critics found the five plays strikingly uneven in quality and invention. The original run was brief, and the work has been revived infrequently. Shaw felt he had exhausted his remaining creative powers in the huge span of this "Metabiological Pentateuch". He was now sixty-seven, and expected to write no more plays.
This mood was short-lived. In 1920 Joan of Arc was proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict XV; Shaw had long found Joan an interesting historical character, and his view of her veered between "half-witted genius" and someone of "exceptional sanity". He had considered writing a play about her in 1913, and the canonisation prompted him to return to the subject. He wrote Saint Joan in the middle months of 1923, and the play was premiered on Broadway in December. It was enthusiastically received there, and at its London premiere the following March. In Weintraub's phrase, "even the Nobel prize committee could no longer ignore Shaw after Saint Joan". The citation for the literature prize for 1925 praised his work as "... marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty". He accepted the award, but rejected the monetary prize that went with it, on the grounds that "My readers and my audiences provide me with more than sufficient money for my needs".
After Saint Joan, it was five years before Shaw wrote a play. From 1924, he spent four years writing what he described as his "magnum opus", a political treatise entitled The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. The book was published in 1928 and sold well. At the end of the decade Shaw produced his final Fabian tract, a commentary on the League of Nations. He described the League as "a school for the new international statesmanship as against the old Foreign Office diplomacy", but thought that it had not yet become the "Federation of the World".
Shaw returned to the theatre with what he called "a political extravaganza", The Apple Cart, written in late 1928. It was, in Ervine's view, unexpectedly popular, taking a conservative, monarchist, anti-democratic line that appealed to contemporary audiences. The premiere was in Warsaw in June 1928, and the first British production was two months later, at Sir Barry Jackson's inaugural Malvern Festival. The other eminent creative artist most closely associated with the festival was Sir Edward Elgar, with whom Shaw enjoyed a deep friendship and mutual regard. He described The Apple Cart to Elgar as "a scandalous Aristophanic burlesque of democratic politics, with a brief but shocking sex interlude".
During the 1920s Shaw began to lose faith in the idea that society could be changed through Fabian gradualism, and became increasingly fascinated with dictatorial methods. In 1922 he had welcomed Mussolini's accession to power in Italy, observing that amid the "indiscipline and muddle and Parliamentary deadlock", Mussolini was "the right kind of tyrant". Shaw was prepared to tolerate certain dictatorial excesses; Weintraub in his ODNB biographical sketch comments that Shaw's "flirtation with authoritarian inter-war regimes" took a long time to fade, and Beatrice Webb thought he was "obsessed" about Mussolini.
1930s
Shaw's enthusiasm for the Soviet Union dated to the early 1920s when he had hailed Lenin as "the one really interesting statesman in Europe". Having turned down several chances to visit, in 1931 he joined a party led by Nancy Astor. The carefully managed trip culminated in a lengthy meeting with Stalin, whom Shaw later described as "a Georgian gentleman" with no malice in him. At a dinner given in his honour, Shaw told the gathering: "I have seen all the 'terrors' and I was terribly pleased by them". In March 1933 Shaw was a co-signatory to a letter in The Manchester Guardian protesting at the continuing misrepresentation of Soviet achievements: "No lie is too fantastic, no slander is too stale ... for employment by the more reckless elements of the British press."
Shaw's admiration for Mussolini and Stalin demonstrated his growing belief that dictatorship was the only viable political arrangement. When the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in January 1933, Shaw described Hitler as "a very remarkable man, a very able man", and professed himself proud to be the only writer in England who was "scrupulously polite and just to Hitler". His principal admiration was for Stalin, whose regime he championed uncritically throughout the decade. Shaw saw the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as a triumph for Stalin who, he said, now had Hitler under his thumb.
Shaw's first play of the decade was Too True to be Good, written in 1931 and premiered in Boston in February 1932. The reception was unenthusiastic. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times commenting that Shaw had "yielded to the impulse to write without having a subject", judged the play a "rambling and indifferently tedious conversation". The correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune said that most of the play was "discourse, unbelievably long lectures" and that although the audience enjoyed the play it was bewildered by it.
During the decade Shaw travelled widely and frequently. Most of his journeys were with Charlotte; she enjoyed voyages on ocean liners, and he found peace to write during the long spells at sea. Shaw met an enthusiastic welcome in South Africa in 1932, despite his strong remarks about the racial divisions of the country. In December 1932 the couple embarked on a round-the-world cruise. In March 1933 they arrived at San Francisco, to begin Shaw's first visit to the US. He had earlier refused to go to "that awful country, that uncivilized place", "unfit to govern itself... illiberal, superstitious, crude, violent, anarchic and arbitrary". He visited Hollywood, with which he was unimpressed, and New York, where he lectured to a capacity audience in the Metropolitan Opera House. Harried by the intrusive attentions of the press, Shaw was glad when his ship sailed from New York harbour. New Zealand, which he and Charlotte visited the following year, struck him as "the best country I've been in"; he urged its people to be more confident and loosen their dependence on trade with Britain. He used the weeks at sea to complete two plays—The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and The Six of Calais—and begin work on a third, The Millionairess.
Despite his contempt for Hollywood and its aesthetic values, Shaw was enthusiastic about cinema, and in the middle of the decade wrote screenplays for prospective film versions of Pygmalion and Saint Joan. The latter was never made, but Shaw entrusted the rights to the former to the unknown Gabriel Pascal, who produced it at Pinewood Studios in 1938. Shaw was determined that Hollywood should have nothing to do with the film, but was powerless to prevent it from winning one Academy Award ("Oscar"); he described his award for "best-written screenplay" as an insult, coming from such a source. He became the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. In a 1993 study of the Oscars, Anthony Holden observes that Pygmalion was soon spoken of as having "lifted movie-making from illiteracy to literacy".
Shaw's final plays of the 1930s were Cymbeline Refinished (1936), Geneva (1936) and In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939). The first, a fantasy reworking of Shakespeare, made little impression, but the second, a satire on European dictators, attracted more notice, much of it unfavourable. In particular, Shaw's parody of Hitler as "Herr Battler" was considered mild, almost sympathetic. The third play, an historical conversation piece first seen at Malvern, ran briefly in London in May 1940. James Agate commented that the play contained nothing to which even the most conservative audiences could take exception, and though it was long and lacking in dramatic action only "witless and idle" theatregoers would object. After their first runs none of the three plays were seen again in the West End during Shaw's lifetime.
Towards the end of the decade, both Shaws began to suffer ill health. Charlotte was increasingly incapacitated by Paget's disease of bone, and he developed pernicious anaemia. His treatment, involving injections of concentrated animal liver, was successful, but this breach of his vegetarian creed distressed him and brought down condemnation from militant vegetarians.
Second World War and final years
Although Shaw's works since The Apple Cart had been received without great enthusiasm, his earlier plays were revived in the West End throughout the Second World War, starring such actors as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat. In 1944 nine Shaw plays were staged in London, including Arms and the Man with Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and Margaret Leighton in the leading roles. Two touring companies took his plays all round Britain. The revival in his popularity did not tempt Shaw to write a new play, and he concentrated on prolific journalism. A second Shaw film produced by Pascal, Major Barbara (1941), was less successful both artistically and commercially than Pygmalion, partly because of Pascal's insistence on directing, to which he was unsuited.
Following the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 and the rapid conquest of Poland, Shaw was accused of defeatism when, in a New Statesman article, he declared the war over and demanded a peace conference. Nevertheless, when he became convinced that a negotiated peace was impossible, he publicly urged the neutral United States to join the fight. The London blitz of 1940–41 led the Shaws, both in their mid-eighties, to live full-time at Ayot St Lawrence. Even there they were not immune from enemy air raids, and stayed on occasion with Nancy Astor at her country house, Cliveden. In 1943, the worst of the London bombing over, the Shaws moved back to Whitehall Court, where medical help for Charlotte was more easily arranged. Her condition deteriorated, and she died in September.
Shaw's final political treatise, Everybody's Political What's What, was published in 1944. Holroyd describes this as "a rambling narrative ... that repeats ideas he had given better elsewhere and then repeats itself". The book sold well—85,000 copies by the end of the year. After Hitler's suicide in May 1945, Shaw approved of the formal condolences offered by the Irish Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, at the German embassy in Dublin. Shaw disapproved of the postwar trials of the defeated German leaders, as an act of self-righteousness: "We are all potential criminals".
Pascal was given a third opportunity to film Shaw's work with Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). It cost three times its original budget and was rated "the biggest financial failure in the history of British cinema". The film was poorly received by British critics, although American reviews were friendlier. Shaw thought its lavishness nullified the drama, and he considered the film "a poor imitation of Cecil B. de Mille".
In 1946, the year of Shaw's ninetieth birthday, he accepted the freedom of Dublin and became the first honorary freeman of the borough of St Pancras, London. In the same year the British government asked Shaw informally whether he would accept the Order of Merit. He declined, believing that an author's merit could only be determined by the posthumous verdict of history. 1946 saw the publication, as The Crime of Imprisonment, of the preface Shaw had written 20 years previously to a study of prison conditions. It was widely praised; a reviewer in the American Journal of Public Health considered it essential reading for any student of the American criminal justice system.
Shaw continued to write into his nineties. His last plays were Buoyant Billions (1947), his final full-length work; Farfetched Fables (1948) a set of six short plays revisiting several of his earlier themes such as evolution; a comic play for puppets, Shakes versus Shav (1949), a ten-minute piece in which Shakespeare and Shaw trade insults; and Why She Would Not (1950), which Shaw described as "a little comedy", written in one week shortly before his ninety-fourth birthday.
During his later years, Shaw enjoyed tending the gardens at Shaw's Corner. He died at the age of ninety-four of renal failure precipitated by injuries incurred when falling while pruning a tree. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 6 November 1950. His ashes, mixed with those of Charlotte, were scattered along footpaths and around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden.
Works
Plays
Shaw published a collected edition of his plays in 1934, comprising forty-two works. He wrote a further twelve in the remaining sixteen years of his life, mostly one-act pieces. Including eight earlier plays that he chose to omit from his published works, the total is sixty-two.
Early works
Shaw's first three full-length plays dealt with social issues. He later grouped them as "Plays Unpleasant". Widowers' Houses (1892) concerns the landlords of slum properties, and introduces the first of Shaw's New Women—a recurring feature of later plays. The Philanderer (1893) develops the theme of the New Woman, draws on Ibsen, and has elements of Shaw's personal relationships, the character of Julia being based on Jenny Patterson. In a 2003 study Judith Evans describes Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) as "undoubtedly the most challenging" of the three Plays Unpleasant, taking Mrs Warren's profession—prostitute and, later, brothel-owner—as a metaphor for a prostituted society.
Shaw followed the first trilogy with a second, published as "Plays Pleasant". Arms and the Man (1894) conceals beneath a mock-Ruritanian comic romance a Fabian parable contrasting impractical idealism with pragmatic socialism. The central theme of Candida (1894) is a woman's choice between two men; the play contrasts the outlook and aspirations of a Christian Socialist and a poetic idealist. The third of the Pleasant group, You Never Can Tell (1896), portrays social mobility, and the gap between generations, particularly in how they approach social relations in general and mating in particular.
The "Three Plays for Puritans"—comprising The Devil's Disciple (1896), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899)—all centre on questions of empire and imperialism, a major topic of political discourse in the 1890s. The three are set, respectively, in 1770s America, Ancient Egypt, and 1890s Morocco. The Gadfly, an adaptation of the popular novel by Ethel Voynich, was unfinished and unperformed. The Man of Destiny (1895) is a short curtain raiser about Napoleon.
1900–1909
Shaw's major plays of the first decade of the twentieth century address individual social, political or ethical issues. Man and Superman (1902) stands apart from the others in both its subject and its treatment, giving Shaw's interpretation of creative evolution in a combination of drama and associated printed text. The Admirable Bashville (1901), a blank verse dramatisation of Shaw's novel Cashel Byron's Profession, focuses on the imperial relationship between Britain and Africa. John Bull's Other Island (1904), comically depicting the prevailing relationship between Britain and Ireland, was popular at the time but fell out of the general repertoire in later years. Major Barbara (1905) presents ethical questions in an unconventional way, confounding expectations that in the depiction of an armaments manufacturer on the one hand and the Salvation Army on the other the moral high ground must invariably be held by the latter. The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a play about medical ethics and moral choices in allocating scarce treatment, was described by Shaw as a tragedy. With a reputation for presenting characters who did not resemble real flesh and blood, he was challenged by Archer to present an on-stage death, and here did so, with a deathbed scene for the anti-hero.
Getting Married (1908) and Misalliance (1909)—the latter seen by Judith Evans as a companion piece to the former—are both in what Shaw called his "disquisitionary" vein, with the emphasis on discussion of ideas rather than on dramatic events or vivid characterisation. Shaw wrote seven short plays during the decade; they are all comedies, ranging from the deliberately absurd Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction (1905) to the satirical Press Cuttings (1909).
1910–1919
In the decade from 1910 to the aftermath of the First World War Shaw wrote four full-length plays, the third and fourth of which are among his most frequently staged works. Fanny's First Play (1911) continues his earlier examinations of middle-class British society from a Fabian viewpoint, with additional touches of melodrama and an epilogue in which theatre critics discuss the play. Androcles and the Lion (1912), which Shaw began writing as a play for children, became a study of the nature of religion and how to put Christian precepts into practice. Pygmalion (1912) is a Shavian study of language and speech and their importance in society and in personal relationships. To correct the impression left by the original performers that the play portrayed a romantic relationship between the two main characters Shaw rewrote the ending to make it clear that the heroine will marry another, minor character. Shaw's only full-length play from the war years is Heartbreak House (1917), which in his words depicts "cultured, leisured Europe before the war" drifting towards disaster. Shaw named Shakespeare (King Lear) and Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard) as important influences on the piece, and critics have found elements drawing on Congreve (The Way of the World) and Ibsen (The Master Builder).
The short plays range from genial historical drama in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and Great Catherine (1910 and 1913) to a study of polygamy in Overruled; three satirical works about the war (The Inca of Perusalem, O'Flaherty V.C. and Augustus Does His Bit, 1915–16); a piece that Shaw called "utter nonsense" (The Music Cure, 1914) and a brief sketch about a "Bolshevik empress" (Annajanska, 1917).
1920–1950
Saint Joan (1923) drew widespread praise both for Shaw and for Sybil Thorndike, for whom he wrote the title role and who created the part in Britain. In the view of the commentator Nicholas Grene, Shaw's Joan, a "no-nonsense mystic, Protestant and nationalist before her time" is among the 20th century's classic leading female roles. The Apple Cart (1929) was Shaw's last popular success. He gave both that play and its successor, Too True to Be Good (1931), the subtitle "A political extravaganza", although the two works differ greatly in their themes; the first presents the politics of a nation (with a brief royal love-scene as an interlude) and the second, in Judith Evans's words, "is concerned with the social mores of the individual, and is nebulous." Shaw's plays of the 1930s were written in the shadow of worsening national and international political events. Once again, with On the Rocks (1933) and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934), a political comedy with a clear plot was followed by an introspective drama. The first play portrays a British prime minister considering, but finally rejecting, the establishment of a dictatorship; the second is concerned with polygamy and eugenics and ends with the Day of Judgement.
The Millionairess (1934) is a farcical depiction of the commercial and social affairs of a successful businesswoman. Geneva (1936) lampoons the feebleness of the League of Nations compared with the dictators of Europe. In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939), described by Weintraub as a warm, discursive high comedy, also depicts authoritarianism, but less satirically than Geneva. As in earlier decades, the shorter plays were generally comedies, some historical and others addressing various political and social preoccupations of the author. Ervine writes of Shaw's later work that although it was still "astonishingly vigorous and vivacious" it showed unmistakable signs of his age. "The best of his work in this period, however, was full of wisdom and the beauty of mind often displayed by old men who keep their wits about them."
Music and drama reviews
Music
Shaw's collected musical criticism, published in three volumes, runs to more than 2,700 pages. It covers the British musical scene from 1876 to 1950, but the core of the collection dates from his six years as music critic of The Star and The World in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In his view music criticism should be interesting to everyone rather than just the musical élite, and he wrote for the non-specialist, avoiding technical jargon—"Mesopotamian words like 'the dominant of D major'". He was fiercely partisan in his columns, promoting the music of Wagner and decrying that of Brahms and those British composers such as Stanford and Parry whom he saw as Brahmsian. He campaigned against the prevailing fashion for performances of Handel oratorios with huge amateur choirs and inflated orchestration, calling for "a chorus of twenty capable artists". He railed against opera productions unrealistically staged or sung in languages the audience did not speak.
Drama
In Shaw's view, the London theatres of the 1890s presented too many revivals of old plays and not enough new work. He campaigned against "melodrama, sentimentality, stereotypes and worn-out conventions". As a music critic he had frequently been able to concentrate on analysing new works, but in the theatre he was often obliged to fall back on discussing how various performers tackled well-known plays. In a study of Shaw's work as a theatre critic, E. J. West writes that Shaw "ceaselessly compared and contrasted artists in interpretation and in technique". Shaw contributed more than 150 articles as theatre critic for The Saturday Review, in which he assessed more than 212 productions. He championed Ibsen's plays when many theatregoers regarded them as outrageous, and his 1891 book Quintessence of Ibsenism remained a classic throughout the twentieth century. Of contemporary dramatists writing for the West End stage he rated Oscar Wilde above the rest: "... our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theatre". Shaw's collected criticisms were published as Our Theatres in the Nineties in 1932.
Shaw maintained a provocative and frequently self-contradictory attitude to Shakespeare (whose name he insisted on spelling "Shakespear"). Many found him difficult to take seriously on the subject; Duff Cooper observed that by attacking Shakespeare, "it is Shaw who appears a ridiculous pigmy shaking his fist at a mountain." Shaw was, nevertheless, a knowledgeable Shakespearian, and in an article in which he wrote, "With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind against his," he also said, "But I am bound to add that I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespear. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers, and will outlast a thousand more". Shaw had two regular targets for his more extreme comments about Shakespeare: undiscriminating "Bardolaters", and actors and directors who presented insensitively cut texts in over-elaborate productions. He was continually drawn back to Shakespeare, and wrote three plays with Shakespearean themes: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Cymbeline Refinished and Shakes versus Shav. In a 2001 analysis of Shaw's Shakespearian criticisms, Robert Pierce concludes that Shaw, who was no academic, saw Shakespeare's plays—like all theatre—from an author's practical point of view: "Shaw helps us to get away from the Romantics' picture of Shakespeare as a titanic genius, one whose art cannot be analyzed or connected with the mundane considerations of theatrical conditions and profit and loss, or with a specific staging and cast of actors."
Political and social writings
Shaw's political and social commentaries were published variously in Fabian tracts, in essays, in two full-length books, in innumerable newspaper and journal articles and in prefaces to his plays. The majority of Shaw's Fabian tracts were published anonymously, representing the voice of the society rather than of Shaw, although the society's secretary Edward Pease later confirmed Shaw's authorship. According to Holroyd, the business of the early Fabians, mainly under the influence of Shaw, was to "alter history by rewriting it". Shaw's talent as a pamphleteer was put to immediate use in the production of the society's manifesto—after which, says Holroyd, he was never again so succinct.
After the turn of the twentieth century, Shaw increasingly propagated his ideas through the medium of his plays. An early critic, writing in 1904, observed that Shaw's dramas provided "a pleasant means" of proselytising his socialism, adding that "Mr Shaw's views are to be sought especially in the prefaces to his plays". After loosening his ties with the Fabian movement in 1911, Shaw's writings were more personal and often provocative; his response to the furore following the issue of Common Sense About the War in 1914, was to prepare a sequel, More Common Sense About the War. In this, he denounced the pacifist line espoused by Ramsay MacDonald and other socialist leaders, and proclaimed his readiness to shoot all pacifists rather than cede them power and influence. On the advice of Beatrice Webb, this pamphlet remained unpublished.
The Intelligent Woman's Guide, Shaw's main political treatise of the 1920s, attracted both admiration and criticism. MacDonald considered it the world's most important book since the Bible; Harold Laski thought its arguments outdated and lacking in concern for individual freedoms. Shaw's increasing flirtation with dictatorial methods is evident in many of his subsequent pronouncements. A New York Times report dated 10 December 1933 quoted a recent Fabian Society lecture in which Shaw had praised Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin: "[T]hey are trying to get something done, [and] are adopting methods by which it is possible to get something done". As late as the Second World War, in Everybody's Political What's What, Shaw blamed the Allies' "abuse" of their 1918 victory for the rise of Hitler, and hoped that, after defeat, the Führer would escape retribution "to enjoy a comfortable retirement in Ireland or some other neutral country". These sentiments, according to the Irish philosopher-poet Thomas Duddy, "rendered much of the Shavian outlook passé and contemptible".
"Creative evolution", Shaw's version of the new science of eugenics, became an increasing theme in his political writing after 1900. He introduced his theories in The Revolutionist's Handbook (1903), an appendix to Man and Superman, and developed them further during the 1920s in Back to Methuselah. A 1946 Life magazine article observed that Shaw had "always tended to look at people more as a biologist than as an artist". By 1933, in the preface to On the Rocks, he was writing that "if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it"; critical opinion is divided on whether this was intended as irony. In an article in the American magazine Liberty in September 1938, Shaw included the statement: "There are many people in the world who ought to be liquidated". Many commentators assumed that such comments were intended as a joke, although in the worst possible taste. Otherwise, Life magazine concluded, "this silliness can be classed with his more innocent bad guesses".
Fiction
Shaw's fiction-writing was largely confined to the five unsuccessful novels written in the period 1879–1885. Immaturity (1879) is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of mid-Victorian England, Shaw's "own David Copperfield" according to Weintraub. The Irrational Knot (1880) is a critique of conventional marriage, in which Weintraub finds the characterisations lifeless, "hardly more than animated theories". Shaw was pleased with his third novel, Love Among the Artists (1881), feeling that it marked a turning point in his development as a thinker, although he had no more success with it than with its predecessors. Cashel Byron's Profession (1882) is, says Weintraub, an indictment of society which anticipates Shaw's first full-length play, Mrs Warren's Profession. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s.
Shaw's only subsequent fiction of any substance was his 1932 novella The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, written during a visit to South Africa in 1932. The eponymous girl, intelligent, inquisitive, and converted to Christianity by insubstantial missionary teaching, sets out to find God, on a journey that after many adventures and encounters, leads her to a secular conclusion. The story, on publication, offended some Christians and was banned in Ireland by the Board of Censors.
Letters and diaries
Shaw was a prolific correspondent throughout his life. His letters, edited by Dan H. Laurence, were published between 1965 and 1988. Shaw once estimated his letters would occupy twenty volumes; Laurence commented that, unedited, they would fill many more. Shaw wrote more than a quarter of a million letters, of which about ten per cent have survived; 2,653 letters are printed in Laurence's four volumes. Among Shaw's many regular correspondents were his childhood friend Edward McNulty; his theatrical colleagues (and amitiés amoureuses) Mrs Patrick Campbell and Ellen Terry; writers including Lord Alfred Douglas, H. G. Wells and G. K. Chesterton; the boxer Gene Tunney; the nun Laurentia McLachlan; and the art expert Sydney Cockerell. In 2007 a 316-page volume consisting entirely of Shaw's letters to The Times was published.
Shaw's diaries for 1885–1897, edited by Weintraub, were published in two volumes, with a total of 1,241 pages, in 1986. Reviewing them, the Shaw scholar Fred Crawford wrote: "Although the primary interest for Shavians is the material that supplements what we already know about Shaw's life and work, the diaries are also valuable as a historical and sociological document of English life at the end of the Victorian age." After 1897, pressure of other writing led Shaw to give up keeping a diary.
Miscellaneous and autobiographical
Through his journalism, pamphlets and occasional longer works, Shaw wrote on many subjects. His range of interest and enquiry included vivisection, vegetarianism, religion, language, cinema and photography, on all of which he wrote and spoke copiously. Collections of his writings on these and other subjects were published, mainly after his death, together with volumes of "wit and wisdom" and general journalism.
Despite the many books written about him (Holroyd counts 80 by 1939) Shaw's autobiographical output, apart from his diaries, was relatively slight. He gave interviews to newspapers—"GBS Confesses", to The Daily Mail in 1904 is an example—and provided sketches to would-be biographers whose work was rejected by Shaw and never published. In 1939 Shaw drew on these materials to produce Shaw Gives Himself Away, a miscellany which, a year before his death, he revised and republished as Sixteen Self Sketches (there were seventeen). He made it clear to his publishers that this slim book was in no sense a full autobiography.
Beliefs and opinions
Throughout his lifetime Shaw professed many beliefs, often contradictory. This inconsistency was partly an intentional provocation—the Spanish scholar-statesman Salvador de Madariaga describes Shaw as "a pole of negative electricity set in a people of positive electricity". In one area at least Shaw was constant: in his lifelong refusal to follow normal English forms of spelling and punctuation. He favoured archaic spellings such as "shew" for "show"; he dropped the "u" in words like "honour" and "favour"; and wherever possible he rejected the apostrophe in contractions such as "won't" or "that's". In his will, Shaw ordered that, after some specified legacies, his remaining assets were to form a trust to pay for fundamental reform of the English alphabet into a phonetic version of forty letters. Though Shaw's intentions were clear, his drafting was flawed, and the courts initially ruled the intended trust void. A later out-of-court agreement provided a sum of £8,300 for spelling reform; the bulk of his fortune went to the residuary legatees—the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the National Gallery of Ireland. Most of the £8,300 went on a special phonetic edition of Androcles and the Lion in the Shavian alphabet, published in 1962 to a largely indifferent reception.
Shaw's views on religion and Christianity were less consistent. Having in his youth proclaimed himself an atheist, in middle age he explained this as a reaction against the Old Testament image of a vengeful Jehovah. By the early twentieth century, he termed himself a "mystic", although Gary Sloan, in an essay on Shaw's beliefs, disputes his credentials as such. In 1913 Shaw declared that he was not religious "in the sectarian sense", aligning himself with Jesus as "a person of no religion". In the preface (1915) to Androcles and the Lion, Shaw asks "Why not give Christianity a chance?" contending that Britain's social order resulted from the continuing choice of Barabbas over Christ. In a broadcast just before the Second World War, Shaw invoked the Sermon on the Mount, "a very moving exhortation, and it gives you one first-rate tip, which is to do good to those who despitefully use you and persecute you". In his will, Shaw stated that his "religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative revolution". He requested that no one should imply that he accepted the beliefs of any specific religious organisation, and that no memorial to him should "take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice".
Shaw espoused racial equality, and inter-marriage between people of different races. Despite his expressed wish to be fair to Hitler, he called anti-Semitism "the hatred of the lazy, ignorant fat-headed Gentile for the pertinacious Jew who, schooled by adversity to use his brains to the utmost, outdoes him in business". In The Jewish Chronicle he wrote in 1932, "In every country you can find rabid people who have a phobia against Jews, Jesuits, Armenians, Negroes, Freemasons, Irishmen, or simply foreigners as such. Political parties are not above exploiting these fears and jealousies."
In 1903 Shaw joined in a controversy about vaccination against smallpox. He called vaccination "a peculiarly filthy piece of witchcraft"; in his view immunisation campaigns were a cheap and inadequate substitute for a decent programme of housing for the poor, which would, he declared, be the means of eradicating smallpox and other infectious diseases. Less contentiously, Shaw was keenly interested in transport; Laurence observed in 1992 a need for a published study of Shaw's interest in "bicycling, motorbikes, automobiles, and planes, climaxing in his joining the Interplanetary Society in his nineties". Shaw published articles on travel, took photographs of his journeys, and submitted notes to the Royal Automobile Club.
Shaw strove throughout his adult life to be referred to as "Bernard Shaw" rather than "George Bernard Shaw", but confused matters by continuing to use his full initials—G.B.S.—as a by-line, and often signed himself "G.Bernard Shaw". He left instructions in his will that his executor (the Public Trustee) was to license publication of his works only under the name Bernard Shaw. Shaw scholars including Ervine, Judith Evans, Holroyd, Laurence and Weintraub, and many publishers have respected Shaw's preference, although the Cambridge University Press was among the exceptions with its 1988 Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw.
Legacy and influence
Theatrical
Shaw did not found a school of dramatists as such, but Crawford asserts that today "we recognise [him] as second only to Shakespeare in the British theatrical tradition ... the proponent of the theater of ideas" who struck a death-blow to 19th-century melodrama. According to Laurence, Shaw pioneered "intelligent" theatre, in which the audience was required to think, thereby paving the way for the new breeds of twentieth-century playwrights from Galsworthy to Pinter.
Crawford lists numerous playwrights whose work owes something to that of Shaw. Among those active in Shaw's lifetime he includes Noël Coward, who based his early comedy The Young Idea on You Never Can Tell and continued to draw on the older man's works in later plays. T. S. Eliot, by no means an admirer of Shaw, admitted that the epilogue of Murder in the Cathedral, in which Becket's slayers explain their actions to the audience, might have been influenced by Saint Joan. The critic Eric Bentley comments that Eliot's later play The Confidential Clerk "had all the earmarks of Shavianism ... without the merits of the real Bernard Shaw". Among more recent British dramatists, Crawford marks Tom Stoppard as "the most Shavian of contemporary playwrights"; Shaw's "serious farce" is continued in the works of Stoppard's contemporaries Alan Ayckbourn, Henry Livings and Peter Nichols.
Shaw's influence crossed the Atlantic at an early stage. Bernard Dukore notes that he was successful as a dramatist in America ten years before achieving comparable success in Britain. Among many American writers professing a direct debt to Shaw, Eugene O'Neill became an admirer at the age of seventeen, after reading The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Other Shaw-influenced American playwrights mentioned by Dukore are Elmer Rice, for whom Shaw "opened doors, turned on lights, and expanded horizons"; William Saroyan, who empathised with Shaw as "the embattled individualist against the philistines"; and S. N. Behrman, who was inspired to write for the theatre after attending a performance of Caesar and Cleopatra: "I thought it would be agreeable to write plays like that".
Assessing Shaw's reputation in a 1976 critical study, T. F. Evans described Shaw as unchallenged in his lifetime and since as the leading English-language dramatist of the (twentieth) century, and as a master of prose style. The following year, in a contrary assessment, the playwright John Osborne castigated The Guardians theatre critic Michael Billington for referring to Shaw as "the greatest British dramatist since Shakespeare". Osborne responded that Shaw "is the most fraudulent, inept writer of Victorian melodramas ever to gull a timid critic or fool a dull public". Despite this hostility, Crawford sees the influence of Shaw in some of Osborne's plays, and concludes that though the latter's work is neither imitative nor derivative, these affinities are sufficient to classify Osborne as an inheritor of Shaw.
In a 1983 study, R. J. Kaufmann suggests that Shaw was a key forerunner—"godfather, if not actually finicky paterfamilias"—of the Theatre of the Absurd. Two further aspects of Shaw's theatrical legacy are noted by Crawford: his opposition to stage censorship, which was finally ended in 1968, and his efforts which extended over many years to establish a National Theatre. Shaw's short 1910 play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare pleads with Queen Elizabeth I for the endowment of a state theatre, was part of this campaign.
Writing in The New Statesman in 2012 Daniel Janes commented that Shaw's reputation had declined by the time of his 150th anniversary in 2006 but had recovered considerably. In Janes's view, the many current revivals of Shaw's major works showed the playwright's "almost unlimited relevance to our times". In the same year, Mark Lawson wrote in The Guardian that Shaw's moral concerns engaged present-day audiences, and made him—like his model, Ibsen—one of the most popular playwrights in contemporary British theatre.
The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. It produces plays by or written during the lifetime of Shaw as well as some contemporary works. The Gingold Theatrical Group, founded in 2006, presents works by Shaw and others in New York City that feature the humanitarian ideals that his work promoted. It became the first theatre group to present all of Shaw's stage work through its monthly concert series Project Shaw.
General
In the 1940s the author Harold Nicolson advised the National Trust not to accept the bequest of Shaw's Corner, predicting that Shaw would be totally forgotten within fifty years. In the event, Shaw's broad cultural legacy, embodied in the widely used term "Shavian", has endured and is nurtured by Shaw Societies in various parts of the world. The original society was founded in London in 1941 and survives; it organises meetings and events, and publishes a regular bulletin The Shavian. The Shaw Society of America began in June 1950; it foundered in the 1970s but its journal, adopted by Penn State University Press, continued to be published as Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies until 2004. A second American organisation, founded in 1951 as "The Bernard Shaw Society", remains active . More recent societies have been established in Japan and India.
Besides his collected music criticism, Shaw has left a varied musical legacy, not all of it of his choosing. Despite his dislike of having his work adapted for the musical theatre ("my plays set themselves to a verbal music of their own") two of his plays were turned into musical comedies: Arms and the Man was the basis of The Chocolate Soldier in 1908, with music by Oscar Straus, and Pygmalion was adapted in 1956 as My Fair Lady with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Although he had a high regard for Elgar, Shaw turned down the composer's request for an opera libretto, but played a major part in persuading the BBC to commission Elgar's Third Symphony, and was the dedicatee of The Severn Suite (1930).
The substance of Shaw's political legacy is uncertain. In 1921 Shaw's erstwhile collaborator William Archer, in a letter to the playwright, wrote: "I doubt if there is any case of a man so widely read, heard, seen, and known as yourself, who has produced so little effect on his generation." Margaret Cole, who considered Shaw the greatest writer of his age, professed never to have understood him. She thought he worked "immensely hard" at politics, but essentially, she surmises, it was for fun—"the fun of a brilliant artist". After Shaw's death, Pearson wrote: "No one since the time of Tom Paine has had so definite an influence on the social and political life of his time and country as Bernard Shaw."
In its obituary tribute to Shaw, The Times Literary Supplement concluded:
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Books
Shaw's writings
Journals
Newspapers
Online
External links
(About 50 ebooks of Shaw's works and some additional Shaw-related material)
(More links to Shaw-related material)
(19 downloads for audiobooks)
Shaw at IBDb.com (Information on Broadway productions, 1894 to present)
(Lists all film and TV versions of Shaw's works since 1921)
Shaw photographs held at LSE Library
International Shaw Society
The Shaw Society, UK, established in 1941
The Bernard Shaw Society, New York
Shaw collection at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin
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People from Portobello, Dublin
Victorian novelists
20th-century British screenwriters
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[
"The Katy series is a set of novels by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, writing under the pen-name of Susan Coolidge. The first in the series, What Katy Did, was published in 1872 and followed the next year by What Katy Did at School. What Katy Did Next was released in 1886. Two further novels, Clover (1888) and In the High Valley (1890), focused upon other members of the eponymous character's family. The series was popular with readers in the late 19th century.\n\nThe series was later adapted into a TV series entitled Katy in 1962, and two films, one also called Katy in 1972 and What Katy Did in 1999.\n\nNovels\n What Katy Did\n What Katy Did at School\n What Katy Did Next\n Clover\n In the High Valley\n\nAdaptions\n Katy (TV series, 1962)\n Katy (film, 1972)\n What Katy Did (film, 1999)\n\nLiterary Criticism\nCritics are divided about how much the series played into period gender norms and often compare the series to Little Women. Foster and Simmons argue for its subversion of gender in their book What Katy Read: Feminist Re-Readings of ‘Classic’ Stories for Girls by suggesting the series “deconstructs family hierarchies”.\n\nInfluence\nThe series is unusual for its time by having an entry which focuses not on the family life at home but at school in What Katy Did at School.\n\nIn a 1995 survey, What Katy Did was voted as one of the top 10 books for 12-year-old girls.\n\nSee also\n\nSarah Chauncey Woolsey\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSeries details at Fantastic Fiction\n\nKaty series\n1870s novels\nNovel series\nSeries of children's books\nNovels by Susan Coolidge\n1880s novels\n1890s novels\n1962 American television series debuts\n1972 films\n1999 films",
"The Book of Lies, is the first fantasy novel by Australian novelist James Moloney, who has written more than thirty books, most of them realistic fiction for children. Published in 2004, the fantasy novel is set in a land known as Elster and tells of the story of the main character, Marcel, after he wakes up in a foundling home with no memory of who he is. His struggle to reclaim his identity, along with close allies Nicola, Bea and Fergus, centres on uncovering the truth from amid a sea of lies, where few people are what they claim to be.\n\nThe Book of Lies was listed as notable in the Younger Readers category of the 2005 Children's Book Council of Australia Awards, and was the winner in its category at the 2005 APA Book Design Awards.\n\nBook two, titled Master of the Books, was released on 1 June 2007 and a third and final novel concluding the series was released on 1 June 2009, called The Book from Baden Dark.\n\nPlot\nA 12-year-old boy wakes up in an orphanage one night with no memory of who he is. The only thing he remembers is his name, Robert.\n\nBut Robert is not his name, and a little girl called Bea knows this. She was there when Lord Alwyn, a once powerful sorcerer, erased all of his memory using the powerful Book of Lies.\n\nHe meets Bea, who tells of his name. His real name is Marcel. He encounters the mighty Fergus and the haughty Nicola during his stay at the orphanage, both of whose memories are nothing more than lies.\n\nOne day a mysterious man called Starkey claims to know the real lives of Nicola, Fergus and Marcel.\n\nUpon meeting his mother, imprisoned by the evil usurper King Pelham, he suddenly is not sure. Is Starkey all that he claims to be? Is his mother his real mother? Is King Pelham really evil, or was that a lie as well? Danger lurks at every corner, and Marcel must stop the most feared Mortregis, beast of war, from rising once again.\n\nExternal links\nHarperCollins page about the book\n\n2004 Australian novels\n2004 fantasy novels\nNovels by James Moloney\nChildren's fantasy novels\nAustralian children's novels\nAustralian fantasy novels\nHarperCollins books\n2004 children's books"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Novelist and critic",
"What types of novels did George Bernard Shaw write?",
"the closest Shaw had ever come to university education.",
"What was the name of one of his novels?",
"G.B.S."
] |
C_aa2ac1f67a034cec846ac6f222b244cc_1
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What did he critique?
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What did George Bernard Shaw critique?
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George Bernard Shaw
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Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty". By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players. In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature. Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw". In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano. On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it--he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals. After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator. From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886-87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions". The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons. The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882-83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886. In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic. Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950. From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence". CANNOTANSWER
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"I had rashly taken up the case;
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George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma and Caesar and Cleopatra.
Shaw's expressed views were often contentious; he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable, and although not a republican, castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success. In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion for which he received an Academy Award. His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by the late 1920s he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism and often wrote and spoke favourably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin. In the final decade of his life he made fewer public statements, but continued to write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged ninety-four, having refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 1946.
Since Shaw's death scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied, but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them.
Life
Early years
Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814–1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (née Gurly; 1830–1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853–1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855–1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty".
By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players.
In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature.
Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw".
In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano.
London
Early in 1876 Shaw learned from his mother that Agnes was dying of tuberculosis. He resigned from the land agents, and in March travelled to England to join his mother and Lucy at Agnes's funeral. He never again lived in Ireland, and did not visit it for twenty-nine years.
Initially, Shaw refused to seek clerical employment in London. His mother allowed him to live free of charge in her house in South Kensington, but he nevertheless needed an income. He had abandoned a teenage ambition to become a painter, and had not yet thought of writing for a living, but Lee found a little work for him, ghost-writing a musical column printed under Lee's name in a satirical weekly, The Hornet. Lee's relations with Bessie deteriorated after their move to London. Shaw maintained contact with Lee, who found him work as a rehearsal pianist and occasional singer.
Eventually Shaw was driven to applying for office jobs. In the interim he secured a reader's pass for the British Museum Reading Room (the forerunner of the British Library) and spent most weekdays there, reading and writing. His first attempt at drama, begun in 1878, was a blank-verse satirical piece on a religious theme. It was abandoned unfinished, as was his first try at a novel. His first completed novel, Immaturity (1879), was too grim to appeal to publishers and did not appear until the 1930s. He was employed briefly by the newly formed Edison Telephone Company in 1879–80, and as in Dublin achieved rapid promotion. Nonetheless, when the Edison firm merged with the rival Bell Telephone Company, Shaw chose not to seek a place in the new organisation. Thereafter he pursued a full-time career as an author.
For the next four years Shaw made a negligible income from writing, and was subsidised by his mother. In 1881, for the sake of economy, and increasingly as a matter of principle, he became a vegetarian. He grew a beard to hide a facial scar left by smallpox. In rapid succession he wrote two more novels: The Irrational Knot (1880) and Love Among the Artists (1881), but neither found a publisher; each was serialised a few years later in the socialist magazine Our Corner.
In 1880 Shaw began attending meetings of the Zetetical Society, whose objective was to "search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race". Here he met Sidney Webb, a junior civil servant who, like Shaw, was busy educating himself. Despite difference of style and temperament, the two quickly recognised qualities in each other and developed a lifelong friendship. Shaw later reflected: "You knew everything that I didn't know and I knew everything you didn't know ... We had everything to learn from one another and brains enough to do it".
Shaw's next attempt at drama was a one-act playlet in French, Un Petit Drame, written in 1884 but not published in his lifetime. In the same year the critic William Archer suggested a collaboration, with a plot by Archer and dialogue by Shaw. The project foundered, but Shaw returned to the draft as the basis of Widowers' Houses in 1892, and the connection with Archer proved of immense value to Shaw's career.
Political awakening: Marxism, socialism, Fabian Society
On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it—he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals.
After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator.
From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886–87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties.
Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions".
Novelist and critic
The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons.
The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882–83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886.
In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic.
Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950.
From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence".
Playwright and politician: 1890s
After using the plot of the aborted 1884 collaboration with Archer to complete Widowers' Houses (it was staged twice in London, in December 1892), Shaw continued writing plays. At first he made slow progress; The Philanderer, written in 1893 but not published until 1898, had to wait until 1905 for a stage production. Similarly, Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) was written five years before publication and nine years before reaching the stage.
Shaw's first play to bring him financial success was Arms and the Man (1894), a mock-Ruritanian comedy satirising conventions of love, military honour and class. The press found the play overlong, and accused Shaw of mediocrity, sneering at heroism and patriotism, heartless cleverness, and copying W.S.Gilbert's style. The public took a different view, and the management of the theatre staged extra matinée performances to meet the demand. The play ran from April to July, toured the provinces and was staged in New York. It earned him £341 in royalties in its first year, a sufficient sum to enable him to give up his salaried post as a music critic. Among the cast of the London production was Florence Farr, with whom Shaw had a romantic relationship between 1890 and 1894, much resented by Jenny Patterson.
The success of Arms and the Man was not immediately replicated. Candida, which presented a young woman making a conventional romantic choice for unconventional reasons, received a single performance in South Shields in 1895; in 1897 a playlet about Napoleon called The Man of Destiny had a single staging at Croydon. In the 1890s Shaw's plays were better known in print than on the West End stage; his biggest success of the decade was in New York in 1897, when Richard Mansfield's production of the historical melodrama The Devil's Disciple earned the author more than £2,000 in royalties.
In January 1893, as a Fabian delegate, Shaw attended the Bradford conference which led to the foundation of the Independent Labour Party. He was sceptical about the new party, and scorned the likelihood that it could switch the allegiance of the working class from sport to politics. He persuaded the conference to adopt resolutions abolishing indirect taxation, and taxing unearned income "to extinction". Back in London, Shaw produced what Margaret Cole, in her Fabian history, terms a "grand philippic" against the minority Liberal administration that had taken power in 1892. To Your Tents, O Israel excoriated the government for ignoring social issues and concentrating solely on Irish Home Rule, a matter Shaw declared of no relevance to socialism. In 1894 the Fabian Society received a substantial bequest from a sympathiser, Henry Hunt Hutchinson—Holroyd mentions £10,000. Webb, who chaired the board of trustees appointed to supervise the legacy, proposed to use most of it to found a school of economics and politics. Shaw demurred; he thought such a venture was contrary to the specified purpose of the legacy. He was eventually persuaded to support the proposal, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) opened in the summer of 1895.
By the later 1890s Shaw's political activities lessened as he concentrated on making his name as a dramatist. In 1897 he was persuaded to fill an uncontested vacancy for a "vestryman" (parish councillor) in London's St Pancras district. At least initially, Shaw took to his municipal responsibilities seriously; when London government was reformed in 1899 and the St Pancras vestry became the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, he was elected to the newly formed borough council.
In 1898, as a result of overwork, Shaw's health broke down. He was nursed by Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a rich Anglo-Irish woman whom he had met through the Webbs. The previous year she had proposed that she and Shaw should marry. He had declined, but when she insisted on nursing him in a house in the country, Shaw, concerned that this might cause scandal, agreed to their marriage. The ceremony took place on 1 June 1898, in the register office in Covent Garden. The bride and bridegroom were both aged forty-one. In the view of the biographer and critic St John Ervine, "their life together was entirely felicitous". There were no children of the marriage, which it is generally believed was never consummated; whether this was wholly at Charlotte's wish, as Shaw liked to suggest, is less widely credited. In the early weeks of the marriage Shaw was much occupied writing his Marxist analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, published as The Perfect Wagnerite late in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws found a country home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire; they renamed the house "Shaw's Corner", and lived there for the rest of their lives. They retained a London flat in the Adelphi and later at Whitehall Court.
Stage success: 1900–1914
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Shaw secured a firm reputation as a playwright. In 1904 J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker established a company at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, Chelsea to present modern drama. Over the next five years they staged fourteen of Shaw's plays. The first, John Bull's Other Island, a comedy about an Englishman in Ireland, attracted leading politicians and was seen by Edward VII, who laughed so much that he broke his chair. The play was withheld from Dublin's Abbey Theatre, for fear of the affront it might provoke, although it was shown at the city's Royal Theatre in November 1907. Shaw later wrote that William Butler Yeats, who had requested the play, "got rather more than he bargained for... It was uncongenial to the whole spirit of the neo-Gaelic movement, which is bent on creating a new Ireland after its own ideal, whereas my play is a very uncompromising presentment of the real old Ireland." Nonetheless, Shaw and Yeats were close friends; Yeats and Lady Gregory tried unsuccessfully to persuade Shaw to take up the vacant co-directorship of the Abbey Theatre after J. M. Synge's death in 1909. Shaw admired other figures in the Irish Literary Revival, including George Russell and James Joyce, and was a close friend of Seán O'Casey, who was inspired to become a playwright after reading John Bull's Other Island.
Man and Superman, completed in 1902, was a success both at the Royal Court in 1905 and in Robert Loraine's New York production in the same year. Among the other Shaw works presented by Vedrenne and Granville-Barker were Major Barbara (1905), depicting the contrasting morality of arms manufacturers and the Salvation Army; The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a mostly serious piece about professional ethics; and Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw's counterblast to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, seen in New York in 1906 and in London the following year.
Now prosperous and established, Shaw experimented with unorthodox theatrical forms described by his biographer Stanley Weintraub as "discussion drama" and "serious farce". These plays included Getting Married (premiered 1908), The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1909), Misalliance (1910), and Fanny's First Play (1911). Blanco Posnet was banned on religious grounds by the Lord Chamberlain (the official theatre censor in England), and was produced instead in Dublin; it filled the Abbey Theatre to capacity. Fanny's First Play, a comedy about suffragettes, had the longest initial run of any Shaw play—622 performances.
Androcles and the Lion (1912), a less heretical study of true and false religious attitudes than Blanco Posnet, ran for eight weeks in September and October 1913. It was followed by one of Shaw's most successful plays, Pygmalion, written in 1912 and staged in Vienna the following year, and in Berlin shortly afterwards. Shaw commented, "It is the custom of the English press when a play of mine is produced, to inform the world that it is not a play—that it is dull, blasphemous, unpopular, and financially unsuccessful. ... Hence arose an urgent demand on the part of the managers of Vienna and Berlin that I should have my plays performed by them first." The British production opened in April 1914, starring Sir Herbert Tree and Mrs Patrick Campbell as, respectively, a professor of phonetics and a cockney flower-girl. There had earlier been a romantic liaison between Shaw and Campbell that caused Charlotte Shaw considerable concern, but by the time of the London premiere it had ended. The play attracted capacity audiences until July, when Tree insisted on going on holiday, and the production closed. His co-star then toured with the piece in the US.
Fabian years: 1900–1913
In 1899, when the Boer War began, Shaw wished the Fabians to take a neutral stance on what he deemed, like Home Rule, to be a "non-Socialist" issue. Others, including the future Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, wanted unequivocal opposition, and resigned from the society when it followed Shaw. In the Fabians' war manifesto, Fabianism and the Empire (1900), Shaw declared that "until the Federation of the World becomes an accomplished fact we must accept the most responsible Imperial federations available as a substitute for it".
As the new century began, Shaw became increasingly disillusioned by the limited impact of the Fabians on national politics. Thus, although a nominated Fabian delegate, he did not attend the London conference at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street in February 1900, that created the Labour Representation Committee—precursor of the modern Labour Party. By 1903, when his term as borough councillor expired, he had lost his earlier enthusiasm, writing: "After six years of Borough Councilling I am convinced that the borough councils should be abolished". Nevertheless, in 1904 he stood in the London County Council elections. After an eccentric campaign, which Holroyd characterises as "[making] absolutely certain of not getting in", he was duly defeated. It was Shaw's final foray into electoral politics. Nationally, the 1906 general election produced a huge Liberal majority and an intake of 29 Labour members. Shaw viewed this outcome with scepticism; he had a low opinion of the new prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and saw the Labour members as inconsequential: "I apologise to the Universe for my connection with such a body".
In the years after the 1906 election, Shaw felt that the Fabians needed fresh leadership, and saw this in the form of his fellow-writer H. G. Wells, who had joined the society in February 1903. Wells's ideas for reform—particularly his proposals for closer cooperation with the Independent Labour Party—placed him at odds with the society's "Old Gang", led by Shaw. According to Cole, Wells "had minimal capacity for putting [his ideas] across in public meetings against Shaw's trained and practised virtuosity". In Shaw's view, "the Old Gang did not extinguish Mr Wells, he annihilated himself". Wells resigned from the society in September 1908; Shaw remained a member, but left the executive in April 1911. He later wondered whether the Old Gang should have given way to Wells some years earlier: "God only knows whether the Society had not better have done it". Although less active—he blamed his advancing years—Shaw remained a Fabian.
In 1912 Shaw invested £1,000 for a one-fifth share in the Webbs' new publishing venture, a socialist weekly magazine called The New Statesman, which appeared in April 1913. He became a founding director, publicist, and in due course a contributor, mostly anonymously. He was soon at odds with the magazine's editor, Clifford Sharp, who by 1916 was rejecting his contributions—"the only paper in the world that refuses to print anything by me", according to Shaw.
First World War
After the First World War began in August 1914, Shaw produced his tract Common Sense About the War, which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable. Such a view was anathema in an atmosphere of fervent patriotism, and offended many of Shaw's friends; Ervine records that "[h]is appearance at any public function caused the instant departure of many of those present."
Despite his errant reputation, Shaw's propagandist skills were recognised by the British authorities, and early in 1917 he was invited by Field Marshal Haig to visit the Western Front battlefields. Shaw's 10,000-word report, which emphasised the human aspects of the soldier's life, was well received, and he became less of a lone voice. In April 1917 he joined the national consensus in welcoming America's entry into the war: "a first class moral asset to the common cause against junkerism".
Three short plays by Shaw were premiered during the war. The Inca of Perusalem, written in 1915, encountered problems with the censor for burlesquing not only the enemy but the British military command; it was performed in 1916 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. O'Flaherty V.C., satirising the government's attitude to Irish recruits, was banned in the UK and was presented at a Royal Flying Corps base in Belgium in 1917. Augustus Does His Bit, a genial farce, was granted a licence; it opened at the Royal Court in January 1917.
Ireland
Shaw had long supported the principle of Irish Home Rule within the British Empire (which he thought should become the British Commonwealth).
In April 1916 he wrote scathingly in The New York Times about militant Irish nationalism: "In point of learning nothing and forgetting nothing these fellow-patriots of mine leave the Bourbons nowhere." Total independence, he asserted, was impractical; alliance with a bigger power (preferably England) was essential. The Dublin Easter Rising later that month took him by surprise. After its suppression by British forces, he expressed horror at the summary execution of the rebel leaders, but continued to believe in some form of Anglo-Irish union. In How to Settle the Irish Question (1917), he envisaged a federal arrangement, with national and imperial parliaments. Holroyd records that by this time the separatist party Sinn Féin was in the ascendency, and Shaw's and other moderate schemes were forgotten.
In the postwar period, Shaw despaired of the British government's coercive policies towards Ireland, and joined his fellow-writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton in publicly condemning these actions. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to the partition of Ireland between north and south, a provision that dismayed Shaw. In 1922 civil war broke out in the south between its pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions, the former of whom had established the Irish Free State. Shaw visited Dublin in August, and met Michael Collins, then head of the Free State's Provisional Government. Shaw was much impressed by Collins, and was saddened when, three days later, the Irish leader was ambushed and killed by anti-treaty forces. In a letter to Collins's sister, Shaw wrote: "I met Michael for the first and last time on Saturday last, and am very glad I did. I rejoice in his memory, and will not be so disloyal to it as to snivel over his valiant death". Shaw remained a British subject all his life, but took dual British-Irish nationality in 1934.
1920s
Shaw's first major work to appear after the war was Heartbreak House, written in 1916–17 and performed in 1920. It was produced on Broadway in November, and was coolly received; according to The Times: "Mr Shaw on this occasion has more than usual to say and takes twice as long as usual to say it". After the London premiere in October 1921 The Times concurred with the American critics: "As usual with Mr Shaw, the play is about an hour too long", although containing "much entertainment and some profitable reflection". Ervine in The Observer thought the play brilliant but ponderously acted, except for Edith Evans as Lady Utterword.
Shaw's largest-scale theatrical work was Back to Methuselah, written in 1918–20 and staged in 1922. Weintraub describes it as "Shaw's attempt to fend off 'the bottomless pit of an utterly discouraging pessimism'". This cycle of five interrelated plays depicts evolution, and the effects of longevity, from the Garden of Eden to the year 31,920 AD. Critics found the five plays strikingly uneven in quality and invention. The original run was brief, and the work has been revived infrequently. Shaw felt he had exhausted his remaining creative powers in the huge span of this "Metabiological Pentateuch". He was now sixty-seven, and expected to write no more plays.
This mood was short-lived. In 1920 Joan of Arc was proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict XV; Shaw had long found Joan an interesting historical character, and his view of her veered between "half-witted genius" and someone of "exceptional sanity". He had considered writing a play about her in 1913, and the canonisation prompted him to return to the subject. He wrote Saint Joan in the middle months of 1923, and the play was premiered on Broadway in December. It was enthusiastically received there, and at its London premiere the following March. In Weintraub's phrase, "even the Nobel prize committee could no longer ignore Shaw after Saint Joan". The citation for the literature prize for 1925 praised his work as "... marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty". He accepted the award, but rejected the monetary prize that went with it, on the grounds that "My readers and my audiences provide me with more than sufficient money for my needs".
After Saint Joan, it was five years before Shaw wrote a play. From 1924, he spent four years writing what he described as his "magnum opus", a political treatise entitled The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. The book was published in 1928 and sold well. At the end of the decade Shaw produced his final Fabian tract, a commentary on the League of Nations. He described the League as "a school for the new international statesmanship as against the old Foreign Office diplomacy", but thought that it had not yet become the "Federation of the World".
Shaw returned to the theatre with what he called "a political extravaganza", The Apple Cart, written in late 1928. It was, in Ervine's view, unexpectedly popular, taking a conservative, monarchist, anti-democratic line that appealed to contemporary audiences. The premiere was in Warsaw in June 1928, and the first British production was two months later, at Sir Barry Jackson's inaugural Malvern Festival. The other eminent creative artist most closely associated with the festival was Sir Edward Elgar, with whom Shaw enjoyed a deep friendship and mutual regard. He described The Apple Cart to Elgar as "a scandalous Aristophanic burlesque of democratic politics, with a brief but shocking sex interlude".
During the 1920s Shaw began to lose faith in the idea that society could be changed through Fabian gradualism, and became increasingly fascinated with dictatorial methods. In 1922 he had welcomed Mussolini's accession to power in Italy, observing that amid the "indiscipline and muddle and Parliamentary deadlock", Mussolini was "the right kind of tyrant". Shaw was prepared to tolerate certain dictatorial excesses; Weintraub in his ODNB biographical sketch comments that Shaw's "flirtation with authoritarian inter-war regimes" took a long time to fade, and Beatrice Webb thought he was "obsessed" about Mussolini.
1930s
Shaw's enthusiasm for the Soviet Union dated to the early 1920s when he had hailed Lenin as "the one really interesting statesman in Europe". Having turned down several chances to visit, in 1931 he joined a party led by Nancy Astor. The carefully managed trip culminated in a lengthy meeting with Stalin, whom Shaw later described as "a Georgian gentleman" with no malice in him. At a dinner given in his honour, Shaw told the gathering: "I have seen all the 'terrors' and I was terribly pleased by them". In March 1933 Shaw was a co-signatory to a letter in The Manchester Guardian protesting at the continuing misrepresentation of Soviet achievements: "No lie is too fantastic, no slander is too stale ... for employment by the more reckless elements of the British press."
Shaw's admiration for Mussolini and Stalin demonstrated his growing belief that dictatorship was the only viable political arrangement. When the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in January 1933, Shaw described Hitler as "a very remarkable man, a very able man", and professed himself proud to be the only writer in England who was "scrupulously polite and just to Hitler". His principal admiration was for Stalin, whose regime he championed uncritically throughout the decade. Shaw saw the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as a triumph for Stalin who, he said, now had Hitler under his thumb.
Shaw's first play of the decade was Too True to be Good, written in 1931 and premiered in Boston in February 1932. The reception was unenthusiastic. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times commenting that Shaw had "yielded to the impulse to write without having a subject", judged the play a "rambling and indifferently tedious conversation". The correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune said that most of the play was "discourse, unbelievably long lectures" and that although the audience enjoyed the play it was bewildered by it.
During the decade Shaw travelled widely and frequently. Most of his journeys were with Charlotte; she enjoyed voyages on ocean liners, and he found peace to write during the long spells at sea. Shaw met an enthusiastic welcome in South Africa in 1932, despite his strong remarks about the racial divisions of the country. In December 1932 the couple embarked on a round-the-world cruise. In March 1933 they arrived at San Francisco, to begin Shaw's first visit to the US. He had earlier refused to go to "that awful country, that uncivilized place", "unfit to govern itself... illiberal, superstitious, crude, violent, anarchic and arbitrary". He visited Hollywood, with which he was unimpressed, and New York, where he lectured to a capacity audience in the Metropolitan Opera House. Harried by the intrusive attentions of the press, Shaw was glad when his ship sailed from New York harbour. New Zealand, which he and Charlotte visited the following year, struck him as "the best country I've been in"; he urged its people to be more confident and loosen their dependence on trade with Britain. He used the weeks at sea to complete two plays—The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and The Six of Calais—and begin work on a third, The Millionairess.
Despite his contempt for Hollywood and its aesthetic values, Shaw was enthusiastic about cinema, and in the middle of the decade wrote screenplays for prospective film versions of Pygmalion and Saint Joan. The latter was never made, but Shaw entrusted the rights to the former to the unknown Gabriel Pascal, who produced it at Pinewood Studios in 1938. Shaw was determined that Hollywood should have nothing to do with the film, but was powerless to prevent it from winning one Academy Award ("Oscar"); he described his award for "best-written screenplay" as an insult, coming from such a source. He became the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. In a 1993 study of the Oscars, Anthony Holden observes that Pygmalion was soon spoken of as having "lifted movie-making from illiteracy to literacy".
Shaw's final plays of the 1930s were Cymbeline Refinished (1936), Geneva (1936) and In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939). The first, a fantasy reworking of Shakespeare, made little impression, but the second, a satire on European dictators, attracted more notice, much of it unfavourable. In particular, Shaw's parody of Hitler as "Herr Battler" was considered mild, almost sympathetic. The third play, an historical conversation piece first seen at Malvern, ran briefly in London in May 1940. James Agate commented that the play contained nothing to which even the most conservative audiences could take exception, and though it was long and lacking in dramatic action only "witless and idle" theatregoers would object. After their first runs none of the three plays were seen again in the West End during Shaw's lifetime.
Towards the end of the decade, both Shaws began to suffer ill health. Charlotte was increasingly incapacitated by Paget's disease of bone, and he developed pernicious anaemia. His treatment, involving injections of concentrated animal liver, was successful, but this breach of his vegetarian creed distressed him and brought down condemnation from militant vegetarians.
Second World War and final years
Although Shaw's works since The Apple Cart had been received without great enthusiasm, his earlier plays were revived in the West End throughout the Second World War, starring such actors as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat. In 1944 nine Shaw plays were staged in London, including Arms and the Man with Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and Margaret Leighton in the leading roles. Two touring companies took his plays all round Britain. The revival in his popularity did not tempt Shaw to write a new play, and he concentrated on prolific journalism. A second Shaw film produced by Pascal, Major Barbara (1941), was less successful both artistically and commercially than Pygmalion, partly because of Pascal's insistence on directing, to which he was unsuited.
Following the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 and the rapid conquest of Poland, Shaw was accused of defeatism when, in a New Statesman article, he declared the war over and demanded a peace conference. Nevertheless, when he became convinced that a negotiated peace was impossible, he publicly urged the neutral United States to join the fight. The London blitz of 1940–41 led the Shaws, both in their mid-eighties, to live full-time at Ayot St Lawrence. Even there they were not immune from enemy air raids, and stayed on occasion with Nancy Astor at her country house, Cliveden. In 1943, the worst of the London bombing over, the Shaws moved back to Whitehall Court, where medical help for Charlotte was more easily arranged. Her condition deteriorated, and she died in September.
Shaw's final political treatise, Everybody's Political What's What, was published in 1944. Holroyd describes this as "a rambling narrative ... that repeats ideas he had given better elsewhere and then repeats itself". The book sold well—85,000 copies by the end of the year. After Hitler's suicide in May 1945, Shaw approved of the formal condolences offered by the Irish Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, at the German embassy in Dublin. Shaw disapproved of the postwar trials of the defeated German leaders, as an act of self-righteousness: "We are all potential criminals".
Pascal was given a third opportunity to film Shaw's work with Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). It cost three times its original budget and was rated "the biggest financial failure in the history of British cinema". The film was poorly received by British critics, although American reviews were friendlier. Shaw thought its lavishness nullified the drama, and he considered the film "a poor imitation of Cecil B. de Mille".
In 1946, the year of Shaw's ninetieth birthday, he accepted the freedom of Dublin and became the first honorary freeman of the borough of St Pancras, London. In the same year the British government asked Shaw informally whether he would accept the Order of Merit. He declined, believing that an author's merit could only be determined by the posthumous verdict of history. 1946 saw the publication, as The Crime of Imprisonment, of the preface Shaw had written 20 years previously to a study of prison conditions. It was widely praised; a reviewer in the American Journal of Public Health considered it essential reading for any student of the American criminal justice system.
Shaw continued to write into his nineties. His last plays were Buoyant Billions (1947), his final full-length work; Farfetched Fables (1948) a set of six short plays revisiting several of his earlier themes such as evolution; a comic play for puppets, Shakes versus Shav (1949), a ten-minute piece in which Shakespeare and Shaw trade insults; and Why She Would Not (1950), which Shaw described as "a little comedy", written in one week shortly before his ninety-fourth birthday.
During his later years, Shaw enjoyed tending the gardens at Shaw's Corner. He died at the age of ninety-four of renal failure precipitated by injuries incurred when falling while pruning a tree. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 6 November 1950. His ashes, mixed with those of Charlotte, were scattered along footpaths and around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden.
Works
Plays
Shaw published a collected edition of his plays in 1934, comprising forty-two works. He wrote a further twelve in the remaining sixteen years of his life, mostly one-act pieces. Including eight earlier plays that he chose to omit from his published works, the total is sixty-two.
Early works
Shaw's first three full-length plays dealt with social issues. He later grouped them as "Plays Unpleasant". Widowers' Houses (1892) concerns the landlords of slum properties, and introduces the first of Shaw's New Women—a recurring feature of later plays. The Philanderer (1893) develops the theme of the New Woman, draws on Ibsen, and has elements of Shaw's personal relationships, the character of Julia being based on Jenny Patterson. In a 2003 study Judith Evans describes Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) as "undoubtedly the most challenging" of the three Plays Unpleasant, taking Mrs Warren's profession—prostitute and, later, brothel-owner—as a metaphor for a prostituted society.
Shaw followed the first trilogy with a second, published as "Plays Pleasant". Arms and the Man (1894) conceals beneath a mock-Ruritanian comic romance a Fabian parable contrasting impractical idealism with pragmatic socialism. The central theme of Candida (1894) is a woman's choice between two men; the play contrasts the outlook and aspirations of a Christian Socialist and a poetic idealist. The third of the Pleasant group, You Never Can Tell (1896), portrays social mobility, and the gap between generations, particularly in how they approach social relations in general and mating in particular.
The "Three Plays for Puritans"—comprising The Devil's Disciple (1896), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899)—all centre on questions of empire and imperialism, a major topic of political discourse in the 1890s. The three are set, respectively, in 1770s America, Ancient Egypt, and 1890s Morocco. The Gadfly, an adaptation of the popular novel by Ethel Voynich, was unfinished and unperformed. The Man of Destiny (1895) is a short curtain raiser about Napoleon.
1900–1909
Shaw's major plays of the first decade of the twentieth century address individual social, political or ethical issues. Man and Superman (1902) stands apart from the others in both its subject and its treatment, giving Shaw's interpretation of creative evolution in a combination of drama and associated printed text. The Admirable Bashville (1901), a blank verse dramatisation of Shaw's novel Cashel Byron's Profession, focuses on the imperial relationship between Britain and Africa. John Bull's Other Island (1904), comically depicting the prevailing relationship between Britain and Ireland, was popular at the time but fell out of the general repertoire in later years. Major Barbara (1905) presents ethical questions in an unconventional way, confounding expectations that in the depiction of an armaments manufacturer on the one hand and the Salvation Army on the other the moral high ground must invariably be held by the latter. The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a play about medical ethics and moral choices in allocating scarce treatment, was described by Shaw as a tragedy. With a reputation for presenting characters who did not resemble real flesh and blood, he was challenged by Archer to present an on-stage death, and here did so, with a deathbed scene for the anti-hero.
Getting Married (1908) and Misalliance (1909)—the latter seen by Judith Evans as a companion piece to the former—are both in what Shaw called his "disquisitionary" vein, with the emphasis on discussion of ideas rather than on dramatic events or vivid characterisation. Shaw wrote seven short plays during the decade; they are all comedies, ranging from the deliberately absurd Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction (1905) to the satirical Press Cuttings (1909).
1910–1919
In the decade from 1910 to the aftermath of the First World War Shaw wrote four full-length plays, the third and fourth of which are among his most frequently staged works. Fanny's First Play (1911) continues his earlier examinations of middle-class British society from a Fabian viewpoint, with additional touches of melodrama and an epilogue in which theatre critics discuss the play. Androcles and the Lion (1912), which Shaw began writing as a play for children, became a study of the nature of religion and how to put Christian precepts into practice. Pygmalion (1912) is a Shavian study of language and speech and their importance in society and in personal relationships. To correct the impression left by the original performers that the play portrayed a romantic relationship between the two main characters Shaw rewrote the ending to make it clear that the heroine will marry another, minor character. Shaw's only full-length play from the war years is Heartbreak House (1917), which in his words depicts "cultured, leisured Europe before the war" drifting towards disaster. Shaw named Shakespeare (King Lear) and Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard) as important influences on the piece, and critics have found elements drawing on Congreve (The Way of the World) and Ibsen (The Master Builder).
The short plays range from genial historical drama in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and Great Catherine (1910 and 1913) to a study of polygamy in Overruled; three satirical works about the war (The Inca of Perusalem, O'Flaherty V.C. and Augustus Does His Bit, 1915–16); a piece that Shaw called "utter nonsense" (The Music Cure, 1914) and a brief sketch about a "Bolshevik empress" (Annajanska, 1917).
1920–1950
Saint Joan (1923) drew widespread praise both for Shaw and for Sybil Thorndike, for whom he wrote the title role and who created the part in Britain. In the view of the commentator Nicholas Grene, Shaw's Joan, a "no-nonsense mystic, Protestant and nationalist before her time" is among the 20th century's classic leading female roles. The Apple Cart (1929) was Shaw's last popular success. He gave both that play and its successor, Too True to Be Good (1931), the subtitle "A political extravaganza", although the two works differ greatly in their themes; the first presents the politics of a nation (with a brief royal love-scene as an interlude) and the second, in Judith Evans's words, "is concerned with the social mores of the individual, and is nebulous." Shaw's plays of the 1930s were written in the shadow of worsening national and international political events. Once again, with On the Rocks (1933) and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934), a political comedy with a clear plot was followed by an introspective drama. The first play portrays a British prime minister considering, but finally rejecting, the establishment of a dictatorship; the second is concerned with polygamy and eugenics and ends with the Day of Judgement.
The Millionairess (1934) is a farcical depiction of the commercial and social affairs of a successful businesswoman. Geneva (1936) lampoons the feebleness of the League of Nations compared with the dictators of Europe. In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939), described by Weintraub as a warm, discursive high comedy, also depicts authoritarianism, but less satirically than Geneva. As in earlier decades, the shorter plays were generally comedies, some historical and others addressing various political and social preoccupations of the author. Ervine writes of Shaw's later work that although it was still "astonishingly vigorous and vivacious" it showed unmistakable signs of his age. "The best of his work in this period, however, was full of wisdom and the beauty of mind often displayed by old men who keep their wits about them."
Music and drama reviews
Music
Shaw's collected musical criticism, published in three volumes, runs to more than 2,700 pages. It covers the British musical scene from 1876 to 1950, but the core of the collection dates from his six years as music critic of The Star and The World in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In his view music criticism should be interesting to everyone rather than just the musical élite, and he wrote for the non-specialist, avoiding technical jargon—"Mesopotamian words like 'the dominant of D major'". He was fiercely partisan in his columns, promoting the music of Wagner and decrying that of Brahms and those British composers such as Stanford and Parry whom he saw as Brahmsian. He campaigned against the prevailing fashion for performances of Handel oratorios with huge amateur choirs and inflated orchestration, calling for "a chorus of twenty capable artists". He railed against opera productions unrealistically staged or sung in languages the audience did not speak.
Drama
In Shaw's view, the London theatres of the 1890s presented too many revivals of old plays and not enough new work. He campaigned against "melodrama, sentimentality, stereotypes and worn-out conventions". As a music critic he had frequently been able to concentrate on analysing new works, but in the theatre he was often obliged to fall back on discussing how various performers tackled well-known plays. In a study of Shaw's work as a theatre critic, E. J. West writes that Shaw "ceaselessly compared and contrasted artists in interpretation and in technique". Shaw contributed more than 150 articles as theatre critic for The Saturday Review, in which he assessed more than 212 productions. He championed Ibsen's plays when many theatregoers regarded them as outrageous, and his 1891 book Quintessence of Ibsenism remained a classic throughout the twentieth century. Of contemporary dramatists writing for the West End stage he rated Oscar Wilde above the rest: "... our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theatre". Shaw's collected criticisms were published as Our Theatres in the Nineties in 1932.
Shaw maintained a provocative and frequently self-contradictory attitude to Shakespeare (whose name he insisted on spelling "Shakespear"). Many found him difficult to take seriously on the subject; Duff Cooper observed that by attacking Shakespeare, "it is Shaw who appears a ridiculous pigmy shaking his fist at a mountain." Shaw was, nevertheless, a knowledgeable Shakespearian, and in an article in which he wrote, "With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind against his," he also said, "But I am bound to add that I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespear. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers, and will outlast a thousand more". Shaw had two regular targets for his more extreme comments about Shakespeare: undiscriminating "Bardolaters", and actors and directors who presented insensitively cut texts in over-elaborate productions. He was continually drawn back to Shakespeare, and wrote three plays with Shakespearean themes: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Cymbeline Refinished and Shakes versus Shav. In a 2001 analysis of Shaw's Shakespearian criticisms, Robert Pierce concludes that Shaw, who was no academic, saw Shakespeare's plays—like all theatre—from an author's practical point of view: "Shaw helps us to get away from the Romantics' picture of Shakespeare as a titanic genius, one whose art cannot be analyzed or connected with the mundane considerations of theatrical conditions and profit and loss, or with a specific staging and cast of actors."
Political and social writings
Shaw's political and social commentaries were published variously in Fabian tracts, in essays, in two full-length books, in innumerable newspaper and journal articles and in prefaces to his plays. The majority of Shaw's Fabian tracts were published anonymously, representing the voice of the society rather than of Shaw, although the society's secretary Edward Pease later confirmed Shaw's authorship. According to Holroyd, the business of the early Fabians, mainly under the influence of Shaw, was to "alter history by rewriting it". Shaw's talent as a pamphleteer was put to immediate use in the production of the society's manifesto—after which, says Holroyd, he was never again so succinct.
After the turn of the twentieth century, Shaw increasingly propagated his ideas through the medium of his plays. An early critic, writing in 1904, observed that Shaw's dramas provided "a pleasant means" of proselytising his socialism, adding that "Mr Shaw's views are to be sought especially in the prefaces to his plays". After loosening his ties with the Fabian movement in 1911, Shaw's writings were more personal and often provocative; his response to the furore following the issue of Common Sense About the War in 1914, was to prepare a sequel, More Common Sense About the War. In this, he denounced the pacifist line espoused by Ramsay MacDonald and other socialist leaders, and proclaimed his readiness to shoot all pacifists rather than cede them power and influence. On the advice of Beatrice Webb, this pamphlet remained unpublished.
The Intelligent Woman's Guide, Shaw's main political treatise of the 1920s, attracted both admiration and criticism. MacDonald considered it the world's most important book since the Bible; Harold Laski thought its arguments outdated and lacking in concern for individual freedoms. Shaw's increasing flirtation with dictatorial methods is evident in many of his subsequent pronouncements. A New York Times report dated 10 December 1933 quoted a recent Fabian Society lecture in which Shaw had praised Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin: "[T]hey are trying to get something done, [and] are adopting methods by which it is possible to get something done". As late as the Second World War, in Everybody's Political What's What, Shaw blamed the Allies' "abuse" of their 1918 victory for the rise of Hitler, and hoped that, after defeat, the Führer would escape retribution "to enjoy a comfortable retirement in Ireland or some other neutral country". These sentiments, according to the Irish philosopher-poet Thomas Duddy, "rendered much of the Shavian outlook passé and contemptible".
"Creative evolution", Shaw's version of the new science of eugenics, became an increasing theme in his political writing after 1900. He introduced his theories in The Revolutionist's Handbook (1903), an appendix to Man and Superman, and developed them further during the 1920s in Back to Methuselah. A 1946 Life magazine article observed that Shaw had "always tended to look at people more as a biologist than as an artist". By 1933, in the preface to On the Rocks, he was writing that "if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it"; critical opinion is divided on whether this was intended as irony. In an article in the American magazine Liberty in September 1938, Shaw included the statement: "There are many people in the world who ought to be liquidated". Many commentators assumed that such comments were intended as a joke, although in the worst possible taste. Otherwise, Life magazine concluded, "this silliness can be classed with his more innocent bad guesses".
Fiction
Shaw's fiction-writing was largely confined to the five unsuccessful novels written in the period 1879–1885. Immaturity (1879) is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of mid-Victorian England, Shaw's "own David Copperfield" according to Weintraub. The Irrational Knot (1880) is a critique of conventional marriage, in which Weintraub finds the characterisations lifeless, "hardly more than animated theories". Shaw was pleased with his third novel, Love Among the Artists (1881), feeling that it marked a turning point in his development as a thinker, although he had no more success with it than with its predecessors. Cashel Byron's Profession (1882) is, says Weintraub, an indictment of society which anticipates Shaw's first full-length play, Mrs Warren's Profession. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s.
Shaw's only subsequent fiction of any substance was his 1932 novella The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, written during a visit to South Africa in 1932. The eponymous girl, intelligent, inquisitive, and converted to Christianity by insubstantial missionary teaching, sets out to find God, on a journey that after many adventures and encounters, leads her to a secular conclusion. The story, on publication, offended some Christians and was banned in Ireland by the Board of Censors.
Letters and diaries
Shaw was a prolific correspondent throughout his life. His letters, edited by Dan H. Laurence, were published between 1965 and 1988. Shaw once estimated his letters would occupy twenty volumes; Laurence commented that, unedited, they would fill many more. Shaw wrote more than a quarter of a million letters, of which about ten per cent have survived; 2,653 letters are printed in Laurence's four volumes. Among Shaw's many regular correspondents were his childhood friend Edward McNulty; his theatrical colleagues (and amitiés amoureuses) Mrs Patrick Campbell and Ellen Terry; writers including Lord Alfred Douglas, H. G. Wells and G. K. Chesterton; the boxer Gene Tunney; the nun Laurentia McLachlan; and the art expert Sydney Cockerell. In 2007 a 316-page volume consisting entirely of Shaw's letters to The Times was published.
Shaw's diaries for 1885–1897, edited by Weintraub, were published in two volumes, with a total of 1,241 pages, in 1986. Reviewing them, the Shaw scholar Fred Crawford wrote: "Although the primary interest for Shavians is the material that supplements what we already know about Shaw's life and work, the diaries are also valuable as a historical and sociological document of English life at the end of the Victorian age." After 1897, pressure of other writing led Shaw to give up keeping a diary.
Miscellaneous and autobiographical
Through his journalism, pamphlets and occasional longer works, Shaw wrote on many subjects. His range of interest and enquiry included vivisection, vegetarianism, religion, language, cinema and photography, on all of which he wrote and spoke copiously. Collections of his writings on these and other subjects were published, mainly after his death, together with volumes of "wit and wisdom" and general journalism.
Despite the many books written about him (Holroyd counts 80 by 1939) Shaw's autobiographical output, apart from his diaries, was relatively slight. He gave interviews to newspapers—"GBS Confesses", to The Daily Mail in 1904 is an example—and provided sketches to would-be biographers whose work was rejected by Shaw and never published. In 1939 Shaw drew on these materials to produce Shaw Gives Himself Away, a miscellany which, a year before his death, he revised and republished as Sixteen Self Sketches (there were seventeen). He made it clear to his publishers that this slim book was in no sense a full autobiography.
Beliefs and opinions
Throughout his lifetime Shaw professed many beliefs, often contradictory. This inconsistency was partly an intentional provocation—the Spanish scholar-statesman Salvador de Madariaga describes Shaw as "a pole of negative electricity set in a people of positive electricity". In one area at least Shaw was constant: in his lifelong refusal to follow normal English forms of spelling and punctuation. He favoured archaic spellings such as "shew" for "show"; he dropped the "u" in words like "honour" and "favour"; and wherever possible he rejected the apostrophe in contractions such as "won't" or "that's". In his will, Shaw ordered that, after some specified legacies, his remaining assets were to form a trust to pay for fundamental reform of the English alphabet into a phonetic version of forty letters. Though Shaw's intentions were clear, his drafting was flawed, and the courts initially ruled the intended trust void. A later out-of-court agreement provided a sum of £8,300 for spelling reform; the bulk of his fortune went to the residuary legatees—the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the National Gallery of Ireland. Most of the £8,300 went on a special phonetic edition of Androcles and the Lion in the Shavian alphabet, published in 1962 to a largely indifferent reception.
Shaw's views on religion and Christianity were less consistent. Having in his youth proclaimed himself an atheist, in middle age he explained this as a reaction against the Old Testament image of a vengeful Jehovah. By the early twentieth century, he termed himself a "mystic", although Gary Sloan, in an essay on Shaw's beliefs, disputes his credentials as such. In 1913 Shaw declared that he was not religious "in the sectarian sense", aligning himself with Jesus as "a person of no religion". In the preface (1915) to Androcles and the Lion, Shaw asks "Why not give Christianity a chance?" contending that Britain's social order resulted from the continuing choice of Barabbas over Christ. In a broadcast just before the Second World War, Shaw invoked the Sermon on the Mount, "a very moving exhortation, and it gives you one first-rate tip, which is to do good to those who despitefully use you and persecute you". In his will, Shaw stated that his "religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative revolution". He requested that no one should imply that he accepted the beliefs of any specific religious organisation, and that no memorial to him should "take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice".
Shaw espoused racial equality, and inter-marriage between people of different races. Despite his expressed wish to be fair to Hitler, he called anti-Semitism "the hatred of the lazy, ignorant fat-headed Gentile for the pertinacious Jew who, schooled by adversity to use his brains to the utmost, outdoes him in business". In The Jewish Chronicle he wrote in 1932, "In every country you can find rabid people who have a phobia against Jews, Jesuits, Armenians, Negroes, Freemasons, Irishmen, or simply foreigners as such. Political parties are not above exploiting these fears and jealousies."
In 1903 Shaw joined in a controversy about vaccination against smallpox. He called vaccination "a peculiarly filthy piece of witchcraft"; in his view immunisation campaigns were a cheap and inadequate substitute for a decent programme of housing for the poor, which would, he declared, be the means of eradicating smallpox and other infectious diseases. Less contentiously, Shaw was keenly interested in transport; Laurence observed in 1992 a need for a published study of Shaw's interest in "bicycling, motorbikes, automobiles, and planes, climaxing in his joining the Interplanetary Society in his nineties". Shaw published articles on travel, took photographs of his journeys, and submitted notes to the Royal Automobile Club.
Shaw strove throughout his adult life to be referred to as "Bernard Shaw" rather than "George Bernard Shaw", but confused matters by continuing to use his full initials—G.B.S.—as a by-line, and often signed himself "G.Bernard Shaw". He left instructions in his will that his executor (the Public Trustee) was to license publication of his works only under the name Bernard Shaw. Shaw scholars including Ervine, Judith Evans, Holroyd, Laurence and Weintraub, and many publishers have respected Shaw's preference, although the Cambridge University Press was among the exceptions with its 1988 Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw.
Legacy and influence
Theatrical
Shaw did not found a school of dramatists as such, but Crawford asserts that today "we recognise [him] as second only to Shakespeare in the British theatrical tradition ... the proponent of the theater of ideas" who struck a death-blow to 19th-century melodrama. According to Laurence, Shaw pioneered "intelligent" theatre, in which the audience was required to think, thereby paving the way for the new breeds of twentieth-century playwrights from Galsworthy to Pinter.
Crawford lists numerous playwrights whose work owes something to that of Shaw. Among those active in Shaw's lifetime he includes Noël Coward, who based his early comedy The Young Idea on You Never Can Tell and continued to draw on the older man's works in later plays. T. S. Eliot, by no means an admirer of Shaw, admitted that the epilogue of Murder in the Cathedral, in which Becket's slayers explain their actions to the audience, might have been influenced by Saint Joan. The critic Eric Bentley comments that Eliot's later play The Confidential Clerk "had all the earmarks of Shavianism ... without the merits of the real Bernard Shaw". Among more recent British dramatists, Crawford marks Tom Stoppard as "the most Shavian of contemporary playwrights"; Shaw's "serious farce" is continued in the works of Stoppard's contemporaries Alan Ayckbourn, Henry Livings and Peter Nichols.
Shaw's influence crossed the Atlantic at an early stage. Bernard Dukore notes that he was successful as a dramatist in America ten years before achieving comparable success in Britain. Among many American writers professing a direct debt to Shaw, Eugene O'Neill became an admirer at the age of seventeen, after reading The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Other Shaw-influenced American playwrights mentioned by Dukore are Elmer Rice, for whom Shaw "opened doors, turned on lights, and expanded horizons"; William Saroyan, who empathised with Shaw as "the embattled individualist against the philistines"; and S. N. Behrman, who was inspired to write for the theatre after attending a performance of Caesar and Cleopatra: "I thought it would be agreeable to write plays like that".
Assessing Shaw's reputation in a 1976 critical study, T. F. Evans described Shaw as unchallenged in his lifetime and since as the leading English-language dramatist of the (twentieth) century, and as a master of prose style. The following year, in a contrary assessment, the playwright John Osborne castigated The Guardians theatre critic Michael Billington for referring to Shaw as "the greatest British dramatist since Shakespeare". Osborne responded that Shaw "is the most fraudulent, inept writer of Victorian melodramas ever to gull a timid critic or fool a dull public". Despite this hostility, Crawford sees the influence of Shaw in some of Osborne's plays, and concludes that though the latter's work is neither imitative nor derivative, these affinities are sufficient to classify Osborne as an inheritor of Shaw.
In a 1983 study, R. J. Kaufmann suggests that Shaw was a key forerunner—"godfather, if not actually finicky paterfamilias"—of the Theatre of the Absurd. Two further aspects of Shaw's theatrical legacy are noted by Crawford: his opposition to stage censorship, which was finally ended in 1968, and his efforts which extended over many years to establish a National Theatre. Shaw's short 1910 play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare pleads with Queen Elizabeth I for the endowment of a state theatre, was part of this campaign.
Writing in The New Statesman in 2012 Daniel Janes commented that Shaw's reputation had declined by the time of his 150th anniversary in 2006 but had recovered considerably. In Janes's view, the many current revivals of Shaw's major works showed the playwright's "almost unlimited relevance to our times". In the same year, Mark Lawson wrote in The Guardian that Shaw's moral concerns engaged present-day audiences, and made him—like his model, Ibsen—one of the most popular playwrights in contemporary British theatre.
The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. It produces plays by or written during the lifetime of Shaw as well as some contemporary works. The Gingold Theatrical Group, founded in 2006, presents works by Shaw and others in New York City that feature the humanitarian ideals that his work promoted. It became the first theatre group to present all of Shaw's stage work through its monthly concert series Project Shaw.
General
In the 1940s the author Harold Nicolson advised the National Trust not to accept the bequest of Shaw's Corner, predicting that Shaw would be totally forgotten within fifty years. In the event, Shaw's broad cultural legacy, embodied in the widely used term "Shavian", has endured and is nurtured by Shaw Societies in various parts of the world. The original society was founded in London in 1941 and survives; it organises meetings and events, and publishes a regular bulletin The Shavian. The Shaw Society of America began in June 1950; it foundered in the 1970s but its journal, adopted by Penn State University Press, continued to be published as Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies until 2004. A second American organisation, founded in 1951 as "The Bernard Shaw Society", remains active . More recent societies have been established in Japan and India.
Besides his collected music criticism, Shaw has left a varied musical legacy, not all of it of his choosing. Despite his dislike of having his work adapted for the musical theatre ("my plays set themselves to a verbal music of their own") two of his plays were turned into musical comedies: Arms and the Man was the basis of The Chocolate Soldier in 1908, with music by Oscar Straus, and Pygmalion was adapted in 1956 as My Fair Lady with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Although he had a high regard for Elgar, Shaw turned down the composer's request for an opera libretto, but played a major part in persuading the BBC to commission Elgar's Third Symphony, and was the dedicatee of The Severn Suite (1930).
The substance of Shaw's political legacy is uncertain. In 1921 Shaw's erstwhile collaborator William Archer, in a letter to the playwright, wrote: "I doubt if there is any case of a man so widely read, heard, seen, and known as yourself, who has produced so little effect on his generation." Margaret Cole, who considered Shaw the greatest writer of his age, professed never to have understood him. She thought he worked "immensely hard" at politics, but essentially, she surmises, it was for fun—"the fun of a brilliant artist". After Shaw's death, Pearson wrote: "No one since the time of Tom Paine has had so definite an influence on the social and political life of his time and country as Bernard Shaw."
In its obituary tribute to Shaw, The Times Literary Supplement concluded:
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Books
Shaw's writings
Journals
Newspapers
Online
External links
(About 50 ebooks of Shaw's works and some additional Shaw-related material)
(More links to Shaw-related material)
(19 downloads for audiobooks)
Shaw at IBDb.com (Information on Broadway productions, 1894 to present)
(Lists all film and TV versions of Shaw's works since 1921)
Shaw photographs held at LSE Library
International Shaw Society
The Shaw Society, UK, established in 1941
The Bernard Shaw Society, New York
Shaw collection at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin
1856 births
1950 deaths
19th-century British dramatists and playwrights
19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
19th-century male writers
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
20th-century British male writers
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in England
Anti-vivisectionists
Articles containing video clips
Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
British eugenicists
British male dramatists and playwrights
British music critics
British Nobel laureates
British screenwriters
British socialists
Burials at Ayot St Lawrence
Classical music critics
Deaths from kidney failure
English-language spelling reform advocates
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
PEN International
Irish anti-vaccination activists
Irish Dominion League
Irish male dramatists and playwrights
Irish music critics
Irish Nobel laureates
Irish people of English descent
Irish screenwriters
Irish socialists
Members of St Pancras Metropolitan Borough Council
Members of the Fabian Society
Writers from Dublin (city)
Nobel laureates in Literature
People associated with the British Museum
People associated with the London School of Economics
People associated with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
People educated at Wesley College, Dublin
People from Ayot St Lawrence
People from Portobello, Dublin
Victorian novelists
20th-century British screenwriters
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"Critique of political economy or critique of economy refers to a form of critique that questions and or rejects the naturalized social categories which those who critique political economy claim make up the economy. Critics of political economy also tend to critique economists for what they claim is their usage of unrealistic axioms that doesn't correspond to reality, faulty historical assumptions, as well as normative use of certain social categories and abstractions (e.g. claims regarding the economy as some kind of societal a priori category).\n\nThose who engage in critique of economy tend to reject the view that the economy, is to be understood as something transhistorical, but rather argue that it is a as relatively new mode of resource distribution which emerged along with modernity. Therefore, the economy, is seen as merely one type of historically specific way to distribute resources.\n\nCritics of economy critique the given status of the economy itself, and hence don't aim to create theories regarding how to administer economies.\n\nCritics of economy commonly view what is most commonly referred to as the economy as being bundles of metaphysical concepts, as well as societal and normative practices, rather than being the result of any \"self-evident\" or proclaimed \"economic laws\". Hence they also tend to consider the views which are commonplace within the field of economics as faulty, or simply as pseudoscience.\n\nThere are multiple critiques of political economy today, but what they have in common is critique of what critics of political economy tend to view as dogma, i.e. claims of \"the economy\" as a necessary and transhistorical societal category.\n\nRuskin's critique of political economy \n\nIn the 1860s, John Ruskin published his essay Unto This Last which he came to view as his central work. The essay was originally written as a series of publications in a magazine, which ended up having to suspend the publications, due to the severe controversy the articles caused. While Ruskin is generally known as an important art critic, his study of the history of art was a component that gave him some insight into the pre-modern societies of the Middle Ages, and their social organization which he was able to contrast to his contemporary condition. Ruskin attempted to mobilize a methodological/scientific critique of new political economy, as it was envisaged by the classical economists.\n\nRuskin viewed \"the economy\" as a kind of \"collective mental lapse or collective concussion\", and he viewed the emphasis on precision in industry as a kind of slavery. Due to the fact that Ruskin regarded the political economy of his time as \"mad\", he said that it interested him as much as \"a science of gymnastics which had as its axiom that human beings in fact didn't have skeletons\". Ruskin declared that economics rests on positions that are exactly the same. According to Ruskin, these axioms resemble thinking, not that human beings do not have skeletons, but rather that they consist entirely of skeletons. Ruskin wrote that he didn't oppose the truth value of this theory, he merely wrote that he denied that it could be successfully implemented in the world in the state it was in. He took issue with the ideas of \"natural laws\", \"economic man\" and the prevailing notion of \"value\" and aimed to point out the inconsistencies in the thinking of the economists. As well as critiqued Mill for thinking that ‘the opinions of the public’ was reflected adequately by market prices.\n\nRuskin also coined the term 'Illth' to refer to unproductive wealth. Ruskin is not well known as a political thinker today but, when in 1906 a journalist asked the first generation of Labour MPs which book had most inspired them, Unto This Last emerged as an undisputed chart-topper.\n\nCriticism of Ruskin's analysis \nMarx and Engels regarded much of Ruskin's critique as reactionary. His idealization of the Middle Ages made them reject him as a \"feudal utopian\".\n\nMarx's critique of political economy \n\nKarl Marx is probably the most famous critic of political economy, with his three volume magnum opus Capital: A Critique of Political Economy as one of his most famous books. However Marx's companion Friedrich Engels also engaged in critique of political economy in his 1844 Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy, which helped lay down some of the foundation for what Marx was to take further. Marx's critique of political economy encompasses the study and exposition of the mode of production and ideology of bourgeois society, and its critique of [\"real abstraction\"], that is, the fundamental \"economic\", i.e., social categories present within what for Marx is the capitalist mode of production, for example abstract labour. In contrast to the classics of political economy, Marx was concerned with lifting the ideological veil of surface phenomena and exposing the norms, axioms, social relations, institutions and so on, that reproduced capital.\n\nThe central works in Marx's critique of political economy are Grundrisse, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy and Das Kapital. Marx's works are often explicitly named for example: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, or Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Marx also cited Engels' article Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy several times in Das Kapital. However Trotskyists and other Leninists tend to implicitly or explicitly argue that these works constitute and or contain \"economical theories\" which can be studied independently. This was also the common understanding of Marx's work on economy that was put forward by Soviet orthodoxy. Since this is the case, it remains a matter of controversy whether Marx's critique of political economy is to be understood as a critique of the political economy or, according to the orthodox interpretation another theory of economics. The critique of political economy is considered the most important and central project within marxism which has led to, and continues to lead to a large number of advanced approaches within and outside academic circles.\n\nContemporary Marxian critique of political economy \nRegarding contemporary Marxian critiques of political economy, these are generally accompanied by a rejection of more the more naturalistically influenced readings of Marx, as well as other readings later deemed (\"worldview marxism\"), that was popularized as late as toward the end of the 20th century.\n\nAccording to some scholars in this field, contemporary critiques of political economy and contemporary German Ökonomiekritik have been at least partly neglected in the anglophone world.\n\nFoundational concepts in Marx critique of political economy \n\n Labour and capital are historically specific forms of social relations, and labour is not the source of all wealth.\n Labour is the other side of the same coin as capital, labour presupposes capital, and capital presupposes labour.\n Money is not in any way something transhistorical or \"natural\" (which goes for the whole economy as well as the other categories specific to the mode of production), and gains its value/are constituted due to social relations rather than any inherent qualities.\n The individual doesn't exist in some form of vacuum but is rather enmeshed in social relations.\n\nMarx critique of the quasi-religious and ahistorical methodology of economists \nMarx described the view of contemporaneous economists and theologians on social phenomena as similarly unscientific.\n\nMarx continued to emphasize the ahistorical thought of the modern economists in the Grundrisse, where he among other endeavors, critiqued the liberal economist Mill.\n\nMarx also viewed the viewpoints which implicitly regarded the institutions of modernity as transhistorical as fundamentally deprived of historical understanding.\n\nAccording to Jacques Rancière, what Marx understood, and what the economists failed to recognize was that the value-form is not something essential, but merely a part of the capitalist mode of production.\n\nOn scientifically adequate research \nMarx also offered a critique regarding the idea of people being able to conduct scientific research in this domain. Or, as he stated it himself:\n\nOn vulgar economists \nMarx also used to criticize the false critique of political economy of his contemporaries. Something he did, sometimes even more forcefully, than he critiqued the classical, and hence 'vulgar' economists. He for example rejected Lasalle's 'iron and inexorable law' of wages, which he simply regarded as mere phraseology. As well as Proudhon's attempts to do what Hegel did for religion, law, etc., for political economy, as well as regarding what is social as subjective, and what was societal as merely subjective abstractions. In Marx's view, the errors of these authors led the workers' movement astray.\n\nInterpretations of Marx's critique of political economy \nSome scholars view Marx's critique as being a critique of commodity fetishism and the manner in which this concept expresses a criticism of modernity and its modes of socialization. Other scholars who engage with Marx's critique of political economy affirm the critique might assume a more Kantian sense, which transforms \"Marx's work into a foray concerning the imminent antinomies that lie at the heart of capitalism, where politics and economy intertwine in impossible ways.\"\n\nContemporary scholarship\n\nBaudrillard \nThe sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard has developed a critique of Marx political economy in his 1973 book Le Miroir de la production. He views Marx as being stuck in the very categories he wanted to critique, in particular production. In contrast to this, Baudrillard rather places emphasis on consumption. Baudrillard claims that the structure of the very sign is ingrained in very core of the commodity form. He claims that it establishes itself socially, as a total medium, a system which administers all social exchange. In Baudrillard's words, “[Marxism] convinces men that they are alienated by the sale of their labor power, thus censoring the [...] hypothesis that they might be alienated as labor power.”\n\nFisher \nMark Fisher critiqued economics, claiming that is was a bourgeois \"science\", that molded reality after its presuppositions, rather than critically examined reality. As he stated it himself:\n\n\"From the start, “economy” was the object-cause of a bourgeois “science”, which hyperstitionally bootstrapped itself into existence, and then bent and melted the matter of this and every other world to fit its presuppositions — the greatest theocratic achievement in a history that was never human, an immense conjuring trick which works all the better because it came shrouded in that damp grey English and Scottish empiricism which claimed to have seen off all gods.\"\n\nFeminist critique of political economy \nThere has been a growing literature of feminist viewpoints in new critique of political economy in recent years.\n\nDifferences between critics of economy and critics of economical issues \nOne may differentiate between those who engage in critique of political economy, which takes on a more ontological character, where authors criticise the fundamental concepts and social categories which reproduce the economy as an entity. While other authors, which the critics of political economy would consider only to deal with the surface phenomena of \"the economy\", have a naturalized understanding of these social processes.\n\nHence the epistemological differences between critics of economy and economists can also at times be very large.\n\nIn the eyes of the critics of political economy, the critics of economic issues merely critique \"certain practices\" in attempts to implicitly or explicitly 'rescue' the political economy; these authors might for example propose universal basic income or to implement a planned economy.\n\nList of critics of political economy\n\nContemporary\n\nSociologists \n\n Orlando Patterson, John Cowles professor of sociology at Harvard University has claimed that economics is a pseudoscience.\n\nPhilosophers \n\n Mark Fisher\n Slavoj Žižek\n\nHistorians \n\n Moishe Postone\n\nHistorical\n\nHistorians \n\n Roman Rozdolsky.\n\nPoets \n\n Carl Jonas Love Almqvist\n August Strindberg\n\nOthers \n\n Paul Lafargue.\n\nSee also \n\n Critique of labour\n Emancipation of Labour\n Hans-Georg Backhaus\n Helmut Reichelt\n Neue Marx-Lektüre\n\nNotes and references \n\n \n\n Johnsdotter S, Carlbom A, editors. Goda sanningar: debattklimatet och den kritiska forskningens villkor. Lund: Nordic Academic Press; 2010.\n Braudel F. Kapitalismens dynamik. (La Dynamique du Capitalisme) [Ny utg.]. Göteborg: Daidalos; 2001.\n Ankarloo D, editor. Marx ekonomikritik. Stockholm: Tidskriftsföreningen Fronesis; 2008.\n Eklund K. Vår ekonomi: en introduktion till världsekonomin. Upplaga 15. Lund: Studentlitteratur; 2020.\n Tidskriftsföreningen Fronesis. Arbete. Stockholm: Tidskriftsfören. Fronesis; 2002.\n Baudrillard J. The Mirror of Production. Telos Press; 1975.\n Marx K. Till kritiken av den politiska ekonomin. [Ny utg.]. Göteborg: Proletärkultur; 1981.\n\nFurther reading\n\nArticles\n\nGeneral articles \n\n (In Swedish) - Mortensen, Anders - Att göra \"penningens genius till sin slaf\". Om Carl Jonas Love Almqvists romantiska ekonomikritik - Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund. Årsbok.\n\nScholarly articles \n\n Granberg, Magnus \"Reactionary radicalism and the analysis of worker subjectivity in Marx’s critique of political economy\"\n\nBooks\n\nCritique of political economy \n\n Baudrillard, Jean - The Mirror of Production\n Baudrillard, Jean - For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign\n Gibson-Graham, J. K. - The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy\n Bernard Steigler - For a New Critique of Political Economy\n\nOn Marx critique of political economy \n\n Murray, Patrick (2016), The mismeasure of wealth - Essays on Marx and social form. - Brill\n Pepperell, Nicole (2010), Disassembling Capital, RMIT University\n Postone, Moishe (1993) - Time labour and social domination\n\nNeue Marx-Lektüre\n\nHistory \n\n Bryer, Robert - Accounting for History in Marx's Capital: The Missing Link\n Kurz, Robert, 1943-2012, Schwarzbuch Kapitalismus: ein Abgesang auf die Marktwirtschaft (also known as: The Satanic Mills) - 2009 - Erweit. Neuasg. \n Pilling, Geoff - Marx's Capital, Philosophy and Political Economy\n\nClassic works \n\n \n Marx, Karl - Grundrisse\n Ruskin, John, Unto this Last LibriVox.\n\nEssays \n\n Postone, Moishe - Necessity, Labor and Time: A Reinterpretation of the Marxian Critique of Capitalism\n\nExternal links \n\n 1995-2004 Conference Papers - Critique Of Political Economy / International Working Group on Value Theory (COPE- IWGVT)\n A collection of material related to Marx critique of political economy\n Critique of Political Economy - a 2016 edition of the philosophy journal: crisis and critique\n (A lecture regarding Marx's critique of political economy.)\n Translated texts from a contemporary German group critical of political economy.\n\nCritique of political economy\nPhilosophy of economics\nSocial philosophy",
"Noogony is a general term for any theory of knowledge that attempts to explain the origin of concepts in the human mind by considering sense or a posteriori data as solely relevant.\n\nOverview\nThe word was used, famously, by Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason to refer to what he understood to be Locke's account of the origin of concepts. While Kant himself maintained that some concepts, e.g. cause and effect, did not arise from experience, he took Locke to be suggesting that all concepts came from experience.\n\nHistorically, Kant presents a caricature of Locke's position, not a completely accurate account of Locke's epistemology. Locke's actual theory of knowledge was more subtle than Kant seems to render it in his Critique. As Guyer/Wood note in their edition of the Critique:Presumably Kant here has in mind Locke's claim that sensation and reflection are the two sources of all our ideas, and is understanding Locke's reflection to be reflection on sensation only. This would be a misunderstanding of Locke, since Locke says that we get simple ideas from reflection on the \"operations of our own Mind,\" a doctrine which is actually a precursor to Kant's view that the laws of our own intuition and thinking furnish the forms of knowledge to be added to the empirical contents furnished by sensation, although of course Locke did not go very far in developing this doctrine; in particular, he did not see that mathematics and logic could be used as sources of information about the operations of the mind.\n\nSee also \n Noology\n Noogenesis\n\nReferences \n\nEpistemological theories\nImmanuel Kant\nKnowledge"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Novelist and critic",
"What types of novels did George Bernard Shaw write?",
"the closest Shaw had ever come to university education.",
"What was the name of one of his novels?",
"G.B.S.",
"What did he critique?",
"\"I had rashly taken up the case;"
] |
C_aa2ac1f67a034cec846ac6f222b244cc_1
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What interesting information is there?
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What interesting information is there about George Bernard Shaw?
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George Bernard Shaw
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Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty". By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players. In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature. Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw". In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano. On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it--he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals. After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator. From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886-87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions". The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons. The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882-83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886. In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic. Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950. From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence". CANNOTANSWER
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G.B.S.
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George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma and Caesar and Cleopatra.
Shaw's expressed views were often contentious; he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable, and although not a republican, castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success. In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion for which he received an Academy Award. His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by the late 1920s he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism and often wrote and spoke favourably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin. In the final decade of his life he made fewer public statements, but continued to write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged ninety-four, having refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 1946.
Since Shaw's death scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied, but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them.
Life
Early years
Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814–1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (née Gurly; 1830–1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853–1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855–1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty".
By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players.
In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature.
Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw".
In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano.
London
Early in 1876 Shaw learned from his mother that Agnes was dying of tuberculosis. He resigned from the land agents, and in March travelled to England to join his mother and Lucy at Agnes's funeral. He never again lived in Ireland, and did not visit it for twenty-nine years.
Initially, Shaw refused to seek clerical employment in London. His mother allowed him to live free of charge in her house in South Kensington, but he nevertheless needed an income. He had abandoned a teenage ambition to become a painter, and had not yet thought of writing for a living, but Lee found a little work for him, ghost-writing a musical column printed under Lee's name in a satirical weekly, The Hornet. Lee's relations with Bessie deteriorated after their move to London. Shaw maintained contact with Lee, who found him work as a rehearsal pianist and occasional singer.
Eventually Shaw was driven to applying for office jobs. In the interim he secured a reader's pass for the British Museum Reading Room (the forerunner of the British Library) and spent most weekdays there, reading and writing. His first attempt at drama, begun in 1878, was a blank-verse satirical piece on a religious theme. It was abandoned unfinished, as was his first try at a novel. His first completed novel, Immaturity (1879), was too grim to appeal to publishers and did not appear until the 1930s. He was employed briefly by the newly formed Edison Telephone Company in 1879–80, and as in Dublin achieved rapid promotion. Nonetheless, when the Edison firm merged with the rival Bell Telephone Company, Shaw chose not to seek a place in the new organisation. Thereafter he pursued a full-time career as an author.
For the next four years Shaw made a negligible income from writing, and was subsidised by his mother. In 1881, for the sake of economy, and increasingly as a matter of principle, he became a vegetarian. He grew a beard to hide a facial scar left by smallpox. In rapid succession he wrote two more novels: The Irrational Knot (1880) and Love Among the Artists (1881), but neither found a publisher; each was serialised a few years later in the socialist magazine Our Corner.
In 1880 Shaw began attending meetings of the Zetetical Society, whose objective was to "search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race". Here he met Sidney Webb, a junior civil servant who, like Shaw, was busy educating himself. Despite difference of style and temperament, the two quickly recognised qualities in each other and developed a lifelong friendship. Shaw later reflected: "You knew everything that I didn't know and I knew everything you didn't know ... We had everything to learn from one another and brains enough to do it".
Shaw's next attempt at drama was a one-act playlet in French, Un Petit Drame, written in 1884 but not published in his lifetime. In the same year the critic William Archer suggested a collaboration, with a plot by Archer and dialogue by Shaw. The project foundered, but Shaw returned to the draft as the basis of Widowers' Houses in 1892, and the connection with Archer proved of immense value to Shaw's career.
Political awakening: Marxism, socialism, Fabian Society
On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it—he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals.
After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator.
From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886–87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties.
Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions".
Novelist and critic
The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons.
The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882–83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886.
In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic.
Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950.
From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence".
Playwright and politician: 1890s
After using the plot of the aborted 1884 collaboration with Archer to complete Widowers' Houses (it was staged twice in London, in December 1892), Shaw continued writing plays. At first he made slow progress; The Philanderer, written in 1893 but not published until 1898, had to wait until 1905 for a stage production. Similarly, Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) was written five years before publication and nine years before reaching the stage.
Shaw's first play to bring him financial success was Arms and the Man (1894), a mock-Ruritanian comedy satirising conventions of love, military honour and class. The press found the play overlong, and accused Shaw of mediocrity, sneering at heroism and patriotism, heartless cleverness, and copying W.S.Gilbert's style. The public took a different view, and the management of the theatre staged extra matinée performances to meet the demand. The play ran from April to July, toured the provinces and was staged in New York. It earned him £341 in royalties in its first year, a sufficient sum to enable him to give up his salaried post as a music critic. Among the cast of the London production was Florence Farr, with whom Shaw had a romantic relationship between 1890 and 1894, much resented by Jenny Patterson.
The success of Arms and the Man was not immediately replicated. Candida, which presented a young woman making a conventional romantic choice for unconventional reasons, received a single performance in South Shields in 1895; in 1897 a playlet about Napoleon called The Man of Destiny had a single staging at Croydon. In the 1890s Shaw's plays were better known in print than on the West End stage; his biggest success of the decade was in New York in 1897, when Richard Mansfield's production of the historical melodrama The Devil's Disciple earned the author more than £2,000 in royalties.
In January 1893, as a Fabian delegate, Shaw attended the Bradford conference which led to the foundation of the Independent Labour Party. He was sceptical about the new party, and scorned the likelihood that it could switch the allegiance of the working class from sport to politics. He persuaded the conference to adopt resolutions abolishing indirect taxation, and taxing unearned income "to extinction". Back in London, Shaw produced what Margaret Cole, in her Fabian history, terms a "grand philippic" against the minority Liberal administration that had taken power in 1892. To Your Tents, O Israel excoriated the government for ignoring social issues and concentrating solely on Irish Home Rule, a matter Shaw declared of no relevance to socialism. In 1894 the Fabian Society received a substantial bequest from a sympathiser, Henry Hunt Hutchinson—Holroyd mentions £10,000. Webb, who chaired the board of trustees appointed to supervise the legacy, proposed to use most of it to found a school of economics and politics. Shaw demurred; he thought such a venture was contrary to the specified purpose of the legacy. He was eventually persuaded to support the proposal, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) opened in the summer of 1895.
By the later 1890s Shaw's political activities lessened as he concentrated on making his name as a dramatist. In 1897 he was persuaded to fill an uncontested vacancy for a "vestryman" (parish councillor) in London's St Pancras district. At least initially, Shaw took to his municipal responsibilities seriously; when London government was reformed in 1899 and the St Pancras vestry became the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, he was elected to the newly formed borough council.
In 1898, as a result of overwork, Shaw's health broke down. He was nursed by Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a rich Anglo-Irish woman whom he had met through the Webbs. The previous year she had proposed that she and Shaw should marry. He had declined, but when she insisted on nursing him in a house in the country, Shaw, concerned that this might cause scandal, agreed to their marriage. The ceremony took place on 1 June 1898, in the register office in Covent Garden. The bride and bridegroom were both aged forty-one. In the view of the biographer and critic St John Ervine, "their life together was entirely felicitous". There were no children of the marriage, which it is generally believed was never consummated; whether this was wholly at Charlotte's wish, as Shaw liked to suggest, is less widely credited. In the early weeks of the marriage Shaw was much occupied writing his Marxist analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, published as The Perfect Wagnerite late in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws found a country home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire; they renamed the house "Shaw's Corner", and lived there for the rest of their lives. They retained a London flat in the Adelphi and later at Whitehall Court.
Stage success: 1900–1914
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Shaw secured a firm reputation as a playwright. In 1904 J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker established a company at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, Chelsea to present modern drama. Over the next five years they staged fourteen of Shaw's plays. The first, John Bull's Other Island, a comedy about an Englishman in Ireland, attracted leading politicians and was seen by Edward VII, who laughed so much that he broke his chair. The play was withheld from Dublin's Abbey Theatre, for fear of the affront it might provoke, although it was shown at the city's Royal Theatre in November 1907. Shaw later wrote that William Butler Yeats, who had requested the play, "got rather more than he bargained for... It was uncongenial to the whole spirit of the neo-Gaelic movement, which is bent on creating a new Ireland after its own ideal, whereas my play is a very uncompromising presentment of the real old Ireland." Nonetheless, Shaw and Yeats were close friends; Yeats and Lady Gregory tried unsuccessfully to persuade Shaw to take up the vacant co-directorship of the Abbey Theatre after J. M. Synge's death in 1909. Shaw admired other figures in the Irish Literary Revival, including George Russell and James Joyce, and was a close friend of Seán O'Casey, who was inspired to become a playwright after reading John Bull's Other Island.
Man and Superman, completed in 1902, was a success both at the Royal Court in 1905 and in Robert Loraine's New York production in the same year. Among the other Shaw works presented by Vedrenne and Granville-Barker were Major Barbara (1905), depicting the contrasting morality of arms manufacturers and the Salvation Army; The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a mostly serious piece about professional ethics; and Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw's counterblast to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, seen in New York in 1906 and in London the following year.
Now prosperous and established, Shaw experimented with unorthodox theatrical forms described by his biographer Stanley Weintraub as "discussion drama" and "serious farce". These plays included Getting Married (premiered 1908), The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1909), Misalliance (1910), and Fanny's First Play (1911). Blanco Posnet was banned on religious grounds by the Lord Chamberlain (the official theatre censor in England), and was produced instead in Dublin; it filled the Abbey Theatre to capacity. Fanny's First Play, a comedy about suffragettes, had the longest initial run of any Shaw play—622 performances.
Androcles and the Lion (1912), a less heretical study of true and false religious attitudes than Blanco Posnet, ran for eight weeks in September and October 1913. It was followed by one of Shaw's most successful plays, Pygmalion, written in 1912 and staged in Vienna the following year, and in Berlin shortly afterwards. Shaw commented, "It is the custom of the English press when a play of mine is produced, to inform the world that it is not a play—that it is dull, blasphemous, unpopular, and financially unsuccessful. ... Hence arose an urgent demand on the part of the managers of Vienna and Berlin that I should have my plays performed by them first." The British production opened in April 1914, starring Sir Herbert Tree and Mrs Patrick Campbell as, respectively, a professor of phonetics and a cockney flower-girl. There had earlier been a romantic liaison between Shaw and Campbell that caused Charlotte Shaw considerable concern, but by the time of the London premiere it had ended. The play attracted capacity audiences until July, when Tree insisted on going on holiday, and the production closed. His co-star then toured with the piece in the US.
Fabian years: 1900–1913
In 1899, when the Boer War began, Shaw wished the Fabians to take a neutral stance on what he deemed, like Home Rule, to be a "non-Socialist" issue. Others, including the future Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, wanted unequivocal opposition, and resigned from the society when it followed Shaw. In the Fabians' war manifesto, Fabianism and the Empire (1900), Shaw declared that "until the Federation of the World becomes an accomplished fact we must accept the most responsible Imperial federations available as a substitute for it".
As the new century began, Shaw became increasingly disillusioned by the limited impact of the Fabians on national politics. Thus, although a nominated Fabian delegate, he did not attend the London conference at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street in February 1900, that created the Labour Representation Committee—precursor of the modern Labour Party. By 1903, when his term as borough councillor expired, he had lost his earlier enthusiasm, writing: "After six years of Borough Councilling I am convinced that the borough councils should be abolished". Nevertheless, in 1904 he stood in the London County Council elections. After an eccentric campaign, which Holroyd characterises as "[making] absolutely certain of not getting in", he was duly defeated. It was Shaw's final foray into electoral politics. Nationally, the 1906 general election produced a huge Liberal majority and an intake of 29 Labour members. Shaw viewed this outcome with scepticism; he had a low opinion of the new prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and saw the Labour members as inconsequential: "I apologise to the Universe for my connection with such a body".
In the years after the 1906 election, Shaw felt that the Fabians needed fresh leadership, and saw this in the form of his fellow-writer H. G. Wells, who had joined the society in February 1903. Wells's ideas for reform—particularly his proposals for closer cooperation with the Independent Labour Party—placed him at odds with the society's "Old Gang", led by Shaw. According to Cole, Wells "had minimal capacity for putting [his ideas] across in public meetings against Shaw's trained and practised virtuosity". In Shaw's view, "the Old Gang did not extinguish Mr Wells, he annihilated himself". Wells resigned from the society in September 1908; Shaw remained a member, but left the executive in April 1911. He later wondered whether the Old Gang should have given way to Wells some years earlier: "God only knows whether the Society had not better have done it". Although less active—he blamed his advancing years—Shaw remained a Fabian.
In 1912 Shaw invested £1,000 for a one-fifth share in the Webbs' new publishing venture, a socialist weekly magazine called The New Statesman, which appeared in April 1913. He became a founding director, publicist, and in due course a contributor, mostly anonymously. He was soon at odds with the magazine's editor, Clifford Sharp, who by 1916 was rejecting his contributions—"the only paper in the world that refuses to print anything by me", according to Shaw.
First World War
After the First World War began in August 1914, Shaw produced his tract Common Sense About the War, which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable. Such a view was anathema in an atmosphere of fervent patriotism, and offended many of Shaw's friends; Ervine records that "[h]is appearance at any public function caused the instant departure of many of those present."
Despite his errant reputation, Shaw's propagandist skills were recognised by the British authorities, and early in 1917 he was invited by Field Marshal Haig to visit the Western Front battlefields. Shaw's 10,000-word report, which emphasised the human aspects of the soldier's life, was well received, and he became less of a lone voice. In April 1917 he joined the national consensus in welcoming America's entry into the war: "a first class moral asset to the common cause against junkerism".
Three short plays by Shaw were premiered during the war. The Inca of Perusalem, written in 1915, encountered problems with the censor for burlesquing not only the enemy but the British military command; it was performed in 1916 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. O'Flaherty V.C., satirising the government's attitude to Irish recruits, was banned in the UK and was presented at a Royal Flying Corps base in Belgium in 1917. Augustus Does His Bit, a genial farce, was granted a licence; it opened at the Royal Court in January 1917.
Ireland
Shaw had long supported the principle of Irish Home Rule within the British Empire (which he thought should become the British Commonwealth).
In April 1916 he wrote scathingly in The New York Times about militant Irish nationalism: "In point of learning nothing and forgetting nothing these fellow-patriots of mine leave the Bourbons nowhere." Total independence, he asserted, was impractical; alliance with a bigger power (preferably England) was essential. The Dublin Easter Rising later that month took him by surprise. After its suppression by British forces, he expressed horror at the summary execution of the rebel leaders, but continued to believe in some form of Anglo-Irish union. In How to Settle the Irish Question (1917), he envisaged a federal arrangement, with national and imperial parliaments. Holroyd records that by this time the separatist party Sinn Féin was in the ascendency, and Shaw's and other moderate schemes were forgotten.
In the postwar period, Shaw despaired of the British government's coercive policies towards Ireland, and joined his fellow-writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton in publicly condemning these actions. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to the partition of Ireland between north and south, a provision that dismayed Shaw. In 1922 civil war broke out in the south between its pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions, the former of whom had established the Irish Free State. Shaw visited Dublin in August, and met Michael Collins, then head of the Free State's Provisional Government. Shaw was much impressed by Collins, and was saddened when, three days later, the Irish leader was ambushed and killed by anti-treaty forces. In a letter to Collins's sister, Shaw wrote: "I met Michael for the first and last time on Saturday last, and am very glad I did. I rejoice in his memory, and will not be so disloyal to it as to snivel over his valiant death". Shaw remained a British subject all his life, but took dual British-Irish nationality in 1934.
1920s
Shaw's first major work to appear after the war was Heartbreak House, written in 1916–17 and performed in 1920. It was produced on Broadway in November, and was coolly received; according to The Times: "Mr Shaw on this occasion has more than usual to say and takes twice as long as usual to say it". After the London premiere in October 1921 The Times concurred with the American critics: "As usual with Mr Shaw, the play is about an hour too long", although containing "much entertainment and some profitable reflection". Ervine in The Observer thought the play brilliant but ponderously acted, except for Edith Evans as Lady Utterword.
Shaw's largest-scale theatrical work was Back to Methuselah, written in 1918–20 and staged in 1922. Weintraub describes it as "Shaw's attempt to fend off 'the bottomless pit of an utterly discouraging pessimism'". This cycle of five interrelated plays depicts evolution, and the effects of longevity, from the Garden of Eden to the year 31,920 AD. Critics found the five plays strikingly uneven in quality and invention. The original run was brief, and the work has been revived infrequently. Shaw felt he had exhausted his remaining creative powers in the huge span of this "Metabiological Pentateuch". He was now sixty-seven, and expected to write no more plays.
This mood was short-lived. In 1920 Joan of Arc was proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict XV; Shaw had long found Joan an interesting historical character, and his view of her veered between "half-witted genius" and someone of "exceptional sanity". He had considered writing a play about her in 1913, and the canonisation prompted him to return to the subject. He wrote Saint Joan in the middle months of 1923, and the play was premiered on Broadway in December. It was enthusiastically received there, and at its London premiere the following March. In Weintraub's phrase, "even the Nobel prize committee could no longer ignore Shaw after Saint Joan". The citation for the literature prize for 1925 praised his work as "... marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty". He accepted the award, but rejected the monetary prize that went with it, on the grounds that "My readers and my audiences provide me with more than sufficient money for my needs".
After Saint Joan, it was five years before Shaw wrote a play. From 1924, he spent four years writing what he described as his "magnum opus", a political treatise entitled The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. The book was published in 1928 and sold well. At the end of the decade Shaw produced his final Fabian tract, a commentary on the League of Nations. He described the League as "a school for the new international statesmanship as against the old Foreign Office diplomacy", but thought that it had not yet become the "Federation of the World".
Shaw returned to the theatre with what he called "a political extravaganza", The Apple Cart, written in late 1928. It was, in Ervine's view, unexpectedly popular, taking a conservative, monarchist, anti-democratic line that appealed to contemporary audiences. The premiere was in Warsaw in June 1928, and the first British production was two months later, at Sir Barry Jackson's inaugural Malvern Festival. The other eminent creative artist most closely associated with the festival was Sir Edward Elgar, with whom Shaw enjoyed a deep friendship and mutual regard. He described The Apple Cart to Elgar as "a scandalous Aristophanic burlesque of democratic politics, with a brief but shocking sex interlude".
During the 1920s Shaw began to lose faith in the idea that society could be changed through Fabian gradualism, and became increasingly fascinated with dictatorial methods. In 1922 he had welcomed Mussolini's accession to power in Italy, observing that amid the "indiscipline and muddle and Parliamentary deadlock", Mussolini was "the right kind of tyrant". Shaw was prepared to tolerate certain dictatorial excesses; Weintraub in his ODNB biographical sketch comments that Shaw's "flirtation with authoritarian inter-war regimes" took a long time to fade, and Beatrice Webb thought he was "obsessed" about Mussolini.
1930s
Shaw's enthusiasm for the Soviet Union dated to the early 1920s when he had hailed Lenin as "the one really interesting statesman in Europe". Having turned down several chances to visit, in 1931 he joined a party led by Nancy Astor. The carefully managed trip culminated in a lengthy meeting with Stalin, whom Shaw later described as "a Georgian gentleman" with no malice in him. At a dinner given in his honour, Shaw told the gathering: "I have seen all the 'terrors' and I was terribly pleased by them". In March 1933 Shaw was a co-signatory to a letter in The Manchester Guardian protesting at the continuing misrepresentation of Soviet achievements: "No lie is too fantastic, no slander is too stale ... for employment by the more reckless elements of the British press."
Shaw's admiration for Mussolini and Stalin demonstrated his growing belief that dictatorship was the only viable political arrangement. When the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in January 1933, Shaw described Hitler as "a very remarkable man, a very able man", and professed himself proud to be the only writer in England who was "scrupulously polite and just to Hitler". His principal admiration was for Stalin, whose regime he championed uncritically throughout the decade. Shaw saw the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as a triumph for Stalin who, he said, now had Hitler under his thumb.
Shaw's first play of the decade was Too True to be Good, written in 1931 and premiered in Boston in February 1932. The reception was unenthusiastic. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times commenting that Shaw had "yielded to the impulse to write without having a subject", judged the play a "rambling and indifferently tedious conversation". The correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune said that most of the play was "discourse, unbelievably long lectures" and that although the audience enjoyed the play it was bewildered by it.
During the decade Shaw travelled widely and frequently. Most of his journeys were with Charlotte; she enjoyed voyages on ocean liners, and he found peace to write during the long spells at sea. Shaw met an enthusiastic welcome in South Africa in 1932, despite his strong remarks about the racial divisions of the country. In December 1932 the couple embarked on a round-the-world cruise. In March 1933 they arrived at San Francisco, to begin Shaw's first visit to the US. He had earlier refused to go to "that awful country, that uncivilized place", "unfit to govern itself... illiberal, superstitious, crude, violent, anarchic and arbitrary". He visited Hollywood, with which he was unimpressed, and New York, where he lectured to a capacity audience in the Metropolitan Opera House. Harried by the intrusive attentions of the press, Shaw was glad when his ship sailed from New York harbour. New Zealand, which he and Charlotte visited the following year, struck him as "the best country I've been in"; he urged its people to be more confident and loosen their dependence on trade with Britain. He used the weeks at sea to complete two plays—The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and The Six of Calais—and begin work on a third, The Millionairess.
Despite his contempt for Hollywood and its aesthetic values, Shaw was enthusiastic about cinema, and in the middle of the decade wrote screenplays for prospective film versions of Pygmalion and Saint Joan. The latter was never made, but Shaw entrusted the rights to the former to the unknown Gabriel Pascal, who produced it at Pinewood Studios in 1938. Shaw was determined that Hollywood should have nothing to do with the film, but was powerless to prevent it from winning one Academy Award ("Oscar"); he described his award for "best-written screenplay" as an insult, coming from such a source. He became the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. In a 1993 study of the Oscars, Anthony Holden observes that Pygmalion was soon spoken of as having "lifted movie-making from illiteracy to literacy".
Shaw's final plays of the 1930s were Cymbeline Refinished (1936), Geneva (1936) and In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939). The first, a fantasy reworking of Shakespeare, made little impression, but the second, a satire on European dictators, attracted more notice, much of it unfavourable. In particular, Shaw's parody of Hitler as "Herr Battler" was considered mild, almost sympathetic. The third play, an historical conversation piece first seen at Malvern, ran briefly in London in May 1940. James Agate commented that the play contained nothing to which even the most conservative audiences could take exception, and though it was long and lacking in dramatic action only "witless and idle" theatregoers would object. After their first runs none of the three plays were seen again in the West End during Shaw's lifetime.
Towards the end of the decade, both Shaws began to suffer ill health. Charlotte was increasingly incapacitated by Paget's disease of bone, and he developed pernicious anaemia. His treatment, involving injections of concentrated animal liver, was successful, but this breach of his vegetarian creed distressed him and brought down condemnation from militant vegetarians.
Second World War and final years
Although Shaw's works since The Apple Cart had been received without great enthusiasm, his earlier plays were revived in the West End throughout the Second World War, starring such actors as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat. In 1944 nine Shaw plays were staged in London, including Arms and the Man with Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and Margaret Leighton in the leading roles. Two touring companies took his plays all round Britain. The revival in his popularity did not tempt Shaw to write a new play, and he concentrated on prolific journalism. A second Shaw film produced by Pascal, Major Barbara (1941), was less successful both artistically and commercially than Pygmalion, partly because of Pascal's insistence on directing, to which he was unsuited.
Following the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 and the rapid conquest of Poland, Shaw was accused of defeatism when, in a New Statesman article, he declared the war over and demanded a peace conference. Nevertheless, when he became convinced that a negotiated peace was impossible, he publicly urged the neutral United States to join the fight. The London blitz of 1940–41 led the Shaws, both in their mid-eighties, to live full-time at Ayot St Lawrence. Even there they were not immune from enemy air raids, and stayed on occasion with Nancy Astor at her country house, Cliveden. In 1943, the worst of the London bombing over, the Shaws moved back to Whitehall Court, where medical help for Charlotte was more easily arranged. Her condition deteriorated, and she died in September.
Shaw's final political treatise, Everybody's Political What's What, was published in 1944. Holroyd describes this as "a rambling narrative ... that repeats ideas he had given better elsewhere and then repeats itself". The book sold well—85,000 copies by the end of the year. After Hitler's suicide in May 1945, Shaw approved of the formal condolences offered by the Irish Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, at the German embassy in Dublin. Shaw disapproved of the postwar trials of the defeated German leaders, as an act of self-righteousness: "We are all potential criminals".
Pascal was given a third opportunity to film Shaw's work with Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). It cost three times its original budget and was rated "the biggest financial failure in the history of British cinema". The film was poorly received by British critics, although American reviews were friendlier. Shaw thought its lavishness nullified the drama, and he considered the film "a poor imitation of Cecil B. de Mille".
In 1946, the year of Shaw's ninetieth birthday, he accepted the freedom of Dublin and became the first honorary freeman of the borough of St Pancras, London. In the same year the British government asked Shaw informally whether he would accept the Order of Merit. He declined, believing that an author's merit could only be determined by the posthumous verdict of history. 1946 saw the publication, as The Crime of Imprisonment, of the preface Shaw had written 20 years previously to a study of prison conditions. It was widely praised; a reviewer in the American Journal of Public Health considered it essential reading for any student of the American criminal justice system.
Shaw continued to write into his nineties. His last plays were Buoyant Billions (1947), his final full-length work; Farfetched Fables (1948) a set of six short plays revisiting several of his earlier themes such as evolution; a comic play for puppets, Shakes versus Shav (1949), a ten-minute piece in which Shakespeare and Shaw trade insults; and Why She Would Not (1950), which Shaw described as "a little comedy", written in one week shortly before his ninety-fourth birthday.
During his later years, Shaw enjoyed tending the gardens at Shaw's Corner. He died at the age of ninety-four of renal failure precipitated by injuries incurred when falling while pruning a tree. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 6 November 1950. His ashes, mixed with those of Charlotte, were scattered along footpaths and around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden.
Works
Plays
Shaw published a collected edition of his plays in 1934, comprising forty-two works. He wrote a further twelve in the remaining sixteen years of his life, mostly one-act pieces. Including eight earlier plays that he chose to omit from his published works, the total is sixty-two.
Early works
Shaw's first three full-length plays dealt with social issues. He later grouped them as "Plays Unpleasant". Widowers' Houses (1892) concerns the landlords of slum properties, and introduces the first of Shaw's New Women—a recurring feature of later plays. The Philanderer (1893) develops the theme of the New Woman, draws on Ibsen, and has elements of Shaw's personal relationships, the character of Julia being based on Jenny Patterson. In a 2003 study Judith Evans describes Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) as "undoubtedly the most challenging" of the three Plays Unpleasant, taking Mrs Warren's profession—prostitute and, later, brothel-owner—as a metaphor for a prostituted society.
Shaw followed the first trilogy with a second, published as "Plays Pleasant". Arms and the Man (1894) conceals beneath a mock-Ruritanian comic romance a Fabian parable contrasting impractical idealism with pragmatic socialism. The central theme of Candida (1894) is a woman's choice between two men; the play contrasts the outlook and aspirations of a Christian Socialist and a poetic idealist. The third of the Pleasant group, You Never Can Tell (1896), portrays social mobility, and the gap between generations, particularly in how they approach social relations in general and mating in particular.
The "Three Plays for Puritans"—comprising The Devil's Disciple (1896), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899)—all centre on questions of empire and imperialism, a major topic of political discourse in the 1890s. The three are set, respectively, in 1770s America, Ancient Egypt, and 1890s Morocco. The Gadfly, an adaptation of the popular novel by Ethel Voynich, was unfinished and unperformed. The Man of Destiny (1895) is a short curtain raiser about Napoleon.
1900–1909
Shaw's major plays of the first decade of the twentieth century address individual social, political or ethical issues. Man and Superman (1902) stands apart from the others in both its subject and its treatment, giving Shaw's interpretation of creative evolution in a combination of drama and associated printed text. The Admirable Bashville (1901), a blank verse dramatisation of Shaw's novel Cashel Byron's Profession, focuses on the imperial relationship between Britain and Africa. John Bull's Other Island (1904), comically depicting the prevailing relationship between Britain and Ireland, was popular at the time but fell out of the general repertoire in later years. Major Barbara (1905) presents ethical questions in an unconventional way, confounding expectations that in the depiction of an armaments manufacturer on the one hand and the Salvation Army on the other the moral high ground must invariably be held by the latter. The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a play about medical ethics and moral choices in allocating scarce treatment, was described by Shaw as a tragedy. With a reputation for presenting characters who did not resemble real flesh and blood, he was challenged by Archer to present an on-stage death, and here did so, with a deathbed scene for the anti-hero.
Getting Married (1908) and Misalliance (1909)—the latter seen by Judith Evans as a companion piece to the former—are both in what Shaw called his "disquisitionary" vein, with the emphasis on discussion of ideas rather than on dramatic events or vivid characterisation. Shaw wrote seven short plays during the decade; they are all comedies, ranging from the deliberately absurd Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction (1905) to the satirical Press Cuttings (1909).
1910–1919
In the decade from 1910 to the aftermath of the First World War Shaw wrote four full-length plays, the third and fourth of which are among his most frequently staged works. Fanny's First Play (1911) continues his earlier examinations of middle-class British society from a Fabian viewpoint, with additional touches of melodrama and an epilogue in which theatre critics discuss the play. Androcles and the Lion (1912), which Shaw began writing as a play for children, became a study of the nature of religion and how to put Christian precepts into practice. Pygmalion (1912) is a Shavian study of language and speech and their importance in society and in personal relationships. To correct the impression left by the original performers that the play portrayed a romantic relationship between the two main characters Shaw rewrote the ending to make it clear that the heroine will marry another, minor character. Shaw's only full-length play from the war years is Heartbreak House (1917), which in his words depicts "cultured, leisured Europe before the war" drifting towards disaster. Shaw named Shakespeare (King Lear) and Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard) as important influences on the piece, and critics have found elements drawing on Congreve (The Way of the World) and Ibsen (The Master Builder).
The short plays range from genial historical drama in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and Great Catherine (1910 and 1913) to a study of polygamy in Overruled; three satirical works about the war (The Inca of Perusalem, O'Flaherty V.C. and Augustus Does His Bit, 1915–16); a piece that Shaw called "utter nonsense" (The Music Cure, 1914) and a brief sketch about a "Bolshevik empress" (Annajanska, 1917).
1920–1950
Saint Joan (1923) drew widespread praise both for Shaw and for Sybil Thorndike, for whom he wrote the title role and who created the part in Britain. In the view of the commentator Nicholas Grene, Shaw's Joan, a "no-nonsense mystic, Protestant and nationalist before her time" is among the 20th century's classic leading female roles. The Apple Cart (1929) was Shaw's last popular success. He gave both that play and its successor, Too True to Be Good (1931), the subtitle "A political extravaganza", although the two works differ greatly in their themes; the first presents the politics of a nation (with a brief royal love-scene as an interlude) and the second, in Judith Evans's words, "is concerned with the social mores of the individual, and is nebulous." Shaw's plays of the 1930s were written in the shadow of worsening national and international political events. Once again, with On the Rocks (1933) and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934), a political comedy with a clear plot was followed by an introspective drama. The first play portrays a British prime minister considering, but finally rejecting, the establishment of a dictatorship; the second is concerned with polygamy and eugenics and ends with the Day of Judgement.
The Millionairess (1934) is a farcical depiction of the commercial and social affairs of a successful businesswoman. Geneva (1936) lampoons the feebleness of the League of Nations compared with the dictators of Europe. In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939), described by Weintraub as a warm, discursive high comedy, also depicts authoritarianism, but less satirically than Geneva. As in earlier decades, the shorter plays were generally comedies, some historical and others addressing various political and social preoccupations of the author. Ervine writes of Shaw's later work that although it was still "astonishingly vigorous and vivacious" it showed unmistakable signs of his age. "The best of his work in this period, however, was full of wisdom and the beauty of mind often displayed by old men who keep their wits about them."
Music and drama reviews
Music
Shaw's collected musical criticism, published in three volumes, runs to more than 2,700 pages. It covers the British musical scene from 1876 to 1950, but the core of the collection dates from his six years as music critic of The Star and The World in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In his view music criticism should be interesting to everyone rather than just the musical élite, and he wrote for the non-specialist, avoiding technical jargon—"Mesopotamian words like 'the dominant of D major'". He was fiercely partisan in his columns, promoting the music of Wagner and decrying that of Brahms and those British composers such as Stanford and Parry whom he saw as Brahmsian. He campaigned against the prevailing fashion for performances of Handel oratorios with huge amateur choirs and inflated orchestration, calling for "a chorus of twenty capable artists". He railed against opera productions unrealistically staged or sung in languages the audience did not speak.
Drama
In Shaw's view, the London theatres of the 1890s presented too many revivals of old plays and not enough new work. He campaigned against "melodrama, sentimentality, stereotypes and worn-out conventions". As a music critic he had frequently been able to concentrate on analysing new works, but in the theatre he was often obliged to fall back on discussing how various performers tackled well-known plays. In a study of Shaw's work as a theatre critic, E. J. West writes that Shaw "ceaselessly compared and contrasted artists in interpretation and in technique". Shaw contributed more than 150 articles as theatre critic for The Saturday Review, in which he assessed more than 212 productions. He championed Ibsen's plays when many theatregoers regarded them as outrageous, and his 1891 book Quintessence of Ibsenism remained a classic throughout the twentieth century. Of contemporary dramatists writing for the West End stage he rated Oscar Wilde above the rest: "... our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theatre". Shaw's collected criticisms were published as Our Theatres in the Nineties in 1932.
Shaw maintained a provocative and frequently self-contradictory attitude to Shakespeare (whose name he insisted on spelling "Shakespear"). Many found him difficult to take seriously on the subject; Duff Cooper observed that by attacking Shakespeare, "it is Shaw who appears a ridiculous pigmy shaking his fist at a mountain." Shaw was, nevertheless, a knowledgeable Shakespearian, and in an article in which he wrote, "With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind against his," he also said, "But I am bound to add that I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespear. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers, and will outlast a thousand more". Shaw had two regular targets for his more extreme comments about Shakespeare: undiscriminating "Bardolaters", and actors and directors who presented insensitively cut texts in over-elaborate productions. He was continually drawn back to Shakespeare, and wrote three plays with Shakespearean themes: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Cymbeline Refinished and Shakes versus Shav. In a 2001 analysis of Shaw's Shakespearian criticisms, Robert Pierce concludes that Shaw, who was no academic, saw Shakespeare's plays—like all theatre—from an author's practical point of view: "Shaw helps us to get away from the Romantics' picture of Shakespeare as a titanic genius, one whose art cannot be analyzed or connected with the mundane considerations of theatrical conditions and profit and loss, or with a specific staging and cast of actors."
Political and social writings
Shaw's political and social commentaries were published variously in Fabian tracts, in essays, in two full-length books, in innumerable newspaper and journal articles and in prefaces to his plays. The majority of Shaw's Fabian tracts were published anonymously, representing the voice of the society rather than of Shaw, although the society's secretary Edward Pease later confirmed Shaw's authorship. According to Holroyd, the business of the early Fabians, mainly under the influence of Shaw, was to "alter history by rewriting it". Shaw's talent as a pamphleteer was put to immediate use in the production of the society's manifesto—after which, says Holroyd, he was never again so succinct.
After the turn of the twentieth century, Shaw increasingly propagated his ideas through the medium of his plays. An early critic, writing in 1904, observed that Shaw's dramas provided "a pleasant means" of proselytising his socialism, adding that "Mr Shaw's views are to be sought especially in the prefaces to his plays". After loosening his ties with the Fabian movement in 1911, Shaw's writings were more personal and often provocative; his response to the furore following the issue of Common Sense About the War in 1914, was to prepare a sequel, More Common Sense About the War. In this, he denounced the pacifist line espoused by Ramsay MacDonald and other socialist leaders, and proclaimed his readiness to shoot all pacifists rather than cede them power and influence. On the advice of Beatrice Webb, this pamphlet remained unpublished.
The Intelligent Woman's Guide, Shaw's main political treatise of the 1920s, attracted both admiration and criticism. MacDonald considered it the world's most important book since the Bible; Harold Laski thought its arguments outdated and lacking in concern for individual freedoms. Shaw's increasing flirtation with dictatorial methods is evident in many of his subsequent pronouncements. A New York Times report dated 10 December 1933 quoted a recent Fabian Society lecture in which Shaw had praised Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin: "[T]hey are trying to get something done, [and] are adopting methods by which it is possible to get something done". As late as the Second World War, in Everybody's Political What's What, Shaw blamed the Allies' "abuse" of their 1918 victory for the rise of Hitler, and hoped that, after defeat, the Führer would escape retribution "to enjoy a comfortable retirement in Ireland or some other neutral country". These sentiments, according to the Irish philosopher-poet Thomas Duddy, "rendered much of the Shavian outlook passé and contemptible".
"Creative evolution", Shaw's version of the new science of eugenics, became an increasing theme in his political writing after 1900. He introduced his theories in The Revolutionist's Handbook (1903), an appendix to Man and Superman, and developed them further during the 1920s in Back to Methuselah. A 1946 Life magazine article observed that Shaw had "always tended to look at people more as a biologist than as an artist". By 1933, in the preface to On the Rocks, he was writing that "if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it"; critical opinion is divided on whether this was intended as irony. In an article in the American magazine Liberty in September 1938, Shaw included the statement: "There are many people in the world who ought to be liquidated". Many commentators assumed that such comments were intended as a joke, although in the worst possible taste. Otherwise, Life magazine concluded, "this silliness can be classed with his more innocent bad guesses".
Fiction
Shaw's fiction-writing was largely confined to the five unsuccessful novels written in the period 1879–1885. Immaturity (1879) is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of mid-Victorian England, Shaw's "own David Copperfield" according to Weintraub. The Irrational Knot (1880) is a critique of conventional marriage, in which Weintraub finds the characterisations lifeless, "hardly more than animated theories". Shaw was pleased with his third novel, Love Among the Artists (1881), feeling that it marked a turning point in his development as a thinker, although he had no more success with it than with its predecessors. Cashel Byron's Profession (1882) is, says Weintraub, an indictment of society which anticipates Shaw's first full-length play, Mrs Warren's Profession. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s.
Shaw's only subsequent fiction of any substance was his 1932 novella The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, written during a visit to South Africa in 1932. The eponymous girl, intelligent, inquisitive, and converted to Christianity by insubstantial missionary teaching, sets out to find God, on a journey that after many adventures and encounters, leads her to a secular conclusion. The story, on publication, offended some Christians and was banned in Ireland by the Board of Censors.
Letters and diaries
Shaw was a prolific correspondent throughout his life. His letters, edited by Dan H. Laurence, were published between 1965 and 1988. Shaw once estimated his letters would occupy twenty volumes; Laurence commented that, unedited, they would fill many more. Shaw wrote more than a quarter of a million letters, of which about ten per cent have survived; 2,653 letters are printed in Laurence's four volumes. Among Shaw's many regular correspondents were his childhood friend Edward McNulty; his theatrical colleagues (and amitiés amoureuses) Mrs Patrick Campbell and Ellen Terry; writers including Lord Alfred Douglas, H. G. Wells and G. K. Chesterton; the boxer Gene Tunney; the nun Laurentia McLachlan; and the art expert Sydney Cockerell. In 2007 a 316-page volume consisting entirely of Shaw's letters to The Times was published.
Shaw's diaries for 1885–1897, edited by Weintraub, were published in two volumes, with a total of 1,241 pages, in 1986. Reviewing them, the Shaw scholar Fred Crawford wrote: "Although the primary interest for Shavians is the material that supplements what we already know about Shaw's life and work, the diaries are also valuable as a historical and sociological document of English life at the end of the Victorian age." After 1897, pressure of other writing led Shaw to give up keeping a diary.
Miscellaneous and autobiographical
Through his journalism, pamphlets and occasional longer works, Shaw wrote on many subjects. His range of interest and enquiry included vivisection, vegetarianism, religion, language, cinema and photography, on all of which he wrote and spoke copiously. Collections of his writings on these and other subjects were published, mainly after his death, together with volumes of "wit and wisdom" and general journalism.
Despite the many books written about him (Holroyd counts 80 by 1939) Shaw's autobiographical output, apart from his diaries, was relatively slight. He gave interviews to newspapers—"GBS Confesses", to The Daily Mail in 1904 is an example—and provided sketches to would-be biographers whose work was rejected by Shaw and never published. In 1939 Shaw drew on these materials to produce Shaw Gives Himself Away, a miscellany which, a year before his death, he revised and republished as Sixteen Self Sketches (there were seventeen). He made it clear to his publishers that this slim book was in no sense a full autobiography.
Beliefs and opinions
Throughout his lifetime Shaw professed many beliefs, often contradictory. This inconsistency was partly an intentional provocation—the Spanish scholar-statesman Salvador de Madariaga describes Shaw as "a pole of negative electricity set in a people of positive electricity". In one area at least Shaw was constant: in his lifelong refusal to follow normal English forms of spelling and punctuation. He favoured archaic spellings such as "shew" for "show"; he dropped the "u" in words like "honour" and "favour"; and wherever possible he rejected the apostrophe in contractions such as "won't" or "that's". In his will, Shaw ordered that, after some specified legacies, his remaining assets were to form a trust to pay for fundamental reform of the English alphabet into a phonetic version of forty letters. Though Shaw's intentions were clear, his drafting was flawed, and the courts initially ruled the intended trust void. A later out-of-court agreement provided a sum of £8,300 for spelling reform; the bulk of his fortune went to the residuary legatees—the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the National Gallery of Ireland. Most of the £8,300 went on a special phonetic edition of Androcles and the Lion in the Shavian alphabet, published in 1962 to a largely indifferent reception.
Shaw's views on religion and Christianity were less consistent. Having in his youth proclaimed himself an atheist, in middle age he explained this as a reaction against the Old Testament image of a vengeful Jehovah. By the early twentieth century, he termed himself a "mystic", although Gary Sloan, in an essay on Shaw's beliefs, disputes his credentials as such. In 1913 Shaw declared that he was not religious "in the sectarian sense", aligning himself with Jesus as "a person of no religion". In the preface (1915) to Androcles and the Lion, Shaw asks "Why not give Christianity a chance?" contending that Britain's social order resulted from the continuing choice of Barabbas over Christ. In a broadcast just before the Second World War, Shaw invoked the Sermon on the Mount, "a very moving exhortation, and it gives you one first-rate tip, which is to do good to those who despitefully use you and persecute you". In his will, Shaw stated that his "religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative revolution". He requested that no one should imply that he accepted the beliefs of any specific religious organisation, and that no memorial to him should "take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice".
Shaw espoused racial equality, and inter-marriage between people of different races. Despite his expressed wish to be fair to Hitler, he called anti-Semitism "the hatred of the lazy, ignorant fat-headed Gentile for the pertinacious Jew who, schooled by adversity to use his brains to the utmost, outdoes him in business". In The Jewish Chronicle he wrote in 1932, "In every country you can find rabid people who have a phobia against Jews, Jesuits, Armenians, Negroes, Freemasons, Irishmen, or simply foreigners as such. Political parties are not above exploiting these fears and jealousies."
In 1903 Shaw joined in a controversy about vaccination against smallpox. He called vaccination "a peculiarly filthy piece of witchcraft"; in his view immunisation campaigns were a cheap and inadequate substitute for a decent programme of housing for the poor, which would, he declared, be the means of eradicating smallpox and other infectious diseases. Less contentiously, Shaw was keenly interested in transport; Laurence observed in 1992 a need for a published study of Shaw's interest in "bicycling, motorbikes, automobiles, and planes, climaxing in his joining the Interplanetary Society in his nineties". Shaw published articles on travel, took photographs of his journeys, and submitted notes to the Royal Automobile Club.
Shaw strove throughout his adult life to be referred to as "Bernard Shaw" rather than "George Bernard Shaw", but confused matters by continuing to use his full initials—G.B.S.—as a by-line, and often signed himself "G.Bernard Shaw". He left instructions in his will that his executor (the Public Trustee) was to license publication of his works only under the name Bernard Shaw. Shaw scholars including Ervine, Judith Evans, Holroyd, Laurence and Weintraub, and many publishers have respected Shaw's preference, although the Cambridge University Press was among the exceptions with its 1988 Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw.
Legacy and influence
Theatrical
Shaw did not found a school of dramatists as such, but Crawford asserts that today "we recognise [him] as second only to Shakespeare in the British theatrical tradition ... the proponent of the theater of ideas" who struck a death-blow to 19th-century melodrama. According to Laurence, Shaw pioneered "intelligent" theatre, in which the audience was required to think, thereby paving the way for the new breeds of twentieth-century playwrights from Galsworthy to Pinter.
Crawford lists numerous playwrights whose work owes something to that of Shaw. Among those active in Shaw's lifetime he includes Noël Coward, who based his early comedy The Young Idea on You Never Can Tell and continued to draw on the older man's works in later plays. T. S. Eliot, by no means an admirer of Shaw, admitted that the epilogue of Murder in the Cathedral, in which Becket's slayers explain their actions to the audience, might have been influenced by Saint Joan. The critic Eric Bentley comments that Eliot's later play The Confidential Clerk "had all the earmarks of Shavianism ... without the merits of the real Bernard Shaw". Among more recent British dramatists, Crawford marks Tom Stoppard as "the most Shavian of contemporary playwrights"; Shaw's "serious farce" is continued in the works of Stoppard's contemporaries Alan Ayckbourn, Henry Livings and Peter Nichols.
Shaw's influence crossed the Atlantic at an early stage. Bernard Dukore notes that he was successful as a dramatist in America ten years before achieving comparable success in Britain. Among many American writers professing a direct debt to Shaw, Eugene O'Neill became an admirer at the age of seventeen, after reading The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Other Shaw-influenced American playwrights mentioned by Dukore are Elmer Rice, for whom Shaw "opened doors, turned on lights, and expanded horizons"; William Saroyan, who empathised with Shaw as "the embattled individualist against the philistines"; and S. N. Behrman, who was inspired to write for the theatre after attending a performance of Caesar and Cleopatra: "I thought it would be agreeable to write plays like that".
Assessing Shaw's reputation in a 1976 critical study, T. F. Evans described Shaw as unchallenged in his lifetime and since as the leading English-language dramatist of the (twentieth) century, and as a master of prose style. The following year, in a contrary assessment, the playwright John Osborne castigated The Guardians theatre critic Michael Billington for referring to Shaw as "the greatest British dramatist since Shakespeare". Osborne responded that Shaw "is the most fraudulent, inept writer of Victorian melodramas ever to gull a timid critic or fool a dull public". Despite this hostility, Crawford sees the influence of Shaw in some of Osborne's plays, and concludes that though the latter's work is neither imitative nor derivative, these affinities are sufficient to classify Osborne as an inheritor of Shaw.
In a 1983 study, R. J. Kaufmann suggests that Shaw was a key forerunner—"godfather, if not actually finicky paterfamilias"—of the Theatre of the Absurd. Two further aspects of Shaw's theatrical legacy are noted by Crawford: his opposition to stage censorship, which was finally ended in 1968, and his efforts which extended over many years to establish a National Theatre. Shaw's short 1910 play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare pleads with Queen Elizabeth I for the endowment of a state theatre, was part of this campaign.
Writing in The New Statesman in 2012 Daniel Janes commented that Shaw's reputation had declined by the time of his 150th anniversary in 2006 but had recovered considerably. In Janes's view, the many current revivals of Shaw's major works showed the playwright's "almost unlimited relevance to our times". In the same year, Mark Lawson wrote in The Guardian that Shaw's moral concerns engaged present-day audiences, and made him—like his model, Ibsen—one of the most popular playwrights in contemporary British theatre.
The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. It produces plays by or written during the lifetime of Shaw as well as some contemporary works. The Gingold Theatrical Group, founded in 2006, presents works by Shaw and others in New York City that feature the humanitarian ideals that his work promoted. It became the first theatre group to present all of Shaw's stage work through its monthly concert series Project Shaw.
General
In the 1940s the author Harold Nicolson advised the National Trust not to accept the bequest of Shaw's Corner, predicting that Shaw would be totally forgotten within fifty years. In the event, Shaw's broad cultural legacy, embodied in the widely used term "Shavian", has endured and is nurtured by Shaw Societies in various parts of the world. The original society was founded in London in 1941 and survives; it organises meetings and events, and publishes a regular bulletin The Shavian. The Shaw Society of America began in June 1950; it foundered in the 1970s but its journal, adopted by Penn State University Press, continued to be published as Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies until 2004. A second American organisation, founded in 1951 as "The Bernard Shaw Society", remains active . More recent societies have been established in Japan and India.
Besides his collected music criticism, Shaw has left a varied musical legacy, not all of it of his choosing. Despite his dislike of having his work adapted for the musical theatre ("my plays set themselves to a verbal music of their own") two of his plays were turned into musical comedies: Arms and the Man was the basis of The Chocolate Soldier in 1908, with music by Oscar Straus, and Pygmalion was adapted in 1956 as My Fair Lady with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Although he had a high regard for Elgar, Shaw turned down the composer's request for an opera libretto, but played a major part in persuading the BBC to commission Elgar's Third Symphony, and was the dedicatee of The Severn Suite (1930).
The substance of Shaw's political legacy is uncertain. In 1921 Shaw's erstwhile collaborator William Archer, in a letter to the playwright, wrote: "I doubt if there is any case of a man so widely read, heard, seen, and known as yourself, who has produced so little effect on his generation." Margaret Cole, who considered Shaw the greatest writer of his age, professed never to have understood him. She thought he worked "immensely hard" at politics, but essentially, she surmises, it was for fun—"the fun of a brilliant artist". After Shaw's death, Pearson wrote: "No one since the time of Tom Paine has had so definite an influence on the social and political life of his time and country as Bernard Shaw."
In its obituary tribute to Shaw, The Times Literary Supplement concluded:
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Books
Shaw's writings
Journals
Newspapers
Online
External links
(About 50 ebooks of Shaw's works and some additional Shaw-related material)
(More links to Shaw-related material)
(19 downloads for audiobooks)
Shaw at IBDb.com (Information on Broadway productions, 1894 to present)
(Lists all film and TV versions of Shaw's works since 1921)
Shaw photographs held at LSE Library
International Shaw Society
The Shaw Society, UK, established in 1941
The Bernard Shaw Society, New York
Shaw collection at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin
1856 births
1950 deaths
19th-century British dramatists and playwrights
19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
19th-century male writers
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
20th-century British male writers
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in England
Anti-vivisectionists
Articles containing video clips
Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
British eugenicists
British male dramatists and playwrights
British music critics
British Nobel laureates
British screenwriters
British socialists
Burials at Ayot St Lawrence
Classical music critics
Deaths from kidney failure
English-language spelling reform advocates
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
PEN International
Irish anti-vaccination activists
Irish Dominion League
Irish male dramatists and playwrights
Irish music critics
Irish Nobel laureates
Irish people of English descent
Irish screenwriters
Irish socialists
Members of St Pancras Metropolitan Borough Council
Members of the Fabian Society
Writers from Dublin (city)
Nobel laureates in Literature
People associated with the British Museum
People associated with the London School of Economics
People associated with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
People educated at Wesley College, Dublin
People from Ayot St Lawrence
People from Portobello, Dublin
Victorian novelists
20th-century British screenwriters
| true |
[
"DiscoveryBox is a children's magazine by Bayard Presse. It is targeted at children from 9 to 12 years old. Inside there are topics about science, animals, current events, nature, history and the world. It also includes games and quizzes. It is designed for the completely independent reader and is the 3rd and final instalment of the Box series (after StoryBox and AdventureBox).\n\nDiscoveryBox is mostly non fictional and is designed to answer questions and expand the knowledge of its readers in the subjects that it covers each month.\n\nThere is a current shortage in this type of information rich magazine for this age group at the moment and children find the magazine very interesting. It is designed to build on what they have learned in School and it takes many of its subjects from the British Curriculum so reinforces what they have learned as well as adding additional interesting facts that they may not have previously known about.\n\nBecause there is a shortage of information magazines for children this age, both ESL and English speaking students like to read this book as the information is specially presented for them. As it is specifically designed for the ages 9 to 12 the magazine takes subjects that they would find interesting such as The Olympic Games, Space Exploration and Avalanches being just a few of the previous topics covered.\n\nIn July 2009 DiscoveryBox collaborated with the movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs with a behind-the-scenes look at 3D animation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n DiscoveryBox Website\n DiscoveryBox Information Page\n Bayard English magazine Website\n\nChildren's magazines published in France\nFrench-language magazines\nMonthly magazines published in France\nMagazines established in 1995",
"The Cyclopedia Talislanta is a supplement published by Bard Games in 1988 for the fantasy role-playing game Talislanta.\n\nContents\nThe Cyclopedia Talislanta, by Stephan Michael Sechi and with cover art by P.D. Breeding-Black, is the fifth supplement about the world of Talislanta. Information includes\n places of interest in Talislanta \n new monsters, animals, and plants \n New character types\n new skills and abilities \n\nThere are full-color maps of sections of Talislanta which join together to create a full map of the continent.\n\nReception\nStewart Wieck reviewed The Cyclopedia Talislanta for White Wolf #14, rating it 4 overall, and stated that \"Ownership of this book is a necessity for gamers with campaigns set in Talislanta. Other gamers should take a look just to see what Talislanta offers.\"\n\nIn the May 1989 edition of Dragon (Issue #145), Jim Bambra applauded the \"excellent interior illustrations\", and the wide range of new material. He concluded \"GMs and players who already adventure in Talislanta or use it as a source of ideas will find plenty of interesting material within this books pages, as it adds more interesting detail and color to the setting.\"\n\nIn the July-August 1989 edition of Space Gamer (Vol. II No. 1), Craig Sheeley commented that \"The encyclopedia-style information is listed alphabetically, a minor drawback which spreads specific places in the same areas throughout this section. The section new character race types is brief and concise, as is the gamemaster section (which takes up two pages with new weapons, skills and information.)\"\n\nReferences\n\nTalislanta supplements"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Novelist and critic",
"What types of novels did George Bernard Shaw write?",
"the closest Shaw had ever come to university education.",
"What was the name of one of his novels?",
"G.B.S.",
"What did he critique?",
"\"I had rashly taken up the case;",
"What interesting information is there?",
"G.B.S."
] |
C_aa2ac1f67a034cec846ac6f222b244cc_1
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What other things did Shaw do?
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What other things did Shaw do aside of being a Novelist and critic?
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George Bernard Shaw
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Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty". By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players. In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature. Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw". In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano. On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it--he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals. After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator. From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886-87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions". The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons. The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882-83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886. In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic. Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950. From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence". CANNOTANSWER
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He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters.
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George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma and Caesar and Cleopatra.
Shaw's expressed views were often contentious; he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable, and although not a republican, castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success. In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion for which he received an Academy Award. His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by the late 1920s he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism and often wrote and spoke favourably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin. In the final decade of his life he made fewer public statements, but continued to write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged ninety-four, having refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 1946.
Since Shaw's death scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied, but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them.
Life
Early years
Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814–1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (née Gurly; 1830–1913). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853–1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855–1876). The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty".
By the time of Shaw's birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players.
In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill, overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature.
Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as a schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents, where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw".
In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in the house by teaching himself to play the piano.
London
Early in 1876 Shaw learned from his mother that Agnes was dying of tuberculosis. He resigned from the land agents, and in March travelled to England to join his mother and Lucy at Agnes's funeral. He never again lived in Ireland, and did not visit it for twenty-nine years.
Initially, Shaw refused to seek clerical employment in London. His mother allowed him to live free of charge in her house in South Kensington, but he nevertheless needed an income. He had abandoned a teenage ambition to become a painter, and had not yet thought of writing for a living, but Lee found a little work for him, ghost-writing a musical column printed under Lee's name in a satirical weekly, The Hornet. Lee's relations with Bessie deteriorated after their move to London. Shaw maintained contact with Lee, who found him work as a rehearsal pianist and occasional singer.
Eventually Shaw was driven to applying for office jobs. In the interim he secured a reader's pass for the British Museum Reading Room (the forerunner of the British Library) and spent most weekdays there, reading and writing. His first attempt at drama, begun in 1878, was a blank-verse satirical piece on a religious theme. It was abandoned unfinished, as was his first try at a novel. His first completed novel, Immaturity (1879), was too grim to appeal to publishers and did not appear until the 1930s. He was employed briefly by the newly formed Edison Telephone Company in 1879–80, and as in Dublin achieved rapid promotion. Nonetheless, when the Edison firm merged with the rival Bell Telephone Company, Shaw chose not to seek a place in the new organisation. Thereafter he pursued a full-time career as an author.
For the next four years Shaw made a negligible income from writing, and was subsidised by his mother. In 1881, for the sake of economy, and increasingly as a matter of principle, he became a vegetarian. He grew a beard to hide a facial scar left by smallpox. In rapid succession he wrote two more novels: The Irrational Knot (1880) and Love Among the Artists (1881), but neither found a publisher; each was serialised a few years later in the socialist magazine Our Corner.
In 1880 Shaw began attending meetings of the Zetetical Society, whose objective was to "search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race". Here he met Sidney Webb, a junior civil servant who, like Shaw, was busy educating himself. Despite difference of style and temperament, the two quickly recognised qualities in each other and developed a lifelong friendship. Shaw later reflected: "You knew everything that I didn't know and I knew everything you didn't know ... We had everything to learn from one another and brains enough to do it".
Shaw's next attempt at drama was a one-act playlet in French, Un Petit Drame, written in 1884 but not published in his lifetime. In the same year the critic William Archer suggested a collaboration, with a plot by Archer and dialogue by Shaw. The project foundered, but Shaw returned to the draft as the basis of Widowers' Houses in 1892, and the connection with Archer proved of immense value to Shaw's career.
Political awakening: Marxism, socialism, Fabian Society
On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, addressed by the political economist Henry George. Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty, which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx, and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital. He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman, whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it—he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals.
After reading a tract, Why Are The Many Poor?, issued by the recently formed Fabian Society, Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant, a fine orator.
From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of the British Economic Association; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education." This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism. When in 1886–87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism, as advocated by Charlotte Wilson, Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ("Bloody Sunday"), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties.
Throughout the 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is, a revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions".
Novelist and critic
The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began a career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons.
The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882–83, and An Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886.
In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic.
Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950.
From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence".
Playwright and politician: 1890s
After using the plot of the aborted 1884 collaboration with Archer to complete Widowers' Houses (it was staged twice in London, in December 1892), Shaw continued writing plays. At first he made slow progress; The Philanderer, written in 1893 but not published until 1898, had to wait until 1905 for a stage production. Similarly, Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) was written five years before publication and nine years before reaching the stage.
Shaw's first play to bring him financial success was Arms and the Man (1894), a mock-Ruritanian comedy satirising conventions of love, military honour and class. The press found the play overlong, and accused Shaw of mediocrity, sneering at heroism and patriotism, heartless cleverness, and copying W.S.Gilbert's style. The public took a different view, and the management of the theatre staged extra matinée performances to meet the demand. The play ran from April to July, toured the provinces and was staged in New York. It earned him £341 in royalties in its first year, a sufficient sum to enable him to give up his salaried post as a music critic. Among the cast of the London production was Florence Farr, with whom Shaw had a romantic relationship between 1890 and 1894, much resented by Jenny Patterson.
The success of Arms and the Man was not immediately replicated. Candida, which presented a young woman making a conventional romantic choice for unconventional reasons, received a single performance in South Shields in 1895; in 1897 a playlet about Napoleon called The Man of Destiny had a single staging at Croydon. In the 1890s Shaw's plays were better known in print than on the West End stage; his biggest success of the decade was in New York in 1897, when Richard Mansfield's production of the historical melodrama The Devil's Disciple earned the author more than £2,000 in royalties.
In January 1893, as a Fabian delegate, Shaw attended the Bradford conference which led to the foundation of the Independent Labour Party. He was sceptical about the new party, and scorned the likelihood that it could switch the allegiance of the working class from sport to politics. He persuaded the conference to adopt resolutions abolishing indirect taxation, and taxing unearned income "to extinction". Back in London, Shaw produced what Margaret Cole, in her Fabian history, terms a "grand philippic" against the minority Liberal administration that had taken power in 1892. To Your Tents, O Israel excoriated the government for ignoring social issues and concentrating solely on Irish Home Rule, a matter Shaw declared of no relevance to socialism. In 1894 the Fabian Society received a substantial bequest from a sympathiser, Henry Hunt Hutchinson—Holroyd mentions £10,000. Webb, who chaired the board of trustees appointed to supervise the legacy, proposed to use most of it to found a school of economics and politics. Shaw demurred; he thought such a venture was contrary to the specified purpose of the legacy. He was eventually persuaded to support the proposal, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) opened in the summer of 1895.
By the later 1890s Shaw's political activities lessened as he concentrated on making his name as a dramatist. In 1897 he was persuaded to fill an uncontested vacancy for a "vestryman" (parish councillor) in London's St Pancras district. At least initially, Shaw took to his municipal responsibilities seriously; when London government was reformed in 1899 and the St Pancras vestry became the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, he was elected to the newly formed borough council.
In 1898, as a result of overwork, Shaw's health broke down. He was nursed by Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a rich Anglo-Irish woman whom he had met through the Webbs. The previous year she had proposed that she and Shaw should marry. He had declined, but when she insisted on nursing him in a house in the country, Shaw, concerned that this might cause scandal, agreed to their marriage. The ceremony took place on 1 June 1898, in the register office in Covent Garden. The bride and bridegroom were both aged forty-one. In the view of the biographer and critic St John Ervine, "their life together was entirely felicitous". There were no children of the marriage, which it is generally believed was never consummated; whether this was wholly at Charlotte's wish, as Shaw liked to suggest, is less widely credited. In the early weeks of the marriage Shaw was much occupied writing his Marxist analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, published as The Perfect Wagnerite late in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws found a country home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire; they renamed the house "Shaw's Corner", and lived there for the rest of their lives. They retained a London flat in the Adelphi and later at Whitehall Court.
Stage success: 1900–1914
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Shaw secured a firm reputation as a playwright. In 1904 J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker established a company at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, Chelsea to present modern drama. Over the next five years they staged fourteen of Shaw's plays. The first, John Bull's Other Island, a comedy about an Englishman in Ireland, attracted leading politicians and was seen by Edward VII, who laughed so much that he broke his chair. The play was withheld from Dublin's Abbey Theatre, for fear of the affront it might provoke, although it was shown at the city's Royal Theatre in November 1907. Shaw later wrote that William Butler Yeats, who had requested the play, "got rather more than he bargained for... It was uncongenial to the whole spirit of the neo-Gaelic movement, which is bent on creating a new Ireland after its own ideal, whereas my play is a very uncompromising presentment of the real old Ireland." Nonetheless, Shaw and Yeats were close friends; Yeats and Lady Gregory tried unsuccessfully to persuade Shaw to take up the vacant co-directorship of the Abbey Theatre after J. M. Synge's death in 1909. Shaw admired other figures in the Irish Literary Revival, including George Russell and James Joyce, and was a close friend of Seán O'Casey, who was inspired to become a playwright after reading John Bull's Other Island.
Man and Superman, completed in 1902, was a success both at the Royal Court in 1905 and in Robert Loraine's New York production in the same year. Among the other Shaw works presented by Vedrenne and Granville-Barker were Major Barbara (1905), depicting the contrasting morality of arms manufacturers and the Salvation Army; The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a mostly serious piece about professional ethics; and Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw's counterblast to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, seen in New York in 1906 and in London the following year.
Now prosperous and established, Shaw experimented with unorthodox theatrical forms described by his biographer Stanley Weintraub as "discussion drama" and "serious farce". These plays included Getting Married (premiered 1908), The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1909), Misalliance (1910), and Fanny's First Play (1911). Blanco Posnet was banned on religious grounds by the Lord Chamberlain (the official theatre censor in England), and was produced instead in Dublin; it filled the Abbey Theatre to capacity. Fanny's First Play, a comedy about suffragettes, had the longest initial run of any Shaw play—622 performances.
Androcles and the Lion (1912), a less heretical study of true and false religious attitudes than Blanco Posnet, ran for eight weeks in September and October 1913. It was followed by one of Shaw's most successful plays, Pygmalion, written in 1912 and staged in Vienna the following year, and in Berlin shortly afterwards. Shaw commented, "It is the custom of the English press when a play of mine is produced, to inform the world that it is not a play—that it is dull, blasphemous, unpopular, and financially unsuccessful. ... Hence arose an urgent demand on the part of the managers of Vienna and Berlin that I should have my plays performed by them first." The British production opened in April 1914, starring Sir Herbert Tree and Mrs Patrick Campbell as, respectively, a professor of phonetics and a cockney flower-girl. There had earlier been a romantic liaison between Shaw and Campbell that caused Charlotte Shaw considerable concern, but by the time of the London premiere it had ended. The play attracted capacity audiences until July, when Tree insisted on going on holiday, and the production closed. His co-star then toured with the piece in the US.
Fabian years: 1900–1913
In 1899, when the Boer War began, Shaw wished the Fabians to take a neutral stance on what he deemed, like Home Rule, to be a "non-Socialist" issue. Others, including the future Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, wanted unequivocal opposition, and resigned from the society when it followed Shaw. In the Fabians' war manifesto, Fabianism and the Empire (1900), Shaw declared that "until the Federation of the World becomes an accomplished fact we must accept the most responsible Imperial federations available as a substitute for it".
As the new century began, Shaw became increasingly disillusioned by the limited impact of the Fabians on national politics. Thus, although a nominated Fabian delegate, he did not attend the London conference at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street in February 1900, that created the Labour Representation Committee—precursor of the modern Labour Party. By 1903, when his term as borough councillor expired, he had lost his earlier enthusiasm, writing: "After six years of Borough Councilling I am convinced that the borough councils should be abolished". Nevertheless, in 1904 he stood in the London County Council elections. After an eccentric campaign, which Holroyd characterises as "[making] absolutely certain of not getting in", he was duly defeated. It was Shaw's final foray into electoral politics. Nationally, the 1906 general election produced a huge Liberal majority and an intake of 29 Labour members. Shaw viewed this outcome with scepticism; he had a low opinion of the new prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and saw the Labour members as inconsequential: "I apologise to the Universe for my connection with such a body".
In the years after the 1906 election, Shaw felt that the Fabians needed fresh leadership, and saw this in the form of his fellow-writer H. G. Wells, who had joined the society in February 1903. Wells's ideas for reform—particularly his proposals for closer cooperation with the Independent Labour Party—placed him at odds with the society's "Old Gang", led by Shaw. According to Cole, Wells "had minimal capacity for putting [his ideas] across in public meetings against Shaw's trained and practised virtuosity". In Shaw's view, "the Old Gang did not extinguish Mr Wells, he annihilated himself". Wells resigned from the society in September 1908; Shaw remained a member, but left the executive in April 1911. He later wondered whether the Old Gang should have given way to Wells some years earlier: "God only knows whether the Society had not better have done it". Although less active—he blamed his advancing years—Shaw remained a Fabian.
In 1912 Shaw invested £1,000 for a one-fifth share in the Webbs' new publishing venture, a socialist weekly magazine called The New Statesman, which appeared in April 1913. He became a founding director, publicist, and in due course a contributor, mostly anonymously. He was soon at odds with the magazine's editor, Clifford Sharp, who by 1916 was rejecting his contributions—"the only paper in the world that refuses to print anything by me", according to Shaw.
First World War
After the First World War began in August 1914, Shaw produced his tract Common Sense About the War, which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable. Such a view was anathema in an atmosphere of fervent patriotism, and offended many of Shaw's friends; Ervine records that "[h]is appearance at any public function caused the instant departure of many of those present."
Despite his errant reputation, Shaw's propagandist skills were recognised by the British authorities, and early in 1917 he was invited by Field Marshal Haig to visit the Western Front battlefields. Shaw's 10,000-word report, which emphasised the human aspects of the soldier's life, was well received, and he became less of a lone voice. In April 1917 he joined the national consensus in welcoming America's entry into the war: "a first class moral asset to the common cause against junkerism".
Three short plays by Shaw were premiered during the war. The Inca of Perusalem, written in 1915, encountered problems with the censor for burlesquing not only the enemy but the British military command; it was performed in 1916 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. O'Flaherty V.C., satirising the government's attitude to Irish recruits, was banned in the UK and was presented at a Royal Flying Corps base in Belgium in 1917. Augustus Does His Bit, a genial farce, was granted a licence; it opened at the Royal Court in January 1917.
Ireland
Shaw had long supported the principle of Irish Home Rule within the British Empire (which he thought should become the British Commonwealth).
In April 1916 he wrote scathingly in The New York Times about militant Irish nationalism: "In point of learning nothing and forgetting nothing these fellow-patriots of mine leave the Bourbons nowhere." Total independence, he asserted, was impractical; alliance with a bigger power (preferably England) was essential. The Dublin Easter Rising later that month took him by surprise. After its suppression by British forces, he expressed horror at the summary execution of the rebel leaders, but continued to believe in some form of Anglo-Irish union. In How to Settle the Irish Question (1917), he envisaged a federal arrangement, with national and imperial parliaments. Holroyd records that by this time the separatist party Sinn Féin was in the ascendency, and Shaw's and other moderate schemes were forgotten.
In the postwar period, Shaw despaired of the British government's coercive policies towards Ireland, and joined his fellow-writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton in publicly condemning these actions. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to the partition of Ireland between north and south, a provision that dismayed Shaw. In 1922 civil war broke out in the south between its pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions, the former of whom had established the Irish Free State. Shaw visited Dublin in August, and met Michael Collins, then head of the Free State's Provisional Government. Shaw was much impressed by Collins, and was saddened when, three days later, the Irish leader was ambushed and killed by anti-treaty forces. In a letter to Collins's sister, Shaw wrote: "I met Michael for the first and last time on Saturday last, and am very glad I did. I rejoice in his memory, and will not be so disloyal to it as to snivel over his valiant death". Shaw remained a British subject all his life, but took dual British-Irish nationality in 1934.
1920s
Shaw's first major work to appear after the war was Heartbreak House, written in 1916–17 and performed in 1920. It was produced on Broadway in November, and was coolly received; according to The Times: "Mr Shaw on this occasion has more than usual to say and takes twice as long as usual to say it". After the London premiere in October 1921 The Times concurred with the American critics: "As usual with Mr Shaw, the play is about an hour too long", although containing "much entertainment and some profitable reflection". Ervine in The Observer thought the play brilliant but ponderously acted, except for Edith Evans as Lady Utterword.
Shaw's largest-scale theatrical work was Back to Methuselah, written in 1918–20 and staged in 1922. Weintraub describes it as "Shaw's attempt to fend off 'the bottomless pit of an utterly discouraging pessimism'". This cycle of five interrelated plays depicts evolution, and the effects of longevity, from the Garden of Eden to the year 31,920 AD. Critics found the five plays strikingly uneven in quality and invention. The original run was brief, and the work has been revived infrequently. Shaw felt he had exhausted his remaining creative powers in the huge span of this "Metabiological Pentateuch". He was now sixty-seven, and expected to write no more plays.
This mood was short-lived. In 1920 Joan of Arc was proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict XV; Shaw had long found Joan an interesting historical character, and his view of her veered between "half-witted genius" and someone of "exceptional sanity". He had considered writing a play about her in 1913, and the canonisation prompted him to return to the subject. He wrote Saint Joan in the middle months of 1923, and the play was premiered on Broadway in December. It was enthusiastically received there, and at its London premiere the following March. In Weintraub's phrase, "even the Nobel prize committee could no longer ignore Shaw after Saint Joan". The citation for the literature prize for 1925 praised his work as "... marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty". He accepted the award, but rejected the monetary prize that went with it, on the grounds that "My readers and my audiences provide me with more than sufficient money for my needs".
After Saint Joan, it was five years before Shaw wrote a play. From 1924, he spent four years writing what he described as his "magnum opus", a political treatise entitled The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. The book was published in 1928 and sold well. At the end of the decade Shaw produced his final Fabian tract, a commentary on the League of Nations. He described the League as "a school for the new international statesmanship as against the old Foreign Office diplomacy", but thought that it had not yet become the "Federation of the World".
Shaw returned to the theatre with what he called "a political extravaganza", The Apple Cart, written in late 1928. It was, in Ervine's view, unexpectedly popular, taking a conservative, monarchist, anti-democratic line that appealed to contemporary audiences. The premiere was in Warsaw in June 1928, and the first British production was two months later, at Sir Barry Jackson's inaugural Malvern Festival. The other eminent creative artist most closely associated with the festival was Sir Edward Elgar, with whom Shaw enjoyed a deep friendship and mutual regard. He described The Apple Cart to Elgar as "a scandalous Aristophanic burlesque of democratic politics, with a brief but shocking sex interlude".
During the 1920s Shaw began to lose faith in the idea that society could be changed through Fabian gradualism, and became increasingly fascinated with dictatorial methods. In 1922 he had welcomed Mussolini's accession to power in Italy, observing that amid the "indiscipline and muddle and Parliamentary deadlock", Mussolini was "the right kind of tyrant". Shaw was prepared to tolerate certain dictatorial excesses; Weintraub in his ODNB biographical sketch comments that Shaw's "flirtation with authoritarian inter-war regimes" took a long time to fade, and Beatrice Webb thought he was "obsessed" about Mussolini.
1930s
Shaw's enthusiasm for the Soviet Union dated to the early 1920s when he had hailed Lenin as "the one really interesting statesman in Europe". Having turned down several chances to visit, in 1931 he joined a party led by Nancy Astor. The carefully managed trip culminated in a lengthy meeting with Stalin, whom Shaw later described as "a Georgian gentleman" with no malice in him. At a dinner given in his honour, Shaw told the gathering: "I have seen all the 'terrors' and I was terribly pleased by them". In March 1933 Shaw was a co-signatory to a letter in The Manchester Guardian protesting at the continuing misrepresentation of Soviet achievements: "No lie is too fantastic, no slander is too stale ... for employment by the more reckless elements of the British press."
Shaw's admiration for Mussolini and Stalin demonstrated his growing belief that dictatorship was the only viable political arrangement. When the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in January 1933, Shaw described Hitler as "a very remarkable man, a very able man", and professed himself proud to be the only writer in England who was "scrupulously polite and just to Hitler". His principal admiration was for Stalin, whose regime he championed uncritically throughout the decade. Shaw saw the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact as a triumph for Stalin who, he said, now had Hitler under his thumb.
Shaw's first play of the decade was Too True to be Good, written in 1931 and premiered in Boston in February 1932. The reception was unenthusiastic. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times commenting that Shaw had "yielded to the impulse to write without having a subject", judged the play a "rambling and indifferently tedious conversation". The correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune said that most of the play was "discourse, unbelievably long lectures" and that although the audience enjoyed the play it was bewildered by it.
During the decade Shaw travelled widely and frequently. Most of his journeys were with Charlotte; she enjoyed voyages on ocean liners, and he found peace to write during the long spells at sea. Shaw met an enthusiastic welcome in South Africa in 1932, despite his strong remarks about the racial divisions of the country. In December 1932 the couple embarked on a round-the-world cruise. In March 1933 they arrived at San Francisco, to begin Shaw's first visit to the US. He had earlier refused to go to "that awful country, that uncivilized place", "unfit to govern itself... illiberal, superstitious, crude, violent, anarchic and arbitrary". He visited Hollywood, with which he was unimpressed, and New York, where he lectured to a capacity audience in the Metropolitan Opera House. Harried by the intrusive attentions of the press, Shaw was glad when his ship sailed from New York harbour. New Zealand, which he and Charlotte visited the following year, struck him as "the best country I've been in"; he urged its people to be more confident and loosen their dependence on trade with Britain. He used the weeks at sea to complete two plays—The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and The Six of Calais—and begin work on a third, The Millionairess.
Despite his contempt for Hollywood and its aesthetic values, Shaw was enthusiastic about cinema, and in the middle of the decade wrote screenplays for prospective film versions of Pygmalion and Saint Joan. The latter was never made, but Shaw entrusted the rights to the former to the unknown Gabriel Pascal, who produced it at Pinewood Studios in 1938. Shaw was determined that Hollywood should have nothing to do with the film, but was powerless to prevent it from winning one Academy Award ("Oscar"); he described his award for "best-written screenplay" as an insult, coming from such a source. He became the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. In a 1993 study of the Oscars, Anthony Holden observes that Pygmalion was soon spoken of as having "lifted movie-making from illiteracy to literacy".
Shaw's final plays of the 1930s were Cymbeline Refinished (1936), Geneva (1936) and In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939). The first, a fantasy reworking of Shakespeare, made little impression, but the second, a satire on European dictators, attracted more notice, much of it unfavourable. In particular, Shaw's parody of Hitler as "Herr Battler" was considered mild, almost sympathetic. The third play, an historical conversation piece first seen at Malvern, ran briefly in London in May 1940. James Agate commented that the play contained nothing to which even the most conservative audiences could take exception, and though it was long and lacking in dramatic action only "witless and idle" theatregoers would object. After their first runs none of the three plays were seen again in the West End during Shaw's lifetime.
Towards the end of the decade, both Shaws began to suffer ill health. Charlotte was increasingly incapacitated by Paget's disease of bone, and he developed pernicious anaemia. His treatment, involving injections of concentrated animal liver, was successful, but this breach of his vegetarian creed distressed him and brought down condemnation from militant vegetarians.
Second World War and final years
Although Shaw's works since The Apple Cart had been received without great enthusiasm, his earlier plays were revived in the West End throughout the Second World War, starring such actors as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat. In 1944 nine Shaw plays were staged in London, including Arms and the Man with Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and Margaret Leighton in the leading roles. Two touring companies took his plays all round Britain. The revival in his popularity did not tempt Shaw to write a new play, and he concentrated on prolific journalism. A second Shaw film produced by Pascal, Major Barbara (1941), was less successful both artistically and commercially than Pygmalion, partly because of Pascal's insistence on directing, to which he was unsuited.
Following the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 and the rapid conquest of Poland, Shaw was accused of defeatism when, in a New Statesman article, he declared the war over and demanded a peace conference. Nevertheless, when he became convinced that a negotiated peace was impossible, he publicly urged the neutral United States to join the fight. The London blitz of 1940–41 led the Shaws, both in their mid-eighties, to live full-time at Ayot St Lawrence. Even there they were not immune from enemy air raids, and stayed on occasion with Nancy Astor at her country house, Cliveden. In 1943, the worst of the London bombing over, the Shaws moved back to Whitehall Court, where medical help for Charlotte was more easily arranged. Her condition deteriorated, and she died in September.
Shaw's final political treatise, Everybody's Political What's What, was published in 1944. Holroyd describes this as "a rambling narrative ... that repeats ideas he had given better elsewhere and then repeats itself". The book sold well—85,000 copies by the end of the year. After Hitler's suicide in May 1945, Shaw approved of the formal condolences offered by the Irish Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, at the German embassy in Dublin. Shaw disapproved of the postwar trials of the defeated German leaders, as an act of self-righteousness: "We are all potential criminals".
Pascal was given a third opportunity to film Shaw's work with Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). It cost three times its original budget and was rated "the biggest financial failure in the history of British cinema". The film was poorly received by British critics, although American reviews were friendlier. Shaw thought its lavishness nullified the drama, and he considered the film "a poor imitation of Cecil B. de Mille".
In 1946, the year of Shaw's ninetieth birthday, he accepted the freedom of Dublin and became the first honorary freeman of the borough of St Pancras, London. In the same year the British government asked Shaw informally whether he would accept the Order of Merit. He declined, believing that an author's merit could only be determined by the posthumous verdict of history. 1946 saw the publication, as The Crime of Imprisonment, of the preface Shaw had written 20 years previously to a study of prison conditions. It was widely praised; a reviewer in the American Journal of Public Health considered it essential reading for any student of the American criminal justice system.
Shaw continued to write into his nineties. His last plays were Buoyant Billions (1947), his final full-length work; Farfetched Fables (1948) a set of six short plays revisiting several of his earlier themes such as evolution; a comic play for puppets, Shakes versus Shav (1949), a ten-minute piece in which Shakespeare and Shaw trade insults; and Why She Would Not (1950), which Shaw described as "a little comedy", written in one week shortly before his ninety-fourth birthday.
During his later years, Shaw enjoyed tending the gardens at Shaw's Corner. He died at the age of ninety-four of renal failure precipitated by injuries incurred when falling while pruning a tree. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 6 November 1950. His ashes, mixed with those of Charlotte, were scattered along footpaths and around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden.
Works
Plays
Shaw published a collected edition of his plays in 1934, comprising forty-two works. He wrote a further twelve in the remaining sixteen years of his life, mostly one-act pieces. Including eight earlier plays that he chose to omit from his published works, the total is sixty-two.
Early works
Shaw's first three full-length plays dealt with social issues. He later grouped them as "Plays Unpleasant". Widowers' Houses (1892) concerns the landlords of slum properties, and introduces the first of Shaw's New Women—a recurring feature of later plays. The Philanderer (1893) develops the theme of the New Woman, draws on Ibsen, and has elements of Shaw's personal relationships, the character of Julia being based on Jenny Patterson. In a 2003 study Judith Evans describes Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) as "undoubtedly the most challenging" of the three Plays Unpleasant, taking Mrs Warren's profession—prostitute and, later, brothel-owner—as a metaphor for a prostituted society.
Shaw followed the first trilogy with a second, published as "Plays Pleasant". Arms and the Man (1894) conceals beneath a mock-Ruritanian comic romance a Fabian parable contrasting impractical idealism with pragmatic socialism. The central theme of Candida (1894) is a woman's choice between two men; the play contrasts the outlook and aspirations of a Christian Socialist and a poetic idealist. The third of the Pleasant group, You Never Can Tell (1896), portrays social mobility, and the gap between generations, particularly in how they approach social relations in general and mating in particular.
The "Three Plays for Puritans"—comprising The Devil's Disciple (1896), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899)—all centre on questions of empire and imperialism, a major topic of political discourse in the 1890s. The three are set, respectively, in 1770s America, Ancient Egypt, and 1890s Morocco. The Gadfly, an adaptation of the popular novel by Ethel Voynich, was unfinished and unperformed. The Man of Destiny (1895) is a short curtain raiser about Napoleon.
1900–1909
Shaw's major plays of the first decade of the twentieth century address individual social, political or ethical issues. Man and Superman (1902) stands apart from the others in both its subject and its treatment, giving Shaw's interpretation of creative evolution in a combination of drama and associated printed text. The Admirable Bashville (1901), a blank verse dramatisation of Shaw's novel Cashel Byron's Profession, focuses on the imperial relationship between Britain and Africa. John Bull's Other Island (1904), comically depicting the prevailing relationship between Britain and Ireland, was popular at the time but fell out of the general repertoire in later years. Major Barbara (1905) presents ethical questions in an unconventional way, confounding expectations that in the depiction of an armaments manufacturer on the one hand and the Salvation Army on the other the moral high ground must invariably be held by the latter. The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a play about medical ethics and moral choices in allocating scarce treatment, was described by Shaw as a tragedy. With a reputation for presenting characters who did not resemble real flesh and blood, he was challenged by Archer to present an on-stage death, and here did so, with a deathbed scene for the anti-hero.
Getting Married (1908) and Misalliance (1909)—the latter seen by Judith Evans as a companion piece to the former—are both in what Shaw called his "disquisitionary" vein, with the emphasis on discussion of ideas rather than on dramatic events or vivid characterisation. Shaw wrote seven short plays during the decade; they are all comedies, ranging from the deliberately absurd Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction (1905) to the satirical Press Cuttings (1909).
1910–1919
In the decade from 1910 to the aftermath of the First World War Shaw wrote four full-length plays, the third and fourth of which are among his most frequently staged works. Fanny's First Play (1911) continues his earlier examinations of middle-class British society from a Fabian viewpoint, with additional touches of melodrama and an epilogue in which theatre critics discuss the play. Androcles and the Lion (1912), which Shaw began writing as a play for children, became a study of the nature of religion and how to put Christian precepts into practice. Pygmalion (1912) is a Shavian study of language and speech and their importance in society and in personal relationships. To correct the impression left by the original performers that the play portrayed a romantic relationship between the two main characters Shaw rewrote the ending to make it clear that the heroine will marry another, minor character. Shaw's only full-length play from the war years is Heartbreak House (1917), which in his words depicts "cultured, leisured Europe before the war" drifting towards disaster. Shaw named Shakespeare (King Lear) and Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard) as important influences on the piece, and critics have found elements drawing on Congreve (The Way of the World) and Ibsen (The Master Builder).
The short plays range from genial historical drama in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and Great Catherine (1910 and 1913) to a study of polygamy in Overruled; three satirical works about the war (The Inca of Perusalem, O'Flaherty V.C. and Augustus Does His Bit, 1915–16); a piece that Shaw called "utter nonsense" (The Music Cure, 1914) and a brief sketch about a "Bolshevik empress" (Annajanska, 1917).
1920–1950
Saint Joan (1923) drew widespread praise both for Shaw and for Sybil Thorndike, for whom he wrote the title role and who created the part in Britain. In the view of the commentator Nicholas Grene, Shaw's Joan, a "no-nonsense mystic, Protestant and nationalist before her time" is among the 20th century's classic leading female roles. The Apple Cart (1929) was Shaw's last popular success. He gave both that play and its successor, Too True to Be Good (1931), the subtitle "A political extravaganza", although the two works differ greatly in their themes; the first presents the politics of a nation (with a brief royal love-scene as an interlude) and the second, in Judith Evans's words, "is concerned with the social mores of the individual, and is nebulous." Shaw's plays of the 1930s were written in the shadow of worsening national and international political events. Once again, with On the Rocks (1933) and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934), a political comedy with a clear plot was followed by an introspective drama. The first play portrays a British prime minister considering, but finally rejecting, the establishment of a dictatorship; the second is concerned with polygamy and eugenics and ends with the Day of Judgement.
The Millionairess (1934) is a farcical depiction of the commercial and social affairs of a successful businesswoman. Geneva (1936) lampoons the feebleness of the League of Nations compared with the dictators of Europe. In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939), described by Weintraub as a warm, discursive high comedy, also depicts authoritarianism, but less satirically than Geneva. As in earlier decades, the shorter plays were generally comedies, some historical and others addressing various political and social preoccupations of the author. Ervine writes of Shaw's later work that although it was still "astonishingly vigorous and vivacious" it showed unmistakable signs of his age. "The best of his work in this period, however, was full of wisdom and the beauty of mind often displayed by old men who keep their wits about them."
Music and drama reviews
Music
Shaw's collected musical criticism, published in three volumes, runs to more than 2,700 pages. It covers the British musical scene from 1876 to 1950, but the core of the collection dates from his six years as music critic of The Star and The World in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In his view music criticism should be interesting to everyone rather than just the musical élite, and he wrote for the non-specialist, avoiding technical jargon—"Mesopotamian words like 'the dominant of D major'". He was fiercely partisan in his columns, promoting the music of Wagner and decrying that of Brahms and those British composers such as Stanford and Parry whom he saw as Brahmsian. He campaigned against the prevailing fashion for performances of Handel oratorios with huge amateur choirs and inflated orchestration, calling for "a chorus of twenty capable artists". He railed against opera productions unrealistically staged or sung in languages the audience did not speak.
Drama
In Shaw's view, the London theatres of the 1890s presented too many revivals of old plays and not enough new work. He campaigned against "melodrama, sentimentality, stereotypes and worn-out conventions". As a music critic he had frequently been able to concentrate on analysing new works, but in the theatre he was often obliged to fall back on discussing how various performers tackled well-known plays. In a study of Shaw's work as a theatre critic, E. J. West writes that Shaw "ceaselessly compared and contrasted artists in interpretation and in technique". Shaw contributed more than 150 articles as theatre critic for The Saturday Review, in which he assessed more than 212 productions. He championed Ibsen's plays when many theatregoers regarded them as outrageous, and his 1891 book Quintessence of Ibsenism remained a classic throughout the twentieth century. Of contemporary dramatists writing for the West End stage he rated Oscar Wilde above the rest: "... our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theatre". Shaw's collected criticisms were published as Our Theatres in the Nineties in 1932.
Shaw maintained a provocative and frequently self-contradictory attitude to Shakespeare (whose name he insisted on spelling "Shakespear"). Many found him difficult to take seriously on the subject; Duff Cooper observed that by attacking Shakespeare, "it is Shaw who appears a ridiculous pigmy shaking his fist at a mountain." Shaw was, nevertheless, a knowledgeable Shakespearian, and in an article in which he wrote, "With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind against his," he also said, "But I am bound to add that I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespear. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers, and will outlast a thousand more". Shaw had two regular targets for his more extreme comments about Shakespeare: undiscriminating "Bardolaters", and actors and directors who presented insensitively cut texts in over-elaborate productions. He was continually drawn back to Shakespeare, and wrote three plays with Shakespearean themes: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Cymbeline Refinished and Shakes versus Shav. In a 2001 analysis of Shaw's Shakespearian criticisms, Robert Pierce concludes that Shaw, who was no academic, saw Shakespeare's plays—like all theatre—from an author's practical point of view: "Shaw helps us to get away from the Romantics' picture of Shakespeare as a titanic genius, one whose art cannot be analyzed or connected with the mundane considerations of theatrical conditions and profit and loss, or with a specific staging and cast of actors."
Political and social writings
Shaw's political and social commentaries were published variously in Fabian tracts, in essays, in two full-length books, in innumerable newspaper and journal articles and in prefaces to his plays. The majority of Shaw's Fabian tracts were published anonymously, representing the voice of the society rather than of Shaw, although the society's secretary Edward Pease later confirmed Shaw's authorship. According to Holroyd, the business of the early Fabians, mainly under the influence of Shaw, was to "alter history by rewriting it". Shaw's talent as a pamphleteer was put to immediate use in the production of the society's manifesto—after which, says Holroyd, he was never again so succinct.
After the turn of the twentieth century, Shaw increasingly propagated his ideas through the medium of his plays. An early critic, writing in 1904, observed that Shaw's dramas provided "a pleasant means" of proselytising his socialism, adding that "Mr Shaw's views are to be sought especially in the prefaces to his plays". After loosening his ties with the Fabian movement in 1911, Shaw's writings were more personal and often provocative; his response to the furore following the issue of Common Sense About the War in 1914, was to prepare a sequel, More Common Sense About the War. In this, he denounced the pacifist line espoused by Ramsay MacDonald and other socialist leaders, and proclaimed his readiness to shoot all pacifists rather than cede them power and influence. On the advice of Beatrice Webb, this pamphlet remained unpublished.
The Intelligent Woman's Guide, Shaw's main political treatise of the 1920s, attracted both admiration and criticism. MacDonald considered it the world's most important book since the Bible; Harold Laski thought its arguments outdated and lacking in concern for individual freedoms. Shaw's increasing flirtation with dictatorial methods is evident in many of his subsequent pronouncements. A New York Times report dated 10 December 1933 quoted a recent Fabian Society lecture in which Shaw had praised Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin: "[T]hey are trying to get something done, [and] are adopting methods by which it is possible to get something done". As late as the Second World War, in Everybody's Political What's What, Shaw blamed the Allies' "abuse" of their 1918 victory for the rise of Hitler, and hoped that, after defeat, the Führer would escape retribution "to enjoy a comfortable retirement in Ireland or some other neutral country". These sentiments, according to the Irish philosopher-poet Thomas Duddy, "rendered much of the Shavian outlook passé and contemptible".
"Creative evolution", Shaw's version of the new science of eugenics, became an increasing theme in his political writing after 1900. He introduced his theories in The Revolutionist's Handbook (1903), an appendix to Man and Superman, and developed them further during the 1920s in Back to Methuselah. A 1946 Life magazine article observed that Shaw had "always tended to look at people more as a biologist than as an artist". By 1933, in the preface to On the Rocks, he was writing that "if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it"; critical opinion is divided on whether this was intended as irony. In an article in the American magazine Liberty in September 1938, Shaw included the statement: "There are many people in the world who ought to be liquidated". Many commentators assumed that such comments were intended as a joke, although in the worst possible taste. Otherwise, Life magazine concluded, "this silliness can be classed with his more innocent bad guesses".
Fiction
Shaw's fiction-writing was largely confined to the five unsuccessful novels written in the period 1879–1885. Immaturity (1879) is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of mid-Victorian England, Shaw's "own David Copperfield" according to Weintraub. The Irrational Knot (1880) is a critique of conventional marriage, in which Weintraub finds the characterisations lifeless, "hardly more than animated theories". Shaw was pleased with his third novel, Love Among the Artists (1881), feeling that it marked a turning point in his development as a thinker, although he had no more success with it than with its predecessors. Cashel Byron's Profession (1882) is, says Weintraub, an indictment of society which anticipates Shaw's first full-length play, Mrs Warren's Profession. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s.
Shaw's only subsequent fiction of any substance was his 1932 novella The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, written during a visit to South Africa in 1932. The eponymous girl, intelligent, inquisitive, and converted to Christianity by insubstantial missionary teaching, sets out to find God, on a journey that after many adventures and encounters, leads her to a secular conclusion. The story, on publication, offended some Christians and was banned in Ireland by the Board of Censors.
Letters and diaries
Shaw was a prolific correspondent throughout his life. His letters, edited by Dan H. Laurence, were published between 1965 and 1988. Shaw once estimated his letters would occupy twenty volumes; Laurence commented that, unedited, they would fill many more. Shaw wrote more than a quarter of a million letters, of which about ten per cent have survived; 2,653 letters are printed in Laurence's four volumes. Among Shaw's many regular correspondents were his childhood friend Edward McNulty; his theatrical colleagues (and amitiés amoureuses) Mrs Patrick Campbell and Ellen Terry; writers including Lord Alfred Douglas, H. G. Wells and G. K. Chesterton; the boxer Gene Tunney; the nun Laurentia McLachlan; and the art expert Sydney Cockerell. In 2007 a 316-page volume consisting entirely of Shaw's letters to The Times was published.
Shaw's diaries for 1885–1897, edited by Weintraub, were published in two volumes, with a total of 1,241 pages, in 1986. Reviewing them, the Shaw scholar Fred Crawford wrote: "Although the primary interest for Shavians is the material that supplements what we already know about Shaw's life and work, the diaries are also valuable as a historical and sociological document of English life at the end of the Victorian age." After 1897, pressure of other writing led Shaw to give up keeping a diary.
Miscellaneous and autobiographical
Through his journalism, pamphlets and occasional longer works, Shaw wrote on many subjects. His range of interest and enquiry included vivisection, vegetarianism, religion, language, cinema and photography, on all of which he wrote and spoke copiously. Collections of his writings on these and other subjects were published, mainly after his death, together with volumes of "wit and wisdom" and general journalism.
Despite the many books written about him (Holroyd counts 80 by 1939) Shaw's autobiographical output, apart from his diaries, was relatively slight. He gave interviews to newspapers—"GBS Confesses", to The Daily Mail in 1904 is an example—and provided sketches to would-be biographers whose work was rejected by Shaw and never published. In 1939 Shaw drew on these materials to produce Shaw Gives Himself Away, a miscellany which, a year before his death, he revised and republished as Sixteen Self Sketches (there were seventeen). He made it clear to his publishers that this slim book was in no sense a full autobiography.
Beliefs and opinions
Throughout his lifetime Shaw professed many beliefs, often contradictory. This inconsistency was partly an intentional provocation—the Spanish scholar-statesman Salvador de Madariaga describes Shaw as "a pole of negative electricity set in a people of positive electricity". In one area at least Shaw was constant: in his lifelong refusal to follow normal English forms of spelling and punctuation. He favoured archaic spellings such as "shew" for "show"; he dropped the "u" in words like "honour" and "favour"; and wherever possible he rejected the apostrophe in contractions such as "won't" or "that's". In his will, Shaw ordered that, after some specified legacies, his remaining assets were to form a trust to pay for fundamental reform of the English alphabet into a phonetic version of forty letters. Though Shaw's intentions were clear, his drafting was flawed, and the courts initially ruled the intended trust void. A later out-of-court agreement provided a sum of £8,300 for spelling reform; the bulk of his fortune went to the residuary legatees—the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the National Gallery of Ireland. Most of the £8,300 went on a special phonetic edition of Androcles and the Lion in the Shavian alphabet, published in 1962 to a largely indifferent reception.
Shaw's views on religion and Christianity were less consistent. Having in his youth proclaimed himself an atheist, in middle age he explained this as a reaction against the Old Testament image of a vengeful Jehovah. By the early twentieth century, he termed himself a "mystic", although Gary Sloan, in an essay on Shaw's beliefs, disputes his credentials as such. In 1913 Shaw declared that he was not religious "in the sectarian sense", aligning himself with Jesus as "a person of no religion". In the preface (1915) to Androcles and the Lion, Shaw asks "Why not give Christianity a chance?" contending that Britain's social order resulted from the continuing choice of Barabbas over Christ. In a broadcast just before the Second World War, Shaw invoked the Sermon on the Mount, "a very moving exhortation, and it gives you one first-rate tip, which is to do good to those who despitefully use you and persecute you". In his will, Shaw stated that his "religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative revolution". He requested that no one should imply that he accepted the beliefs of any specific religious organisation, and that no memorial to him should "take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice".
Shaw espoused racial equality, and inter-marriage between people of different races. Despite his expressed wish to be fair to Hitler, he called anti-Semitism "the hatred of the lazy, ignorant fat-headed Gentile for the pertinacious Jew who, schooled by adversity to use his brains to the utmost, outdoes him in business". In The Jewish Chronicle he wrote in 1932, "In every country you can find rabid people who have a phobia against Jews, Jesuits, Armenians, Negroes, Freemasons, Irishmen, or simply foreigners as such. Political parties are not above exploiting these fears and jealousies."
In 1903 Shaw joined in a controversy about vaccination against smallpox. He called vaccination "a peculiarly filthy piece of witchcraft"; in his view immunisation campaigns were a cheap and inadequate substitute for a decent programme of housing for the poor, which would, he declared, be the means of eradicating smallpox and other infectious diseases. Less contentiously, Shaw was keenly interested in transport; Laurence observed in 1992 a need for a published study of Shaw's interest in "bicycling, motorbikes, automobiles, and planes, climaxing in his joining the Interplanetary Society in his nineties". Shaw published articles on travel, took photographs of his journeys, and submitted notes to the Royal Automobile Club.
Shaw strove throughout his adult life to be referred to as "Bernard Shaw" rather than "George Bernard Shaw", but confused matters by continuing to use his full initials—G.B.S.—as a by-line, and often signed himself "G.Bernard Shaw". He left instructions in his will that his executor (the Public Trustee) was to license publication of his works only under the name Bernard Shaw. Shaw scholars including Ervine, Judith Evans, Holroyd, Laurence and Weintraub, and many publishers have respected Shaw's preference, although the Cambridge University Press was among the exceptions with its 1988 Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw.
Legacy and influence
Theatrical
Shaw did not found a school of dramatists as such, but Crawford asserts that today "we recognise [him] as second only to Shakespeare in the British theatrical tradition ... the proponent of the theater of ideas" who struck a death-blow to 19th-century melodrama. According to Laurence, Shaw pioneered "intelligent" theatre, in which the audience was required to think, thereby paving the way for the new breeds of twentieth-century playwrights from Galsworthy to Pinter.
Crawford lists numerous playwrights whose work owes something to that of Shaw. Among those active in Shaw's lifetime he includes Noël Coward, who based his early comedy The Young Idea on You Never Can Tell and continued to draw on the older man's works in later plays. T. S. Eliot, by no means an admirer of Shaw, admitted that the epilogue of Murder in the Cathedral, in which Becket's slayers explain their actions to the audience, might have been influenced by Saint Joan. The critic Eric Bentley comments that Eliot's later play The Confidential Clerk "had all the earmarks of Shavianism ... without the merits of the real Bernard Shaw". Among more recent British dramatists, Crawford marks Tom Stoppard as "the most Shavian of contemporary playwrights"; Shaw's "serious farce" is continued in the works of Stoppard's contemporaries Alan Ayckbourn, Henry Livings and Peter Nichols.
Shaw's influence crossed the Atlantic at an early stage. Bernard Dukore notes that he was successful as a dramatist in America ten years before achieving comparable success in Britain. Among many American writers professing a direct debt to Shaw, Eugene O'Neill became an admirer at the age of seventeen, after reading The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Other Shaw-influenced American playwrights mentioned by Dukore are Elmer Rice, for whom Shaw "opened doors, turned on lights, and expanded horizons"; William Saroyan, who empathised with Shaw as "the embattled individualist against the philistines"; and S. N. Behrman, who was inspired to write for the theatre after attending a performance of Caesar and Cleopatra: "I thought it would be agreeable to write plays like that".
Assessing Shaw's reputation in a 1976 critical study, T. F. Evans described Shaw as unchallenged in his lifetime and since as the leading English-language dramatist of the (twentieth) century, and as a master of prose style. The following year, in a contrary assessment, the playwright John Osborne castigated The Guardians theatre critic Michael Billington for referring to Shaw as "the greatest British dramatist since Shakespeare". Osborne responded that Shaw "is the most fraudulent, inept writer of Victorian melodramas ever to gull a timid critic or fool a dull public". Despite this hostility, Crawford sees the influence of Shaw in some of Osborne's plays, and concludes that though the latter's work is neither imitative nor derivative, these affinities are sufficient to classify Osborne as an inheritor of Shaw.
In a 1983 study, R. J. Kaufmann suggests that Shaw was a key forerunner—"godfather, if not actually finicky paterfamilias"—of the Theatre of the Absurd. Two further aspects of Shaw's theatrical legacy are noted by Crawford: his opposition to stage censorship, which was finally ended in 1968, and his efforts which extended over many years to establish a National Theatre. Shaw's short 1910 play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare pleads with Queen Elizabeth I for the endowment of a state theatre, was part of this campaign.
Writing in The New Statesman in 2012 Daniel Janes commented that Shaw's reputation had declined by the time of his 150th anniversary in 2006 but had recovered considerably. In Janes's view, the many current revivals of Shaw's major works showed the playwright's "almost unlimited relevance to our times". In the same year, Mark Lawson wrote in The Guardian that Shaw's moral concerns engaged present-day audiences, and made him—like his model, Ibsen—one of the most popular playwrights in contemporary British theatre.
The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. It produces plays by or written during the lifetime of Shaw as well as some contemporary works. The Gingold Theatrical Group, founded in 2006, presents works by Shaw and others in New York City that feature the humanitarian ideals that his work promoted. It became the first theatre group to present all of Shaw's stage work through its monthly concert series Project Shaw.
General
In the 1940s the author Harold Nicolson advised the National Trust not to accept the bequest of Shaw's Corner, predicting that Shaw would be totally forgotten within fifty years. In the event, Shaw's broad cultural legacy, embodied in the widely used term "Shavian", has endured and is nurtured by Shaw Societies in various parts of the world. The original society was founded in London in 1941 and survives; it organises meetings and events, and publishes a regular bulletin The Shavian. The Shaw Society of America began in June 1950; it foundered in the 1970s but its journal, adopted by Penn State University Press, continued to be published as Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies until 2004. A second American organisation, founded in 1951 as "The Bernard Shaw Society", remains active . More recent societies have been established in Japan and India.
Besides his collected music criticism, Shaw has left a varied musical legacy, not all of it of his choosing. Despite his dislike of having his work adapted for the musical theatre ("my plays set themselves to a verbal music of their own") two of his plays were turned into musical comedies: Arms and the Man was the basis of The Chocolate Soldier in 1908, with music by Oscar Straus, and Pygmalion was adapted in 1956 as My Fair Lady with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Although he had a high regard for Elgar, Shaw turned down the composer's request for an opera libretto, but played a major part in persuading the BBC to commission Elgar's Third Symphony, and was the dedicatee of The Severn Suite (1930).
The substance of Shaw's political legacy is uncertain. In 1921 Shaw's erstwhile collaborator William Archer, in a letter to the playwright, wrote: "I doubt if there is any case of a man so widely read, heard, seen, and known as yourself, who has produced so little effect on his generation." Margaret Cole, who considered Shaw the greatest writer of his age, professed never to have understood him. She thought he worked "immensely hard" at politics, but essentially, she surmises, it was for fun—"the fun of a brilliant artist". After Shaw's death, Pearson wrote: "No one since the time of Tom Paine has had so definite an influence on the social and political life of his time and country as Bernard Shaw."
In its obituary tribute to Shaw, The Times Literary Supplement concluded:
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Books
Shaw's writings
Journals
Newspapers
Online
External links
(About 50 ebooks of Shaw's works and some additional Shaw-related material)
(More links to Shaw-related material)
(19 downloads for audiobooks)
Shaw at IBDb.com (Information on Broadway productions, 1894 to present)
(Lists all film and TV versions of Shaw's works since 1921)
Shaw photographs held at LSE Library
International Shaw Society
The Shaw Society, UK, established in 1941
The Bernard Shaw Society, New York
Shaw collection at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin
1856 births
1950 deaths
19th-century British dramatists and playwrights
19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
19th-century male writers
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
20th-century British male writers
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in England
Anti-vivisectionists
Articles containing video clips
Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
British eugenicists
British male dramatists and playwrights
British music critics
British Nobel laureates
British screenwriters
British socialists
Burials at Ayot St Lawrence
Classical music critics
Deaths from kidney failure
English-language spelling reform advocates
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
PEN International
Irish anti-vaccination activists
Irish Dominion League
Irish male dramatists and playwrights
Irish music critics
Irish Nobel laureates
Irish people of English descent
Irish screenwriters
Irish socialists
Members of St Pancras Metropolitan Borough Council
Members of the Fabian Society
Writers from Dublin (city)
Nobel laureates in Literature
People associated with the British Museum
People associated with the London School of Economics
People associated with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
People educated at Wesley College, Dublin
People from Ayot St Lawrence
People from Portobello, Dublin
Victorian novelists
20th-century British screenwriters
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"Extreme Male Beauty is a British documentary series which began airing on Channel 4 and features television presenter Tim Shaw as he explores the various lengths men will go to in order to achieve the beauty standards placed on them.\n\nThe series criticises the modelling industry and the 'perfect' body images shown in the media and, whilst Shaw attempts to conform to the desirable body images sold by advertisers. Some criticised the show for having an over-complicated format.\n\nBackground\nThe first episode explores the overall male physique. In an experiment, Shaw puts himself and four other men with various body types, dressed only in briefs, on a podium and then has a room full of women observe and openly discuss what they do and don't like. He explores the possibility of liposuction but opts instead to improve his diet and exercise.\n\nIn the second episode Shaw explores penises and the various techniques alleged to increase penis length and girth. The episode showed a great deal of full frontal nudity, particularly penises in close-up, and featured a lengthy segment in which Shaw tests out various lengthening devices and techniques; this includes jelquing, a masturbatory technique which Shaw does on camera. In an experiment, Shaw has five men (including himself) put their penises through a hole in a wall so that a room full of women can observe and openly discuss what they do and don't like about each one.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website\nCheetah Productions: Extreme Male Beauty\n\n2009 British television series debuts\n2009 British television series endings\nChannel 4 documentaries\nBritish television miniseries\nMakeover reality television series\nTelevision series by Endemol\nEnglish-language television shows",
"Bomp! Records is a Los Angeles-based record label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw, and Suzy Shaw.\n\nMagazine\n\nWho Put The Bomp was a rock music fanzine edited and published by Greg Shaw from 1970 to 1979.<ref>Billboard Magazine, October 30, 1999 - Page 49 Koch Sees Personnel Shuffle; Bomp Records Turns 25 by Chris Morris</ref> Its name came from the 1961 hit doo-wop song by Barry Mann, \"Who Put the Bomp\". Later, the name was shortened to Bomp! Bomp!, and extended by Shaw to the record label Bomp! Records, which he headed until his death in 2004.The New York Times, OCT. 27, 2004 - Greg Shaw, 55, Rock Enthusiast Who Loved Underground Music, Dies By BEN SISARIO\n\nBackground\nThe magazine was a departure from the mainstream and its writing style unique with its own opinion described as almost partisan. The magazine was first published in 1970. It was created by Greg Shaw and his wife. The magazine chronicled bands that Shaw deemed worthy of covering. And he did it passionately. Shaw made it known too that the magazine wasn't going to cater to nostalgia or be an info receptacle for fanatical collectors of obscure out of print records.\n\nA significant amount of writers that wrote for the magazine went on to greater things. Two journalists who had their careers were launched via the magazine were Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus.\n\nStaff\nKen Barnes who wrote articles like \"10 Greatest Power Pop Songs\" for Best Classic Bands, and other publications such as Fusion and Phonograph Record was once co-editor for the magazine. Jay Kinney who was a key man in the underground comics movement in the late 1960s, served as art director for the magazine.\n\nGreg Shaw\nShaw was one of the first and best-known rock fanzine editors. Active in science fiction fandom as a young man, he became familiar with fanzines. Shaw founded one of the earliest rock fanzines, the mimeographed Mojo Navigator and Rock 'n Roll News in 1966.\n\nRecord label history\n\nThe label has featured punk, pop, power pop, garage rock, new wave, old school rock, neo-psychedelia among other genres. Its roster has included The Modern Lovers, Iggy & The Stooges, Stiv Bators & The Dead Boys, 20/20, Shoes, Devo, The Weirdos, The Romantics, Spacemen 3, the Germs, SIN 34, Jeff Dahl, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Black Lips.\n\nGreg Shaw died from heart failure at the age of 55 on October 19, 2004. Bomp! Records is headed by his ex-wife, Suzy Shaw.\n\nSuzy Shaw and Mick Farren co-authored Bomp: Saving the World One Record at a Time, published by Ammo Books in 2007. In 2009, Bomp! and Ugly Things published Bomp 2 – Born in the Garage'', edited by Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax.\n\nRoster\n\n 20/20\n Stiv Bators\n The Barracudas\n Beachwood Sparks\n The Beat\n Black Lips\n Blow-Up\n The Brian Jonestown Massacre\n Paul Collins\n Jeff Dahl\n Dead Boys\n Dead Meadow\n Devo\n DMZ\n Eyes of Mind\n Gravedigger Five\n Germs\n Hollowbody\n The Hangman's Beautiful Daughters\n The Haunted\n The Hollywood Squares\n Jon and the Nightriders (Voxx)\n The Konks\n The Last\n The Miracle Workers\n Modern Lovers\n The Morlocks\n The Nerves\n The Pandoras\n The Romantics\n Shoes\n SIN 34\n The Sonics\n Spacemen 3\n The Stooges\n Mark Sultan\n The Telescopes\n The Things\n The Warlocks\n The Weirdos\n The Unknowns\n Venus and the Razorblades\n The Zeros\n\nSee also\n List of record labels\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official site\n Bomp: Saving The World One Record At A Time (by Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren) (Defunct prior to 8/11)\n The Bomp! History lesson (Defunct before 8/11)\n (Who Put The) Bomp! Magazines #2-#21 - Cover pics\n A history of Bomp! magazine by Greg Shaw\n\nAmerican independent record labels\nRecord labels established in 1974\nVanity record labels\nGarage punk\nGarage rock record labels\nPop record labels\nPunk record labels"
] |
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"Linkin Park",
"2013-2015: The Hunting Party"
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C_0422e6cf0a5745d287c080e85d02b4cc_1
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What is the Hunting Party?
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What is Linkin Park's Hunting Party?
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Linkin Park
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In an interview with Fuse, Shinoda confirmed that Linkin Park had begun recording their sixth studio album in May 2013. The band released the first single from their upcoming album, titled, "Guilty All the Same" on March 6, 2014 through Shazam. The single was later released on the following day by Warner Bros. Records and debut at No. 28 on the US Billboard Rock Airplay charts before peaking at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock charts in the following weeks. Shortly after the single's release, the band revealed their sixth album would be titled The Hunting Party. The album was produced by Shinoda and Delson, who wanted to explore musical elements from Hybrid Theory and the band's earlier material. Shinoda commented the album is a "90s style of rock record". He elaborated, "It's a rock record. It's loud and it's rock, but not in the sense of what you've heard before, which is more like '90s hardcore-punk-thrash.' The album includes musical contributions from rapper Rakim, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and Daron Malakian of System of a Down. The Hunting Party was released on June 13, 2014, in most countries, and later released in the United States on June 17. Linkin Park performed at Download Festival on June 14, 2014, where they played their debut album, Hybrid Theory, in its entirety. Linkin Park headlined Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in 2014, along with Metallica, Kings of Leon, and Iron Maiden. They also headlined with Iron Maiden again at the Greenfield Festival in July. On June 22, Linkin Park made an unscheduled headline appearance at the Vans Warped Tour, where they played with members of Issues, The Devil Wears Prada, A Day To Remember, Yellowcard, Breathe Carolina, Finch, and Machine Gun Kelly. In January 2015, the band embarked on a tour to promote the release of The Hunting Party, consisting of 17 concerts across the United States and Canada. The tour was canceled after only three concerts when Bennington injured his ankle. On May 9, Linkin Park performed at the first edition of Rock in Rio USA, in direct support for Metallica. On November 9, 2014, MTV Europe named Linkin Park the "Best Rock" act of 2014 at their annual music awards ceremony. The band won the 'Best Rock Band' and 'Best Live Act' titles of 2014 on Loudwire's Music Awards. Revolver ranked The Hunting Party as the fourth best album of 2014. In an interview with AltWire on May 4, Shinoda reflected on The Hunting Party and commented on Linkin Park's future, stating; "I'm really happy with the reaction from The Hunting Party, and I think we're ready to move somewhere new on the next album, which will be coming [in 2016]". Linkin Park collaborated with Steve Aoki on the song "Darker Than Blood" for Aoki's album Neon Future II, which was released in May 2015. The first preview of the song came during Aoki's performance on February 28, 2015 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois. The song was debuted on Twitch.tv on April 13 and released on April 14. Linkin Park performed at the closing ceremony of Blizzcon 2015, Blizzard's video game convention. CANNOTANSWER
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the band revealed their sixth album would be titled The Hunting Party.
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Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer Rob Bourdon, all of whom are founding members. Vocalists Mark Wakefield and Chester Bennington are former members of the band. Categorized as alternative rock, Linkin Park's earlier music spanned a fusion of heavy metal and hip hop, while their later music features more electronica and pop elements.
Formed in 1996, Linkin Park rose to international fame with their debut studio album, Hybrid Theory (2000), which became certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Released during the peak of the nu metal scene, the album's singles' heavy airplay on MTV led the singles "One Step Closer", "Crawling" and "In the End" all to chart highly on the Mainstream Rock chart; the latter crossed over to the pop chart. Their second album, Meteora (2003), continued the band's success. The band explored experimental sounds on their third album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). By the end of the decade, Linkin Park was among the most successful and popular rock acts.
The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types on their fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), layering their music with more electronic sounds. The band's fifth album, Living Things (2012), combined musical elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth album, The Hunting Party (2014), returned to a heavier rock sound, and their seventh album, One More Light (2017), was their first pop-oriented record. Linkin Park went on a hiatus when longtime lead vocalist Bennington died by suicide in July 2017. In April 2020, bassist Dave Farrell revealed the band was working on new music, though they have stated they will not be touring for the foreseeable future.
Linkin Park is among the best-selling bands of the 21st century and the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. They have won two Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, 10 MTV Europe Music Awards and three World Music Awards. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade list. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as "The Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now" by Kerrang!.
History
1996–2000: Early years
Linkin Park was founded by three high school friends: Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson. The three attended Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. After graduating from high school, the three began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in their band, then called Xero. Though limited in resources, the band began recording and producing songs within Shinoda's makeshift bedroom studio in 1996, resulting in a four-track demo tape, entitled Xero. However, tensions and frustration within the band grew after they failed to land a record deal. The lack of success and stalemate in progress prompted Wakefield, at that time the band's vocalist, to leave the band in search of other projects. Farrell also left to tour with Tasty Snax, a Christian punk and ska band.
After spending a considerable time searching for Wakefield's replacement, Xero recruited Arizona vocalist Chester Bennington, who was recommended by Jeff Blue, the vice president of Zomba Music in March 1999. Bennington, formerly of a post-grunge band Grey Daze, became a standout among applicants because of the dynamic in his singing style. The band then agreed on changing their name from Xero to Hybrid Theory; the newborn vocal chemistry between Shinoda and Bennington helped revive the band, inciting them to work on new material. In 1999, the band released a self-titled extended play, which they circulated across internet chat-rooms and forums with the help of an online 'street team'.
The band still struggled to sign a record deal. They turned to Jeff Blue for additional help after facing numerous rejections from several major record labels. After failing to catch Warner Bros. Records on three previous reviews, Blue, who was now the vice president of Warner Bros. Records, helped the band sign a deal with the company as a developing artist in 1999. However, the label advised the band to change their name to avoid confusion with Hybrid. The band considered the names "Plear" and "Platinum Lotus Foundation" before deciding on "Linkin Park", a play on and homage to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park, now called Christine Emerson Reed Park. They initially wanted to use the name "Lincoln Park", however they changed it to "Linkin" to acquire the internet domain "linkinpark.com".
Bennington and Shinoda both reported that Warner Bros. Records was skeptical of Linkin Park's initial recordings. The label's A&R was not pleased with the band's hip-hop and rock-style approach. An A&R representative suggested that Bennington should demote or fire Shinoda and exclusively focus on making a rock record. Bennington supported Shinoda and refused to compromise Linkin Park's vision for the album. Farrell returned in 2000, and the band released their breakthrough album, Hybrid Theory, that same year.
2000–2002: Hybrid Theory and Reanimation
Linkin Park released Hybrid Theory on October 24, 2000. The album, which represented half a decade's worth of the band's work, was edited by Don Gilmore. Hybrid Theory was a massive commercial success; it sold more than 4.8 million copies during its debut year, earning it the status of best-selling album of 2001, while singles such as "Crawling" and "One Step Closer" established themselves as staples among alternative rock radio play lists during the year. Additionally, other singles from the album were featured in films such as Dracula 2000, Little Nicky, and Valentine. Hybrid Theory won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance for the song "Crawling" and was nominated for two other Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. MTV awarded the band their Best Rock Video and Best Direction awards for "In the End". Through the winning of the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance, Hybrid Theorys overall success had catapulted the band into mainstream success.
During this time, Linkin Park received many invitations to perform on many high-profile tours and concerts including Ozzfest, Family Values Tour, and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. The band worked with Jessica Sklar to found their official fan club and street team, "Linkin Park Underground", in November 2001. Linkin Park also formed their own tour, Projekt Revolution, which featured other notable artists such as Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg. Within a year's stretch, Linkin Park had performed at over 320 concerts. The experiences and performances of the precocious band were documented in their first DVD, Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, which debuted in November 2001. Now reunited with former bassist Phoenix, the band began work on a remix album, dubbed Reanimation, which would include works from Hybrid Theory and non-album tracks. Reanimation debuted on July 30, 2002, featuring the likes of Black Thought, Jonathan Davis, Aaron Lewis, and many others. Reanimation claimed the second spot on the Billboard 200, and sold nearly 270,000 copies during its debut week. Hybrid Theory is also in the RIAA's Top 100 Albums.
2002–2004: Meteora
Following the success of Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a significant amount of time touring around the United States. The band members began to work on new material amidst their saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio. The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing their new work was inspired by the rocky region of Meteora in Greece, where numerous monasteries have been built on top of the rocks. Meteora features a mixture of the band's nu metal and rap metal style with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments. Linkin Park's second album debuted on March 25, 2003 and instantly earned worldwide recognition, going to No. 1 in the US and UK, and No. 2 in Australia.
Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and it ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts at the time. The album's singles, including "Somewhere I Belong", "Breaking the Habit", "Faint", and "Numb", received significant radio attention. By October 2003, Meteora sold nearly three million copies. The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form another Projekt Revolution, which featured other bands and artists including Mudvayne, Blindside, and Xzibit. Additionally, Metallica invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, which included well-known acts such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones. The band released an album and DVD, titled Live in Texas, which featured some audio and video tracks from the band's performances in Texas during the tour. In early 2004, Linkin Park started a world tour titled the Meteora World Tour. Supporting bands on the tour included Hoobastank, P.O.D., Story of the Year and Pia.
Meteora earned the band multiple awards and honors. The band won the MTV awards for Best Rock Video for "Somewhere I Belong" and the Viewer's Choice Award for "Breaking the Habit". Linkin Park also received significant recognition during the 2004 Radio Music Awards, winning the Artist of the Year and Song of the Year ("Numb") awards. Although Meteora was not nearly as successful as Hybrid Theory, it was the third best selling album in the United States during 2003. The band spent the first few months of 2004 touring around the world, first with the third Projekt Revolution tour, and later several European concerts. At the same time, the band's relationship with Warner Bros. Records was deteriorating rapidly on account of several trust and financial issues. After months of feuding, the band finally negotiated a deal in December 2005.
2004–2006: Side projects
Following Meteoras success, the band worked on many side projects. Bennington appeared on DJ Lethal's "State of the Art" and other work with Dead by Sunrise, while Shinoda did work with Depeche Mode. In 2004, the band began to work with Jay-Z to produce another remix album, titled Collision Course. The album, which featured intermixed lyrics and background tracks from both artists' previous albums, debuted in November 2004. Shinoda also formed Fort Minor as a side project. With the aid of Jay-Z, Fort Minor released their debut album, The Rising Tied, to critical acclaim.
Linkin Park also participated in numerous charitable events, most notably raised money to benefit victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and later Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The band donated $75,000 to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in March 2004. They also helped relief efforts for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victims by staging several charity concerts and setting up an additional fund called Music for Relief. Most notably, however, the band participated at Live 8, a series of charitable benefit concerts set up to raise global awareness. Alongside Jay-Z, the band performed on Live 8's stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a global audience. The band would later be reunited with Jay-Z at the Grammy Award Ceremony 2006, during which they performed "Numb/Encore", en route to winning a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. They were joined on stage by Paul McCartney who added verses from the song "Yesterday". They would later go on to play at the 2006 Summer Sonic music festival, which was hosted by Metallica in Japan.
2006–2008: Minutes to Midnight
Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose producer Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut sometime in 2006, the album was delayed until 2007. The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway completed. Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from their previous nu metal sound. Warner Bros. Records officially announced that the band's third studio album, titled Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States. After spending fourteen months working on the album, the band members opted to further refine their album by removing five of the original seventeen tracks. The album's title, a reference to the Doomsday Clock, foreshadowed the band's new lyrical themes. Minutes to Midnight sold over 625,000 copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years. The album also took the top spot on the Billboard Charts.
The album's first single, "What I've Done", was released on April 2, and premiered on MTV and Fuse within the same week. The single was acclaimed by listeners, becoming the top-ranked song on the Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. The song is also used in soundtrack for the 2007 action film, Transformers. Mike Shinoda was also featured on the Styles of Beyond song "Second to None", which was also included in the film. Later in the year, the band won the "Favorite Alternative Artist" in the American Music Awards. The band also saw success with the rest of the album's singles, "Bleed It Out", "Shadow of the Day", "Given Up", and "Leave Out All the Rest", which were released throughout 2007 and early 2008. The band also collaborated with Busta Rhymes on his single "We Made It", which was released on April 29.
Linkin Park embarked on a large world tour titled "Minutes to Midnight World Tour". The band promoted the album's release by forming their fourth Projekt Revolution tour in the United States which included many musical acts like My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, Placebo, and many others. They also played numerous shows in Europe, Asia, and Australia which included a performance at Live Earth Japan on July 7, 2007. and headlining Download Festival in Donington Park, England and Edgefest in Downsview Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band completed touring on their fourth Projekt Revolution tour before taking up an Arena tour around the United Kingdom, visiting Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester, before finishing on a double night at the O2 arena in London. Bennington stated that Linkin Park plans to release a follow-up album to Minutes to Midnight. However, he stated the band will first embark on a United States tour to gather inspiration for the album. Linkin Park embarked on another Projekt Revolution tour in 2008. This was the first time a Projekt Revolution tour was held in Europe with three shows in Germany and one in the United Kingdom. A Projekt Revolution tour was also held in the United States which featured Chris Cornell, The Bravery, Ashes Divide, Street Drum Corps and many others. Linkin Park finished the tour with a final show in Texas. Mike Shinoda announced a live CD/DVD titled Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes, which is a live video recording from the Projekt Revolution gig at the Milton Keynes Bowl on June 29, 2008, which was officially released on November 24, 2008.
2008–2011: A Thousand Suns
In May 2009, Linkin Park announced they were working on a fourth studio album, which was planned to be released in 2010. Shinoda told IGN that the new album would be 'genre-busting,' while building off of elements in Minutes to Midnight. He also mentioned that the album would be more experimental and "hopefully more cutting-edge". Bennington also addressed the media to confirm that Rick Rubin would return to produce the new album. The band later revealed the album would be called A Thousand Suns. While working on the new album, Linkin Park worked with successful film composer Hans Zimmer to produce the score for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The band released a single for the movie, titled "New Divide". Joe Hahn created a music video for the song, which featured clips from the film. On June 22, Linkin Park played a short set in Westwood Village after the premier of the movie. After completing work for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the band returned to the studio to finalize their album.
On April 26, the band released an app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, a game called 8-Bit Rebellion! It featured the band as playable characters, and a new song called "Blackbirds" which was unlockable by beating the game. The song was also later released as an iTunes bonus track on A Thousand Suns.
A Thousand Suns was released on September 14. The album's first single, "The Catalyst", was released on August 2. The band promoted their new album by launching a concert tour, which started in Los Angeles on September 7. Linkin Park also relied on MySpace to promote their album, releasing two additional songs, "Waiting for the End" and "Blackout" on September 8. Furthermore, a documentary about the album's production, titled Meeting of A Thousand Suns, was available for streaming on the band's MySpace page. On August 31, 2010, it was announced that the band would perform the single live for the first time at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. The venue of the debut live performance of the single was Griffith Observatory, an iconic location used in Hollywood movies. "Waiting for the End" was released as the second single of A Thousand Suns.
Linkin Park reached No.8 in Billboard Social 50, a chart of the most active artists on the world's leading social networking sites. In other Billboard Year-End charts, the band reached No.92 in the "Top Artists" chart, as well as A Thousand Suns reaching No.53 in the Year-End chart of the Billboard Top 200 albums and No.7 in the 2010 Year-End Rock Albums, and "The Catalyst" reaching No.40 in the Year-End Rock Songs chart.
The band was nominated for six Billboard Awards in 2011 for Top Duo or Group, Best Rock Album for A Thousand Suns, Top Rock Artist, Top Alternative Artist, Top Alternative Song for "Waiting for the End" and Top Alternative Album for A Thousand Suns, but did not win any award. The band charted in numerous Billboard Year-End charts in 2011. The band was No.39 in the Top Artists Chart, No.84 in the Billboard 200 Artists chart, No.11 in the Social 50 Chart, No.6 in the Top Rock Artists Chart, No.9 in the Rock Songs Artists Chart, No.16 in the Rock Albums Chart, No.4 in the Hard Rock Albums Chart, and No.7 in the Alternative Songs Chart.
2011–2013: Living Things and Recharged
In July 2011, Bennington told Rolling Stone that Linkin Park aims to produce a new album every eighteen months, and that he would be shocked if a new album did not come out in 2012. He later revealed in another interview in September 2011 that the band was still in the beginning phases of the next album, saying "We just kind of began. We like to keep the creative juices flowing, so we try to keep that going all the time ... we like the direction that we're going in". Later, on March 28, 2012, Shinoda confirmed that the band is filming a music video for "Burn It Down". Joe Hahn directed the video. Shinoda spoke to Co.Create about the album's art, saying that it will "blow them [the fans] away ... the average person is not going to be able to look at it and go, I understand that that's completely new, like not just the image but the way they made the image is totally new. So there's going to be that".
On April 15, 2012, Shinoda announced that Living Things would be the title of Linkin Park's fifth album. Shinoda stated that they chose the title Living Things because the album is more about people, personal interactions, and it is far more personal than their previous albums. The band promoted the album on the 2012 edition of the Honda Civic Tour, with co-headliners Incubus. The band performed "Burn It Down" at 2012 Billboard Music Awards. On May 24, the band released the music video for "Burn It Down" and debuted "Lies Greed Misery", another song from Living Things, on BBC Radio 1. "Powerless", the twelfth and closing track of the album, was featured in the closing credits of the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Living Things sold over 223,000 copies during its debut week, ranking No. 1 on the US Albums Charts. Linkin Park's single, "Castle of Glass", was nominated for 'Best Song in a Game' at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards. The band also performed at the award ceremony on December 7, but lost the award to "Cities" by Beck. Linkin Park also played at the Soundwave music festival in Australia, where they shared the stage with Metallica, Paramore, Slayer and Sum 41.
On August 10, 2013, the band collaborated with American musician Steve Aoki to record the song "A Light That Never Comes" for Linkin Park's online puzzle-action game LP Recharge (short for Linkin Park Recharge), which was launched on Facebook and the official LP Recharge website on September 12, 2013. On the day of the game's release, Linkin Park made a post on their Facebook explaining that the song used to promote the game would be included on a new remix album, entitled Recharged, which was released on October 29, 2013 on CD, vinyl, and digital download. Similar to Reanimation, the album features remixes of ten of the songs from Living Things, with contributions from other artists, such as Ryu of Styles of Beyond, Pusha T, Datsik, KillSonik, Bun B, Money Mark, and Rick Rubin. The band also worked on the soundtrack for the film Mall, which was directed by Joe Hahn.
2013–2015: The Hunting Party
In an interview with Fuse, Shinoda confirmed that Linkin Park had begun recording their sixth studio album in May 2013. The band released the first single from their upcoming album, titled, "Guilty All the Same" on March 6, 2014 through Shazam. The single was later released on the following day by Warner Bros. Records and debut at No. 28 on the US Billboard Rock Airplay charts before peaking at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock charts in the following weeks. Shortly after the single's release, the band revealed their sixth album would be titled The Hunting Party. The album was produced by Shinoda and Delson, who wanted to explore musical elements from Hybrid Theory and the band's earlier material. Shinoda commented the album is a "90s style of rock record". He elaborated, "It's a rock record. It's loud and it's rock, but not in the sense of what you've heard before, which is more like '90s hardcore-punk-thrash.' The album includes musical contributions from rapper Rakim, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and Daron Malakian of System of a Down. The Hunting Party was released on June 13, 2014, in most countries, and later released in the United States on June 17.
Linkin Park performed at Download Festival on June 14, 2014, where they played their debut album, Hybrid Theory, in its entirety. Linkin Park headlined Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in 2014, along with Metallica, Kings of Leon, and Iron Maiden. They also headlined with Iron Maiden again at the Greenfield Festival in July. On June 22, Linkin Park made an unscheduled headline appearance at the Vans Warped Tour, where they played with members of Issues, The Devil Wears Prada, A Day To Remember, Yellowcard, Breathe Carolina, Finch, and Machine Gun Kelly. In January 2015, the band embarked on a tour to promote the release of The Hunting Party, consisting of 17 concerts across the United States and Canada. The tour was canceled after only three concerts when Bennington injured his ankle. On May 9, Linkin Park performed at the first edition of Rock in Rio USA, in direct support for Metallica.
On November 9, 2014, MTV Europe named Linkin Park the "Best Rock" act of 2014 at their annual music awards ceremony. The band won the 'Best Rock Band' and 'Best Live Act' titles of 2014 on Loudwire's Music Awards. Revolver ranked The Hunting Party as the fourth best album of 2014. In an interview with AltWire on May 4, Shinoda reflected on The Hunting Party and commented on Linkin Park's future, stating; "I'm really happy with the reaction from The Hunting Party, and I think we're ready to move somewhere new on the next album, which will be coming [in 2016]".
Linkin Park collaborated with Steve Aoki on the song "Darker Than Blood" for Aoki's album Neon Future II, which was released in May 2015. The first preview of the song came during Aoki's performance on February 28, 2015 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois. The song was debuted on Twitch on April 13 and released on April 14.
Linkin Park performed at the closing ceremony of BlizzCon 2015, Blizzard's video game convention.
2015–2017: One More Light and Bennington's death
Linkin Park began working on new material for a seventh studio album in November 2015. Chester Bennington commented on the album's direction by stating, "We've got a lot of great material that I hope challenges our fanbase as well as inspires them as much as it has us." In February 2017, Linkin Park released promotional videos on their social network accounts, which featured Shinoda and Bennington preparing new material for the album. Mike Shinoda stated the band was following a new process when producing the album. Brad Delson elaborated: "We've made so many records and we clearly know how to make a record and we definitely didn't take the easy way out this time."
The first single from the new album was revealed to be titled "Heavy" and features pop singer Kiiara, the first time the band has featured a female vocalist on an original song for a studio album. The lyrics for the song were co-written by Linkin Park with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter. The single was released for download on February 16. As they have done in the past, Linkin Park had cryptic messages online in relation to the new album. The album cover was revealed through digital puzzles across social media; the cover features six kids playing in the ocean. The band's seventh album, One More Light, was released on May 19, 2017.
Bennington died on July 20, 2017; his death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Shinoda confirmed Bennington's death on Twitter, writing, "Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true. An official statement will come out as soon as we have one". The band had released a music video for their single "Talking to Myself" earlier that day. One day after Bennington's death, the band canceled the North American leg of their One More Light World Tour. On the morning of July 24, Linkin Park released an official statement on their website as a tribute to Bennington. On July 28, Shinoda announced that donations made to the band's Music for Relief charity would be redirected to the One More Light Fund, which had been set up in Bennington's memory. On August 4, when the band was initially scheduled to play on Good Morning America, Chris Cornell's twelve-year-old daughter Toni appeared with OneRepublic to perform "Hallelujah" as a tribute to Bennington (who was the godfather to her younger brother, Christopher) and her father. Bennington had previously performed the song at the funeral for Cornell, who had also died from a suicide by hanging two months earlier.
On August 22, Linkin Park announced plans to host a tribute concert in Los Angeles to honor Bennington. The band thanked fans for their support, stating, "The five of us are so grateful for all of your support as we heal and build the future of Linkin Park". The band later confirmed that the concert, titled Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington, would take place on October 27 at the Hollywood Bowl. The event included Linkin Park's first performance following Bennington's death. The event featured multiple guests performing Linkin Park songs along with the band. The event was over three hours long and was streamed live via YouTube.
In November 2017, the band announced that a live album compiled from their final tour with Bennington, titled One More Light Live, would be released on December 15. On November 19, Linkin Park received an American Music Award for Favorite Alternative Artist and dedicated the award to Bennington.
2017–2020: Hiatus
Linkin Park remained on hiatus between Bennington's death and 2020.
During an Instagram live chat on December 17, 2017, Shinoda was asked whether Linkin Park would perform with a hologram version of Bennington in the future. He replied, "Can we not do a holographic Chester? I can't even wrap my head around the idea of a holographic Chester. I've actually heard other people outside the band suggest that, and there's absolutely no way. I cannot fuck with that."
On January 28, 2018, Shinoda replied to a tweet from a fan inquiring about his future with Linkin Park, writing "I have every intention on continuing with LP, and the guys feel the same. We have a lot of rebuilding to do, and questions to answer, so it'll take time." On March 29, however, Shinoda stated that he was uncertain of Linkin Park's future when being interviewed by Vulture. On April 17, Linkin Park was nominated for three awards at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards, but did not win any of them. The band was presented with The George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA on May 18.
On February 18, 2019, Shinoda said in an interview that the band is open to the idea of continuing though what form that takes has yet to be decided. Shinoda stated "I know the other guys, they love to be onstage, they love to be in a studio, and so to not do that would be like, I don't know, almost like unhealthy." When asked about the band's future minus Bennington, Shinoda stated, "It's not my goal to look for a new singer. If it does happen, it has to happen naturally. If we find someone that is a great person and good stylistic fit, I could see trying to do some stuff with somebody. I would never want to feel like we are replacing Chester."
2020–present: Return to music
On April 28, 2020, bassist Dave Farrell revealed the band is working on new music. On August 13, the band released "She Couldn't", a track that was originally recorded in 1999, and it was included on a 20th anniversary edition of their debut album Hybrid Theory, released on October 9.
On January 8, 2021, Linkin Park released a remix of "One Step Closer" by American electronic duo 100 Gecs. The band revealed it was the first of many new remixes inspired by Reanimation to come.
On October 29, 2021, when asked about the band playing live shows again, Mike Shinoda stated that "Now is not the time [for the band’s return]. We don’t have the focus on it. We don’t have the math worked out. And I don’t mean that by financially math, I mean that like emotional and creative math.”
Philanthropy
On January 19, 2010, Linkin Park released a new song titled "Not Alone" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief called Download to Donate for Haiti in support of the Haiti Earthquake crisis. On February 10, 2010, Linkin Park released the official music video for the song on their homepage. The single itself was released on October 21, 2011.
On January 11, 2011, an updated version of Download to Donate for Haiti was launched, called Download to Donate for Haiti V2.0, with more songs to download. For the updated compilation, the band released Keaton Hashimoto's remix of "The Catalyst" from the "Linkin Park featuring YOU" contest.
Shinoda designed two T-shirts, in which the proceeds would go to Music for Relief to help the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disasters. Music for Relief released Download to Donate: Tsunami Relief Japan, another compilation of songs, in which the proceeds would go to Save the Children. The band released the song titled as "Issho Ni", meaning "we're in this together", on March 22, 2011 via Download to Donate: Tsunami Relief Japan.
In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, Linkin Park played at Club Nokia during the "Music for Relief: Concert for the Philippines" in Los Angeles, and raised donations for victims. The show was broadcast on AXS TV on February 15. Other artists during the show included The Offspring, Bad Religion, Heart, and The Filharmonic.
Musical style and influences
Linkin Park combines elements of rock music, hip hop and electronica, and have been categorized as alternative rock, nu metal, rap rock, , , , hard rock, hip hop, rap metal, pop, and industrial rock. Despite being considered nu metal, the band never considered themselves as such.
Both Hybrid Theory and Meteora combine the alternative metal, nu metal, rap rock, rap metal, and alternative rock sound with influences and elements from hip hop, and electronica, utilizing programming and synthesizers. William Ruhlmann from AllMusic regarded it as "a Johnny-come-lately to an already overdone musical style," whereas Rolling Stone described their song "Breaking the Habit" as "risky, beautiful art".
In Minutes to Midnight the band experimented with their established sound and drew influences from a wider and more varied range of genres and styles, a process Los Angeles Times compares to a stage in U2's work. Only two songs on the album's tracklist feature rap vocals and the majority of the album can be considered alternative rock.Metacritic, Minutes To Midnight . Retrieved January 27, 2008.
The vocal interplay between Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda plays as a major part within Linkin Park's music, with Bennington being the lead vocalist and Shinoda as the rapping vocalist. On Linkin Park's third album, Minutes to Midnight, Shinoda sings lead vocals on "In Between", "Hands Held High", and on the B-side "No Roads Left". On numerous songs from band's fourth album, A Thousand Suns, such as the album's singles ("The Catalyst", "Burning in the Skies", "Iridescent"), both Shinoda and Bennington sing. The album has been regarded as a turning point in the band's musical career, having a stronger emphasis on electronica. James Montgomery, of MTV, compared the record to Radiohead's Kid A, while Jordy Kasko of Review, Rinse, Repeat likened the album to both Kid A and Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon. Shinoda stated that he and the other band members were deeply influenced by Chuck D and Public Enemy. He elaborated: "Public Enemy were very three-dimensional with their records because although they seemed political, there was a whole lot of other stuff going on in there too. It made me think how three-dimensional I wanted our record to be without imitating them of course, and show where we were at creatively". One of the record's political elements is its samples of notable speeches by American political figures. A Thousand Suns was described as trip hop, electronic rock, ambient, alternative rock, industrial rock, experimental rock, rap rock, and progressive rock.
Their fifth album, Living Things, is also an electronic-heavy album, but includes other influences, resulting in a harder sound by comparison. The band returned to a heavier sound compared to their last three albums on The Hunting Party, which was described as an alternative metal, nu metal, hard rock, rap rock, and rap metal album. Their seventh album, One More Light, was described as pop, pop rock and electropop.
Linkin Park's influences include Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Machines of Loving Grace, Metallica, Refused, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Descendents, Misfits, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, N.W.A, Public Enemy, KRS-One, Boogie Down Productions, Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine, and the Beatles.
Legacy and influence
Linkin Park has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.Linkin Park's Brad Delson talks One More Light: 'There really is a ton of guitar on this album' MusicRadar April 3, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2017. The group's first studio album Hybrid Theory is one of the best-selling albums in the US (12 million copies shipped) and worldwide (30 million copies sold). Billboard estimates that Linkin Park earned US$5 million between May 2011 and May 2012, making them the 40th-highest-paid musical artist. 11 of the band's singles have reached the number one position on Billboard Alternative Songs chart, the second-most for any artist.
In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart. The band was recently voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now by Kerrang!.Linkin Park Are the 'Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now' Ultimate Guitar August 28, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014. In 2015, Kerrang! gave "In the End" and "Final Masquerade" the top two positions on Kerrang!s Rock 100 list.
Linkin Park became the first rock band to achieve more than one billion YouTube hits.
Linkin Park also became the fifteenth most liked page on Facebook, tenth most liked artist, and most liked group followed by the Black Eyed Peas. Linkin Park's "Numb" is the third and "In the End" is the sixth "timeless song" on Spotify. The two songs making Linkin Park the only artist to have two timeless songs in top ten.
Hybrid Theory by the group is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, It was also ranked at #11 on Billboard Hot 200 Albums of the Decade. In addition the album was included in Best of 2001 by Record Collector, The top 150 Albums of the Generation by Rock Sound and 50 Best Rock Albums of the 2000s by Kerrang!. The album Meteora was included in Top 200 Albums of the Decade by Billboard at No. 36. The album sold 20 million copies worldwide. The collaborative EP Collision Course with Jay-Z became the second ever EP to top the Billboard 200, going on to sell over 300,000 copies in its first week after Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies in 1994. The album Minutes to Midnight, in the United States, had the biggest first week sales of 2007 at the time, with 625,000 albums sold. In Canada, the album sold over 50,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart. Worldwide, the album shipped over 3.3 million copies in its first four weeks of release.
The New York Times Jon Caramanica commented Linkin Park "brought the collision of hard rock and hip-hop to its commercial and aesthetic peak" at the beginning of the 2000s. Several rock and non-rock artists have cited Linkin Park as an influence, including Proyecto Eskhata, Of Mice & Men, One OK Rock, Bishop Nehru, Misono, From Ashes to New, Bring Me the Horizon, Coldrain, Red, Girl on Fire, Manafest, Silentó, 3OH!3, The Prom Kings, AJ Tracey, Kiiara, The Chainsmokers, Kevin Rudolf, Blackbear, Amber Liu, Billie Eilish, Tokio Hotel, The Weeknd, Stormzy and Imagine Dragons.
On August 20, 2020, their 20th anniversary, Linkin Park collaborated with virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber to release 11 maps based on their songs.
Band membersCurrent members Mike Shinoda – vocals, rapping, rhythm guitar, keyboard, samples ,
Brad Delson – lead guitar , backing vocals
Dave Farrell – bass , backing vocals
Joe Hahn – turntables, samples, programming , backing vocals
Rob Bourdon – drums, percussion , occasional backing vocals Former members Mark Wakefield – lead vocals
Chester Bennington – lead vocals , occasional rhythm guitar Session and touring musicians Kyle Christner – bass
Scott Koziol – bass
Ian Hornbeck – bass TimelineDiscography
Hybrid Theory (2000)
Meteora (2003)
Minutes to Midnight (2007)
A Thousand Suns (2010)
Living Things (2012)
The Hunting Party (2014)
One More Light (2017)
Awards and nominations
Concert toursHeadlining Hybrid Theory World Tour (2001)
Projekt Revolution (2002–2008, 2011)
LP Underground Tour (2003)
Meteora World Tour (2004)
Minutes to Midnight World Tour (2007–08)
International Tour (2009)
A Thousand Suns World Tour (2010–11)
Living Things World Tour (2012–13)
The Hunting Party Tour (2014–15)
One More Light Tour (2017)
Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington (2017)Co-headlining 11th Annual Honda Civic Tour (2012)
Carnivores Tour (2014)
See also
List of best-selling music artists
List of best-selling albums
List of best-selling remix albums
List of best-selling singles
List of best-selling albums in the United States
List of songs recorded by Linkin Park
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart
ReferencesWorks cited'''
Saulmon, Greg. Linkin Park. Contemporary Musicians and Their Music. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2007. .
Baltin, Steve. From The Inside: Linkin Park's Meteora. California: Bradson Press, 2004. .
Blue, Jeff. One Step Closer: From Xero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park''. Tennessee: Permuted Press, 2020. .
External links
musicforrelief.org
Alternative rock groups from California
American alternative metal musical groups
American pop rock music groups
American electronic rock musical groups
Nu metal musical groups from California
Rap rock groups
Rap metal musical groups
1996 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 1996
People from Agoura Hills, California
Warner Records artists
Echo (music award) winners
Grammy Award winners for rap music
Kerrang! Awards winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
World Music Awards winners
YouTube channels launched in 2006
Musicians from Los Angeles County, California
Fusion music musicians and groups
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[
"Legislation on hunting with dogs is in place in many countries around the world. Legislation may regulate, or in some cases prohibit the use of dogs to hunt or flush wild animal species.\n\nHistory \nThe use of scenthounds to track prey dates back to Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian times and in England, hunting with Agassaei hounds was popular before the Romans. In more modern times, hunting regulation has been encouraged by the animal welfare and animal rights movements out of concern for wildlife management and alleged cruelty.\n\nFrance \nHunting is legal in France.\n\nGermany \nContrary to popular belief, Germany was not the first country to have enacted national laws against animal cruelty (the British Parliament adopted the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 111 years earlier), and the process of adopting animal welfare legislation on state and local level began decades before the Nazis took power in 1933.\n\nIn the 19th century, many aristocrats in the German Empire hunted with hounds on horseback, including Emperor Wilhelm II (r. 1888–1918). Hounds were used to pursue deer, wild boar, hares and foxes. However, in the late 1880s until the early 1900s, the nature conservation and animal protection movement in Germany started to form and began campaigning for legislation on animal welfare, including hunting. Although no national (imperial) laws were ever passed, several German states including the largest and most populous and powerful, Prussia, adopted laws on which wild animals received protected status and which could be hunted. This decentralised process of regulation resulted in a situation where hunting laws varied from state to state. During the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), more state laws and local decrees were passed, while some national laws were drafted that were never enacted. For example, the Prussian Tier- und Pflanzenschutzverordnung ('Animal and Plant Protection Act') of 16 December 1929 protected 'all wild bird species native to Europe' with the exception of designated 'huntable' species (specified in the Prussian Hunting Regulation of 15 July 1907) and 13 unprotected bird species.\n\nThe first time a national law on hunting was passed was the Reichsjagdgesetz ('Imperial Hunting Law') of 3 July 1934, during Adolf Hitler's government. This nationwide law superseded all seventeen state regulations that existed up until that point. It was closely modelled on the Weimar-era Prussian Tier- und Pflanzenschutzverordnung ('Animal and Plant Protection Act') of 16 December 1929. Hermann Göring had a passion for shooting game and was appointed both Reichsforstmeister ('Imperial Master of Forestry') and Reichsjagdmeister ('Imperial Master of Hunting').\n\nRepublic of Ireland\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, hunting with hounds is legal and there are many hound packs in the country. Fox hunting is legal as foxes are not a protected species, but hunts must be registered and take place at only certain times of the year. \nLamping, the night-time hunting of rabbits with lurcher dogs and bright lights, is legal.\n\nHunting protected species is controlled under the Wildlife Acts 1976 to 2012. It is illegal to hunt deer with dogs. Hunting of hares with dogs is also illegal.\n\nUnited Kingdom\n\nEngland and Wales \nHunting of wild mammals in the traditional style is banned by the Hunting Act 2004. Earlier acts, such as the Protection of Animals Act 1911, the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 contained specific exemptions for hunting activities.\n\nScotland \n\nIn February 2002 the Scottish Parliament voted by eighty three to thirty six to pass legislation to ban hunting with hounds. MSPs decided not to give compensation to those whose livelihoods or businesses might suffer as a result of the ban. The Act came into effect on August 1, 2002. An article in The Guardian on 9 September 2004 reports that of the ten Scottish hunts, nine survived the ban, using the permitted exemption allowing them to use packs of hounds to flush foxes to guns.\n\nA number of convictions have taken place under the Act, two for people hunting foxes and ten for hare coursing. The only prosecution of a traditional mounted hunt led to a not guilty verdict, but to a clarification of the law, with the sheriff saying that the activity of flushing foxes to guns \"will require to be accompanied by realistic and one would expect, effective arrangements for the shooting of pest species. The use of what might be termed \"token guns\" or what was described by the Crown as paying lip service to the legislation is not available ... as a justification for the continuation of what was referred to in the evidence before me as traditional fox hunting.\"\n\nCurrently fox hunting takes place in Scotland as described in the Scotsman's article. There are eleven hunts in Scotland where the rules are more relaxed. The continuation of the stricter laws in England and Wales has been guaranteed by the Scottish National Party. There is currently no planned legislation to tighten the rules on the Scottish hunts giving the Scottish industry the advantage.\n\nNorthern Ireland \nFox hunting in Northern Ireland would have been banned had the Foster Bill become law. However, by the time of subsequent hunting legislation in the House of Commons, the Northern Ireland Assembly had been established and the hunting issue had been devolved to that body. A Hunting Bill was introduced into the Northern Ireland Assembly but rejected in December 2010.\n\nUnited States\n\nIn the United States federal system, the agency primarily responsible for wildlife management is the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of the United States Department of the Interior, a cabinet-level division, whose director reports directly to the president. Within these federal guidelines, most hunting regulation for non-migratory species rests within wildlife or agricultural departments at the state level. With fifty different states, this lends itself to a wide variety of diversity, especially for an activity such as fox hunting. Much more common than organised fox hunting is the hunting (usually by private individuals) of raccoons (Ursus lotor) with coonhounds, and where such hunting is practised, the two are often regulated similarly due to the method (which involves tracking or active pursuit by dogs).\n\nThe red fox is protected in every state in which it is present (all except Hawaii), in contrast to its status in the UK. It is variously classified as a furbearer, small game or predator in state hunting and trapping regulations. The open and closed hunting seasons for fox (both red and gray) also vary by state. Pursuit of red fox while in possession of a firearm requires a hunting license (or in some cases a trapping license) in all states, and is generally restricted to a specific season (typically the winter months). In some states (such as Florida) it is illegal to chase fox with dogs while in possession of a firearm, although it is legal to chase them otherwise.\n\nIn some western states the coyote is an unprotected species, and there are no restrictions on the methods used in hunting them. In these areas Hunt Clubs often pursue coyote instead of fox.\n\nSee also\nAnimal law\nConservation movement\nFalconry\nFox hunting\nHunting\nWildlife management\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n includes campaign groups, legislation, news and media, and polls\nIn Depth: The Ban on Hunting from BBC News\n\nUnited States law\nHunting legislation\nHunting with hounds\nFox hunting",
"Hunting is the practice of pursuing animals to capture or kill them.\n\nHunting may also refer to:\n Predation, animals hunting animals\n\nGeography \n Hunting, Moselle, a village in the French department of Moselle\n Hunting, Wisconsin, United States, a former unincorporated community\n\nFilm and television \n Hunting (film), 1991 Australian film\n \"Hunting\" (House), a 2005 episode of the television series House\n Good Will Hunting, a 1997 film\n The Hunting, a 2019 Australian TV series\n\nCompanies \n Hunting Aircraft, a former British aircraft manufacturer (1933–1959); consumed into what, at 2010, is BAE Systems\n Hunting-Clan Air Transport, a former private British airline (1946–1960); consumed into what, at 2010, is British United Airways\n Hunting Engineering, a former engineering company, which later became INSYS (2001) and, as of 2005, is now part of Lockheed Martin Corporation\n Hunting plc, a British oil and gas company\n\nOther \n Hunting (surname)\n Hunting (Carracci), a canvas by Italian painter Annibale Carracci, dated before 1595\n Hunting oscillation, a self-exciting oscillation, also known as shimmy, a side-to-side instability seen in railway trains\n Fox hunting, an equestrian activity\n Line hunting, a methodology of distributing phone calls from a single telephone number to a group of several phone lines\n Hunting dog, any dog who assists humans in hunting\n\nSee also \n Hunt (disambiguation)\n Hunted (disambiguation)\n Hunter (disambiguation)\n Huntress (disambiguation)"
] |
[
"Linkin Park",
"2013-2015: The Hunting Party",
"What is the Hunting Party?",
"the band revealed their sixth album would be titled The Hunting Party."
] |
C_0422e6cf0a5745d287c080e85d02b4cc_1
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Why did they name their album the Hunting Party?
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Why did Linkin Park name their album the Hunting Party?
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Linkin Park
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In an interview with Fuse, Shinoda confirmed that Linkin Park had begun recording their sixth studio album in May 2013. The band released the first single from their upcoming album, titled, "Guilty All the Same" on March 6, 2014 through Shazam. The single was later released on the following day by Warner Bros. Records and debut at No. 28 on the US Billboard Rock Airplay charts before peaking at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock charts in the following weeks. Shortly after the single's release, the band revealed their sixth album would be titled The Hunting Party. The album was produced by Shinoda and Delson, who wanted to explore musical elements from Hybrid Theory and the band's earlier material. Shinoda commented the album is a "90s style of rock record". He elaborated, "It's a rock record. It's loud and it's rock, but not in the sense of what you've heard before, which is more like '90s hardcore-punk-thrash.' The album includes musical contributions from rapper Rakim, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and Daron Malakian of System of a Down. The Hunting Party was released on June 13, 2014, in most countries, and later released in the United States on June 17. Linkin Park performed at Download Festival on June 14, 2014, where they played their debut album, Hybrid Theory, in its entirety. Linkin Park headlined Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in 2014, along with Metallica, Kings of Leon, and Iron Maiden. They also headlined with Iron Maiden again at the Greenfield Festival in July. On June 22, Linkin Park made an unscheduled headline appearance at the Vans Warped Tour, where they played with members of Issues, The Devil Wears Prada, A Day To Remember, Yellowcard, Breathe Carolina, Finch, and Machine Gun Kelly. In January 2015, the band embarked on a tour to promote the release of The Hunting Party, consisting of 17 concerts across the United States and Canada. The tour was canceled after only three concerts when Bennington injured his ankle. On May 9, Linkin Park performed at the first edition of Rock in Rio USA, in direct support for Metallica. On November 9, 2014, MTV Europe named Linkin Park the "Best Rock" act of 2014 at their annual music awards ceremony. The band won the 'Best Rock Band' and 'Best Live Act' titles of 2014 on Loudwire's Music Awards. Revolver ranked The Hunting Party as the fourth best album of 2014. In an interview with AltWire on May 4, Shinoda reflected on The Hunting Party and commented on Linkin Park's future, stating; "I'm really happy with the reaction from The Hunting Party, and I think we're ready to move somewhere new on the next album, which will be coming [in 2016]". Linkin Park collaborated with Steve Aoki on the song "Darker Than Blood" for Aoki's album Neon Future II, which was released in May 2015. The first preview of the song came during Aoki's performance on February 28, 2015 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois. The song was debuted on Twitch.tv on April 13 and released on April 14. Linkin Park performed at the closing ceremony of Blizzcon 2015, Blizzard's video game convention. CANNOTANSWER
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Shinoda commented the album is a "90s style of rock record".
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Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer Rob Bourdon, all of whom are founding members. Vocalists Mark Wakefield and Chester Bennington are former members of the band. Categorized as alternative rock, Linkin Park's earlier music spanned a fusion of heavy metal and hip hop, while their later music features more electronica and pop elements.
Formed in 1996, Linkin Park rose to international fame with their debut studio album, Hybrid Theory (2000), which became certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Released during the peak of the nu metal scene, the album's singles' heavy airplay on MTV led the singles "One Step Closer", "Crawling" and "In the End" all to chart highly on the Mainstream Rock chart; the latter crossed over to the pop chart. Their second album, Meteora (2003), continued the band's success. The band explored experimental sounds on their third album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). By the end of the decade, Linkin Park was among the most successful and popular rock acts.
The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types on their fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), layering their music with more electronic sounds. The band's fifth album, Living Things (2012), combined musical elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth album, The Hunting Party (2014), returned to a heavier rock sound, and their seventh album, One More Light (2017), was their first pop-oriented record. Linkin Park went on a hiatus when longtime lead vocalist Bennington died by suicide in July 2017. In April 2020, bassist Dave Farrell revealed the band was working on new music, though they have stated they will not be touring for the foreseeable future.
Linkin Park is among the best-selling bands of the 21st century and the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. They have won two Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, 10 MTV Europe Music Awards and three World Music Awards. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade list. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as "The Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now" by Kerrang!.
History
1996–2000: Early years
Linkin Park was founded by three high school friends: Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson. The three attended Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. After graduating from high school, the three began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in their band, then called Xero. Though limited in resources, the band began recording and producing songs within Shinoda's makeshift bedroom studio in 1996, resulting in a four-track demo tape, entitled Xero. However, tensions and frustration within the band grew after they failed to land a record deal. The lack of success and stalemate in progress prompted Wakefield, at that time the band's vocalist, to leave the band in search of other projects. Farrell also left to tour with Tasty Snax, a Christian punk and ska band.
After spending a considerable time searching for Wakefield's replacement, Xero recruited Arizona vocalist Chester Bennington, who was recommended by Jeff Blue, the vice president of Zomba Music in March 1999. Bennington, formerly of a post-grunge band Grey Daze, became a standout among applicants because of the dynamic in his singing style. The band then agreed on changing their name from Xero to Hybrid Theory; the newborn vocal chemistry between Shinoda and Bennington helped revive the band, inciting them to work on new material. In 1999, the band released a self-titled extended play, which they circulated across internet chat-rooms and forums with the help of an online 'street team'.
The band still struggled to sign a record deal. They turned to Jeff Blue for additional help after facing numerous rejections from several major record labels. After failing to catch Warner Bros. Records on three previous reviews, Blue, who was now the vice president of Warner Bros. Records, helped the band sign a deal with the company as a developing artist in 1999. However, the label advised the band to change their name to avoid confusion with Hybrid. The band considered the names "Plear" and "Platinum Lotus Foundation" before deciding on "Linkin Park", a play on and homage to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park, now called Christine Emerson Reed Park. They initially wanted to use the name "Lincoln Park", however they changed it to "Linkin" to acquire the internet domain "linkinpark.com".
Bennington and Shinoda both reported that Warner Bros. Records was skeptical of Linkin Park's initial recordings. The label's A&R was not pleased with the band's hip-hop and rock-style approach. An A&R representative suggested that Bennington should demote or fire Shinoda and exclusively focus on making a rock record. Bennington supported Shinoda and refused to compromise Linkin Park's vision for the album. Farrell returned in 2000, and the band released their breakthrough album, Hybrid Theory, that same year.
2000–2002: Hybrid Theory and Reanimation
Linkin Park released Hybrid Theory on October 24, 2000. The album, which represented half a decade's worth of the band's work, was edited by Don Gilmore. Hybrid Theory was a massive commercial success; it sold more than 4.8 million copies during its debut year, earning it the status of best-selling album of 2001, while singles such as "Crawling" and "One Step Closer" established themselves as staples among alternative rock radio play lists during the year. Additionally, other singles from the album were featured in films such as Dracula 2000, Little Nicky, and Valentine. Hybrid Theory won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance for the song "Crawling" and was nominated for two other Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. MTV awarded the band their Best Rock Video and Best Direction awards for "In the End". Through the winning of the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance, Hybrid Theorys overall success had catapulted the band into mainstream success.
During this time, Linkin Park received many invitations to perform on many high-profile tours and concerts including Ozzfest, Family Values Tour, and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. The band worked with Jessica Sklar to found their official fan club and street team, "Linkin Park Underground", in November 2001. Linkin Park also formed their own tour, Projekt Revolution, which featured other notable artists such as Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg. Within a year's stretch, Linkin Park had performed at over 320 concerts. The experiences and performances of the precocious band were documented in their first DVD, Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, which debuted in November 2001. Now reunited with former bassist Phoenix, the band began work on a remix album, dubbed Reanimation, which would include works from Hybrid Theory and non-album tracks. Reanimation debuted on July 30, 2002, featuring the likes of Black Thought, Jonathan Davis, Aaron Lewis, and many others. Reanimation claimed the second spot on the Billboard 200, and sold nearly 270,000 copies during its debut week. Hybrid Theory is also in the RIAA's Top 100 Albums.
2002–2004: Meteora
Following the success of Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a significant amount of time touring around the United States. The band members began to work on new material amidst their saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio. The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing their new work was inspired by the rocky region of Meteora in Greece, where numerous monasteries have been built on top of the rocks. Meteora features a mixture of the band's nu metal and rap metal style with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments. Linkin Park's second album debuted on March 25, 2003 and instantly earned worldwide recognition, going to No. 1 in the US and UK, and No. 2 in Australia.
Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and it ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts at the time. The album's singles, including "Somewhere I Belong", "Breaking the Habit", "Faint", and "Numb", received significant radio attention. By October 2003, Meteora sold nearly three million copies. The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form another Projekt Revolution, which featured other bands and artists including Mudvayne, Blindside, and Xzibit. Additionally, Metallica invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, which included well-known acts such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones. The band released an album and DVD, titled Live in Texas, which featured some audio and video tracks from the band's performances in Texas during the tour. In early 2004, Linkin Park started a world tour titled the Meteora World Tour. Supporting bands on the tour included Hoobastank, P.O.D., Story of the Year and Pia.
Meteora earned the band multiple awards and honors. The band won the MTV awards for Best Rock Video for "Somewhere I Belong" and the Viewer's Choice Award for "Breaking the Habit". Linkin Park also received significant recognition during the 2004 Radio Music Awards, winning the Artist of the Year and Song of the Year ("Numb") awards. Although Meteora was not nearly as successful as Hybrid Theory, it was the third best selling album in the United States during 2003. The band spent the first few months of 2004 touring around the world, first with the third Projekt Revolution tour, and later several European concerts. At the same time, the band's relationship with Warner Bros. Records was deteriorating rapidly on account of several trust and financial issues. After months of feuding, the band finally negotiated a deal in December 2005.
2004–2006: Side projects
Following Meteoras success, the band worked on many side projects. Bennington appeared on DJ Lethal's "State of the Art" and other work with Dead by Sunrise, while Shinoda did work with Depeche Mode. In 2004, the band began to work with Jay-Z to produce another remix album, titled Collision Course. The album, which featured intermixed lyrics and background tracks from both artists' previous albums, debuted in November 2004. Shinoda also formed Fort Minor as a side project. With the aid of Jay-Z, Fort Minor released their debut album, The Rising Tied, to critical acclaim.
Linkin Park also participated in numerous charitable events, most notably raised money to benefit victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and later Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The band donated $75,000 to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in March 2004. They also helped relief efforts for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victims by staging several charity concerts and setting up an additional fund called Music for Relief. Most notably, however, the band participated at Live 8, a series of charitable benefit concerts set up to raise global awareness. Alongside Jay-Z, the band performed on Live 8's stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a global audience. The band would later be reunited with Jay-Z at the Grammy Award Ceremony 2006, during which they performed "Numb/Encore", en route to winning a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. They were joined on stage by Paul McCartney who added verses from the song "Yesterday". They would later go on to play at the 2006 Summer Sonic music festival, which was hosted by Metallica in Japan.
2006–2008: Minutes to Midnight
Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose producer Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut sometime in 2006, the album was delayed until 2007. The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway completed. Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from their previous nu metal sound. Warner Bros. Records officially announced that the band's third studio album, titled Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States. After spending fourteen months working on the album, the band members opted to further refine their album by removing five of the original seventeen tracks. The album's title, a reference to the Doomsday Clock, foreshadowed the band's new lyrical themes. Minutes to Midnight sold over 625,000 copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years. The album also took the top spot on the Billboard Charts.
The album's first single, "What I've Done", was released on April 2, and premiered on MTV and Fuse within the same week. The single was acclaimed by listeners, becoming the top-ranked song on the Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. The song is also used in soundtrack for the 2007 action film, Transformers. Mike Shinoda was also featured on the Styles of Beyond song "Second to None", which was also included in the film. Later in the year, the band won the "Favorite Alternative Artist" in the American Music Awards. The band also saw success with the rest of the album's singles, "Bleed It Out", "Shadow of the Day", "Given Up", and "Leave Out All the Rest", which were released throughout 2007 and early 2008. The band also collaborated with Busta Rhymes on his single "We Made It", which was released on April 29.
Linkin Park embarked on a large world tour titled "Minutes to Midnight World Tour". The band promoted the album's release by forming their fourth Projekt Revolution tour in the United States which included many musical acts like My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, Placebo, and many others. They also played numerous shows in Europe, Asia, and Australia which included a performance at Live Earth Japan on July 7, 2007. and headlining Download Festival in Donington Park, England and Edgefest in Downsview Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band completed touring on their fourth Projekt Revolution tour before taking up an Arena tour around the United Kingdom, visiting Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester, before finishing on a double night at the O2 arena in London. Bennington stated that Linkin Park plans to release a follow-up album to Minutes to Midnight. However, he stated the band will first embark on a United States tour to gather inspiration for the album. Linkin Park embarked on another Projekt Revolution tour in 2008. This was the first time a Projekt Revolution tour was held in Europe with three shows in Germany and one in the United Kingdom. A Projekt Revolution tour was also held in the United States which featured Chris Cornell, The Bravery, Ashes Divide, Street Drum Corps and many others. Linkin Park finished the tour with a final show in Texas. Mike Shinoda announced a live CD/DVD titled Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes, which is a live video recording from the Projekt Revolution gig at the Milton Keynes Bowl on June 29, 2008, which was officially released on November 24, 2008.
2008–2011: A Thousand Suns
In May 2009, Linkin Park announced they were working on a fourth studio album, which was planned to be released in 2010. Shinoda told IGN that the new album would be 'genre-busting,' while building off of elements in Minutes to Midnight. He also mentioned that the album would be more experimental and "hopefully more cutting-edge". Bennington also addressed the media to confirm that Rick Rubin would return to produce the new album. The band later revealed the album would be called A Thousand Suns. While working on the new album, Linkin Park worked with successful film composer Hans Zimmer to produce the score for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The band released a single for the movie, titled "New Divide". Joe Hahn created a music video for the song, which featured clips from the film. On June 22, Linkin Park played a short set in Westwood Village after the premier of the movie. After completing work for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the band returned to the studio to finalize their album.
On April 26, the band released an app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, a game called 8-Bit Rebellion! It featured the band as playable characters, and a new song called "Blackbirds" which was unlockable by beating the game. The song was also later released as an iTunes bonus track on A Thousand Suns.
A Thousand Suns was released on September 14. The album's first single, "The Catalyst", was released on August 2. The band promoted their new album by launching a concert tour, which started in Los Angeles on September 7. Linkin Park also relied on MySpace to promote their album, releasing two additional songs, "Waiting for the End" and "Blackout" on September 8. Furthermore, a documentary about the album's production, titled Meeting of A Thousand Suns, was available for streaming on the band's MySpace page. On August 31, 2010, it was announced that the band would perform the single live for the first time at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. The venue of the debut live performance of the single was Griffith Observatory, an iconic location used in Hollywood movies. "Waiting for the End" was released as the second single of A Thousand Suns.
Linkin Park reached No.8 in Billboard Social 50, a chart of the most active artists on the world's leading social networking sites. In other Billboard Year-End charts, the band reached No.92 in the "Top Artists" chart, as well as A Thousand Suns reaching No.53 in the Year-End chart of the Billboard Top 200 albums and No.7 in the 2010 Year-End Rock Albums, and "The Catalyst" reaching No.40 in the Year-End Rock Songs chart.
The band was nominated for six Billboard Awards in 2011 for Top Duo or Group, Best Rock Album for A Thousand Suns, Top Rock Artist, Top Alternative Artist, Top Alternative Song for "Waiting for the End" and Top Alternative Album for A Thousand Suns, but did not win any award. The band charted in numerous Billboard Year-End charts in 2011. The band was No.39 in the Top Artists Chart, No.84 in the Billboard 200 Artists chart, No.11 in the Social 50 Chart, No.6 in the Top Rock Artists Chart, No.9 in the Rock Songs Artists Chart, No.16 in the Rock Albums Chart, No.4 in the Hard Rock Albums Chart, and No.7 in the Alternative Songs Chart.
2011–2013: Living Things and Recharged
In July 2011, Bennington told Rolling Stone that Linkin Park aims to produce a new album every eighteen months, and that he would be shocked if a new album did not come out in 2012. He later revealed in another interview in September 2011 that the band was still in the beginning phases of the next album, saying "We just kind of began. We like to keep the creative juices flowing, so we try to keep that going all the time ... we like the direction that we're going in". Later, on March 28, 2012, Shinoda confirmed that the band is filming a music video for "Burn It Down". Joe Hahn directed the video. Shinoda spoke to Co.Create about the album's art, saying that it will "blow them [the fans] away ... the average person is not going to be able to look at it and go, I understand that that's completely new, like not just the image but the way they made the image is totally new. So there's going to be that".
On April 15, 2012, Shinoda announced that Living Things would be the title of Linkin Park's fifth album. Shinoda stated that they chose the title Living Things because the album is more about people, personal interactions, and it is far more personal than their previous albums. The band promoted the album on the 2012 edition of the Honda Civic Tour, with co-headliners Incubus. The band performed "Burn It Down" at 2012 Billboard Music Awards. On May 24, the band released the music video for "Burn It Down" and debuted "Lies Greed Misery", another song from Living Things, on BBC Radio 1. "Powerless", the twelfth and closing track of the album, was featured in the closing credits of the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Living Things sold over 223,000 copies during its debut week, ranking No. 1 on the US Albums Charts. Linkin Park's single, "Castle of Glass", was nominated for 'Best Song in a Game' at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards. The band also performed at the award ceremony on December 7, but lost the award to "Cities" by Beck. Linkin Park also played at the Soundwave music festival in Australia, where they shared the stage with Metallica, Paramore, Slayer and Sum 41.
On August 10, 2013, the band collaborated with American musician Steve Aoki to record the song "A Light That Never Comes" for Linkin Park's online puzzle-action game LP Recharge (short for Linkin Park Recharge), which was launched on Facebook and the official LP Recharge website on September 12, 2013. On the day of the game's release, Linkin Park made a post on their Facebook explaining that the song used to promote the game would be included on a new remix album, entitled Recharged, which was released on October 29, 2013 on CD, vinyl, and digital download. Similar to Reanimation, the album features remixes of ten of the songs from Living Things, with contributions from other artists, such as Ryu of Styles of Beyond, Pusha T, Datsik, KillSonik, Bun B, Money Mark, and Rick Rubin. The band also worked on the soundtrack for the film Mall, which was directed by Joe Hahn.
2013–2015: The Hunting Party
In an interview with Fuse, Shinoda confirmed that Linkin Park had begun recording their sixth studio album in May 2013. The band released the first single from their upcoming album, titled, "Guilty All the Same" on March 6, 2014 through Shazam. The single was later released on the following day by Warner Bros. Records and debut at No. 28 on the US Billboard Rock Airplay charts before peaking at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock charts in the following weeks. Shortly after the single's release, the band revealed their sixth album would be titled The Hunting Party. The album was produced by Shinoda and Delson, who wanted to explore musical elements from Hybrid Theory and the band's earlier material. Shinoda commented the album is a "90s style of rock record". He elaborated, "It's a rock record. It's loud and it's rock, but not in the sense of what you've heard before, which is more like '90s hardcore-punk-thrash.' The album includes musical contributions from rapper Rakim, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and Daron Malakian of System of a Down. The Hunting Party was released on June 13, 2014, in most countries, and later released in the United States on June 17.
Linkin Park performed at Download Festival on June 14, 2014, where they played their debut album, Hybrid Theory, in its entirety. Linkin Park headlined Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in 2014, along with Metallica, Kings of Leon, and Iron Maiden. They also headlined with Iron Maiden again at the Greenfield Festival in July. On June 22, Linkin Park made an unscheduled headline appearance at the Vans Warped Tour, where they played with members of Issues, The Devil Wears Prada, A Day To Remember, Yellowcard, Breathe Carolina, Finch, and Machine Gun Kelly. In January 2015, the band embarked on a tour to promote the release of The Hunting Party, consisting of 17 concerts across the United States and Canada. The tour was canceled after only three concerts when Bennington injured his ankle. On May 9, Linkin Park performed at the first edition of Rock in Rio USA, in direct support for Metallica.
On November 9, 2014, MTV Europe named Linkin Park the "Best Rock" act of 2014 at their annual music awards ceremony. The band won the 'Best Rock Band' and 'Best Live Act' titles of 2014 on Loudwire's Music Awards. Revolver ranked The Hunting Party as the fourth best album of 2014. In an interview with AltWire on May 4, Shinoda reflected on The Hunting Party and commented on Linkin Park's future, stating; "I'm really happy with the reaction from The Hunting Party, and I think we're ready to move somewhere new on the next album, which will be coming [in 2016]".
Linkin Park collaborated with Steve Aoki on the song "Darker Than Blood" for Aoki's album Neon Future II, which was released in May 2015. The first preview of the song came during Aoki's performance on February 28, 2015 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois. The song was debuted on Twitch on April 13 and released on April 14.
Linkin Park performed at the closing ceremony of BlizzCon 2015, Blizzard's video game convention.
2015–2017: One More Light and Bennington's death
Linkin Park began working on new material for a seventh studio album in November 2015. Chester Bennington commented on the album's direction by stating, "We've got a lot of great material that I hope challenges our fanbase as well as inspires them as much as it has us." In February 2017, Linkin Park released promotional videos on their social network accounts, which featured Shinoda and Bennington preparing new material for the album. Mike Shinoda stated the band was following a new process when producing the album. Brad Delson elaborated: "We've made so many records and we clearly know how to make a record and we definitely didn't take the easy way out this time."
The first single from the new album was revealed to be titled "Heavy" and features pop singer Kiiara, the first time the band has featured a female vocalist on an original song for a studio album. The lyrics for the song were co-written by Linkin Park with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter. The single was released for download on February 16. As they have done in the past, Linkin Park had cryptic messages online in relation to the new album. The album cover was revealed through digital puzzles across social media; the cover features six kids playing in the ocean. The band's seventh album, One More Light, was released on May 19, 2017.
Bennington died on July 20, 2017; his death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Shinoda confirmed Bennington's death on Twitter, writing, "Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true. An official statement will come out as soon as we have one". The band had released a music video for their single "Talking to Myself" earlier that day. One day after Bennington's death, the band canceled the North American leg of their One More Light World Tour. On the morning of July 24, Linkin Park released an official statement on their website as a tribute to Bennington. On July 28, Shinoda announced that donations made to the band's Music for Relief charity would be redirected to the One More Light Fund, which had been set up in Bennington's memory. On August 4, when the band was initially scheduled to play on Good Morning America, Chris Cornell's twelve-year-old daughter Toni appeared with OneRepublic to perform "Hallelujah" as a tribute to Bennington (who was the godfather to her younger brother, Christopher) and her father. Bennington had previously performed the song at the funeral for Cornell, who had also died from a suicide by hanging two months earlier.
On August 22, Linkin Park announced plans to host a tribute concert in Los Angeles to honor Bennington. The band thanked fans for their support, stating, "The five of us are so grateful for all of your support as we heal and build the future of Linkin Park". The band later confirmed that the concert, titled Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington, would take place on October 27 at the Hollywood Bowl. The event included Linkin Park's first performance following Bennington's death. The event featured multiple guests performing Linkin Park songs along with the band. The event was over three hours long and was streamed live via YouTube.
In November 2017, the band announced that a live album compiled from their final tour with Bennington, titled One More Light Live, would be released on December 15. On November 19, Linkin Park received an American Music Award for Favorite Alternative Artist and dedicated the award to Bennington.
2017–2020: Hiatus
Linkin Park remained on hiatus between Bennington's death and 2020.
During an Instagram live chat on December 17, 2017, Shinoda was asked whether Linkin Park would perform with a hologram version of Bennington in the future. He replied, "Can we not do a holographic Chester? I can't even wrap my head around the idea of a holographic Chester. I've actually heard other people outside the band suggest that, and there's absolutely no way. I cannot fuck with that."
On January 28, 2018, Shinoda replied to a tweet from a fan inquiring about his future with Linkin Park, writing "I have every intention on continuing with LP, and the guys feel the same. We have a lot of rebuilding to do, and questions to answer, so it'll take time." On March 29, however, Shinoda stated that he was uncertain of Linkin Park's future when being interviewed by Vulture. On April 17, Linkin Park was nominated for three awards at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards, but did not win any of them. The band was presented with The George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA on May 18.
On February 18, 2019, Shinoda said in an interview that the band is open to the idea of continuing though what form that takes has yet to be decided. Shinoda stated "I know the other guys, they love to be onstage, they love to be in a studio, and so to not do that would be like, I don't know, almost like unhealthy." When asked about the band's future minus Bennington, Shinoda stated, "It's not my goal to look for a new singer. If it does happen, it has to happen naturally. If we find someone that is a great person and good stylistic fit, I could see trying to do some stuff with somebody. I would never want to feel like we are replacing Chester."
2020–present: Return to music
On April 28, 2020, bassist Dave Farrell revealed the band is working on new music. On August 13, the band released "She Couldn't", a track that was originally recorded in 1999, and it was included on a 20th anniversary edition of their debut album Hybrid Theory, released on October 9.
On January 8, 2021, Linkin Park released a remix of "One Step Closer" by American electronic duo 100 Gecs. The band revealed it was the first of many new remixes inspired by Reanimation to come.
On October 29, 2021, when asked about the band playing live shows again, Mike Shinoda stated that "Now is not the time [for the band’s return]. We don’t have the focus on it. We don’t have the math worked out. And I don’t mean that by financially math, I mean that like emotional and creative math.”
Philanthropy
On January 19, 2010, Linkin Park released a new song titled "Not Alone" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief called Download to Donate for Haiti in support of the Haiti Earthquake crisis. On February 10, 2010, Linkin Park released the official music video for the song on their homepage. The single itself was released on October 21, 2011.
On January 11, 2011, an updated version of Download to Donate for Haiti was launched, called Download to Donate for Haiti V2.0, with more songs to download. For the updated compilation, the band released Keaton Hashimoto's remix of "The Catalyst" from the "Linkin Park featuring YOU" contest.
Shinoda designed two T-shirts, in which the proceeds would go to Music for Relief to help the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disasters. Music for Relief released Download to Donate: Tsunami Relief Japan, another compilation of songs, in which the proceeds would go to Save the Children. The band released the song titled as "Issho Ni", meaning "we're in this together", on March 22, 2011 via Download to Donate: Tsunami Relief Japan.
In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, Linkin Park played at Club Nokia during the "Music for Relief: Concert for the Philippines" in Los Angeles, and raised donations for victims. The show was broadcast on AXS TV on February 15. Other artists during the show included The Offspring, Bad Religion, Heart, and The Filharmonic.
Musical style and influences
Linkin Park combines elements of rock music, hip hop and electronica, and have been categorized as alternative rock, nu metal, rap rock, , , , hard rock, hip hop, rap metal, pop, and industrial rock. Despite being considered nu metal, the band never considered themselves as such.
Both Hybrid Theory and Meteora combine the alternative metal, nu metal, rap rock, rap metal, and alternative rock sound with influences and elements from hip hop, and electronica, utilizing programming and synthesizers. William Ruhlmann from AllMusic regarded it as "a Johnny-come-lately to an already overdone musical style," whereas Rolling Stone described their song "Breaking the Habit" as "risky, beautiful art".
In Minutes to Midnight the band experimented with their established sound and drew influences from a wider and more varied range of genres and styles, a process Los Angeles Times compares to a stage in U2's work. Only two songs on the album's tracklist feature rap vocals and the majority of the album can be considered alternative rock.Metacritic, Minutes To Midnight . Retrieved January 27, 2008.
The vocal interplay between Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda plays as a major part within Linkin Park's music, with Bennington being the lead vocalist and Shinoda as the rapping vocalist. On Linkin Park's third album, Minutes to Midnight, Shinoda sings lead vocals on "In Between", "Hands Held High", and on the B-side "No Roads Left". On numerous songs from band's fourth album, A Thousand Suns, such as the album's singles ("The Catalyst", "Burning in the Skies", "Iridescent"), both Shinoda and Bennington sing. The album has been regarded as a turning point in the band's musical career, having a stronger emphasis on electronica. James Montgomery, of MTV, compared the record to Radiohead's Kid A, while Jordy Kasko of Review, Rinse, Repeat likened the album to both Kid A and Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon. Shinoda stated that he and the other band members were deeply influenced by Chuck D and Public Enemy. He elaborated: "Public Enemy were very three-dimensional with their records because although they seemed political, there was a whole lot of other stuff going on in there too. It made me think how three-dimensional I wanted our record to be without imitating them of course, and show where we were at creatively". One of the record's political elements is its samples of notable speeches by American political figures. A Thousand Suns was described as trip hop, electronic rock, ambient, alternative rock, industrial rock, experimental rock, rap rock, and progressive rock.
Their fifth album, Living Things, is also an electronic-heavy album, but includes other influences, resulting in a harder sound by comparison. The band returned to a heavier sound compared to their last three albums on The Hunting Party, which was described as an alternative metal, nu metal, hard rock, rap rock, and rap metal album. Their seventh album, One More Light, was described as pop, pop rock and electropop.
Linkin Park's influences include Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Machines of Loving Grace, Metallica, Refused, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Descendents, Misfits, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, N.W.A, Public Enemy, KRS-One, Boogie Down Productions, Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine, and the Beatles.
Legacy and influence
Linkin Park has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.Linkin Park's Brad Delson talks One More Light: 'There really is a ton of guitar on this album' MusicRadar April 3, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2017. The group's first studio album Hybrid Theory is one of the best-selling albums in the US (12 million copies shipped) and worldwide (30 million copies sold). Billboard estimates that Linkin Park earned US$5 million between May 2011 and May 2012, making them the 40th-highest-paid musical artist. 11 of the band's singles have reached the number one position on Billboard Alternative Songs chart, the second-most for any artist.
In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart. The band was recently voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now by Kerrang!.Linkin Park Are the 'Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now' Ultimate Guitar August 28, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014. In 2015, Kerrang! gave "In the End" and "Final Masquerade" the top two positions on Kerrang!s Rock 100 list.
Linkin Park became the first rock band to achieve more than one billion YouTube hits.
Linkin Park also became the fifteenth most liked page on Facebook, tenth most liked artist, and most liked group followed by the Black Eyed Peas. Linkin Park's "Numb" is the third and "In the End" is the sixth "timeless song" on Spotify. The two songs making Linkin Park the only artist to have two timeless songs in top ten.
Hybrid Theory by the group is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, It was also ranked at #11 on Billboard Hot 200 Albums of the Decade. In addition the album was included in Best of 2001 by Record Collector, The top 150 Albums of the Generation by Rock Sound and 50 Best Rock Albums of the 2000s by Kerrang!. The album Meteora was included in Top 200 Albums of the Decade by Billboard at No. 36. The album sold 20 million copies worldwide. The collaborative EP Collision Course with Jay-Z became the second ever EP to top the Billboard 200, going on to sell over 300,000 copies in its first week after Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies in 1994. The album Minutes to Midnight, in the United States, had the biggest first week sales of 2007 at the time, with 625,000 albums sold. In Canada, the album sold over 50,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart. Worldwide, the album shipped over 3.3 million copies in its first four weeks of release.
The New York Times Jon Caramanica commented Linkin Park "brought the collision of hard rock and hip-hop to its commercial and aesthetic peak" at the beginning of the 2000s. Several rock and non-rock artists have cited Linkin Park as an influence, including Proyecto Eskhata, Of Mice & Men, One OK Rock, Bishop Nehru, Misono, From Ashes to New, Bring Me the Horizon, Coldrain, Red, Girl on Fire, Manafest, Silentó, 3OH!3, The Prom Kings, AJ Tracey, Kiiara, The Chainsmokers, Kevin Rudolf, Blackbear, Amber Liu, Billie Eilish, Tokio Hotel, The Weeknd, Stormzy and Imagine Dragons.
On August 20, 2020, their 20th anniversary, Linkin Park collaborated with virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber to release 11 maps based on their songs.
Band membersCurrent members Mike Shinoda – vocals, rapping, rhythm guitar, keyboard, samples ,
Brad Delson – lead guitar , backing vocals
Dave Farrell – bass , backing vocals
Joe Hahn – turntables, samples, programming , backing vocals
Rob Bourdon – drums, percussion , occasional backing vocals Former members Mark Wakefield – lead vocals
Chester Bennington – lead vocals , occasional rhythm guitar Session and touring musicians Kyle Christner – bass
Scott Koziol – bass
Ian Hornbeck – bass TimelineDiscography
Hybrid Theory (2000)
Meteora (2003)
Minutes to Midnight (2007)
A Thousand Suns (2010)
Living Things (2012)
The Hunting Party (2014)
One More Light (2017)
Awards and nominations
Concert toursHeadlining Hybrid Theory World Tour (2001)
Projekt Revolution (2002–2008, 2011)
LP Underground Tour (2003)
Meteora World Tour (2004)
Minutes to Midnight World Tour (2007–08)
International Tour (2009)
A Thousand Suns World Tour (2010–11)
Living Things World Tour (2012–13)
The Hunting Party Tour (2014–15)
One More Light Tour (2017)
Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington (2017)Co-headlining 11th Annual Honda Civic Tour (2012)
Carnivores Tour (2014)
See also
List of best-selling music artists
List of best-selling albums
List of best-selling remix albums
List of best-selling singles
List of best-selling albums in the United States
List of songs recorded by Linkin Park
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart
ReferencesWorks cited'''
Saulmon, Greg. Linkin Park. Contemporary Musicians and Their Music. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2007. .
Baltin, Steve. From The Inside: Linkin Park's Meteora. California: Bradson Press, 2004. .
Blue, Jeff. One Step Closer: From Xero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park''. Tennessee: Permuted Press, 2020. .
External links
musicforrelief.org
Alternative rock groups from California
American alternative metal musical groups
American pop rock music groups
American electronic rock musical groups
Nu metal musical groups from California
Rap rock groups
Rap metal musical groups
1996 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 1996
People from Agoura Hills, California
Warner Records artists
Echo (music award) winners
Grammy Award winners for rap music
Kerrang! Awards winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
World Music Awards winners
YouTube channels launched in 2006
Musicians from Los Angeles County, California
Fusion music musicians and groups
| true |
[
"Hunting Party or The Hunting Party may refer to:\n\nHunting party, a group of people organized to hunt wild game\nMixed hunting party, a group of hunting birds\n Political parties with a pro-hunting platform such as the French Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition\n\nFilm\n The Hunting Party (1971 film), a film directed by Don Medford\n The Hunting Party (2007 film), a film directed by Richard Shepard\n Hunting Party (1959 film), a 1959 West German drama film\n\nTV\n \"Hunting Party\" (Body of Proof), a 2011 episode from the TV series Body of Proof\n \"The Hunting Party\" (Lost), a 2006 episode from the TV series Lost\n\"The Hunting Party\" (Dead Zone), an episode from the TV series The Dead Zone\n\nBooks\n Hunting Party (novel), a novel by Elizabeth Moon\n The Hunting Party (comics) (Partie de chasse), a graphic novel by Pierre Christin and Enki Bilal\n \"The Hunting Party\" (Judge Dredd story), a Judge Dredd story\n\nMusic\n The Hunting Party (album), the sixth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park\n The Hunting Party (live album), DVD to the sixth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park",
"Blue is the fifth release from Flashlight Brown. The album was intended to be their second release from Hollywood Records but weeks before the release of the album, the band left the label for undisclosed reasons. The release of the album was then delayed indefinitely.\n\nOn October 30, 2006, the band posted on their MySpace account that they would release the album the next day, Halloween, in Canada. There has yet to be a release date set for the United States.\n\nTrack listing\n\n \"Sicker\" - 2:56\n \"Fake It\" - 3:14\n \"I'm Not Sorry\" - 3:14\n \"I'm A Human\" - 3:24\n \"One Step Away\" - 2:50\n \"Get Out of My Car\" - 4:02\n \"Loud Music\" - 2:09\n \"Save It For Later\" - 2:49\n \"Why Did We Care?\" - 3:00\n \"Party By Myself\" - 3:07\n \"Frankie's Second Hand\" - 2:58\n \"That's My Problem\" - 3:09\n \"Party in My Pants\" - 12:00\n \"Ugly Baby\" - 3:00\n\n2006 albums\nAlbums produced by Rob Cavallo"
] |
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